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Why Power Cables Affect Sound

I just bought a new CD player and was underwhelmed with it compared to my cheaper, lower quality CD player. That’s when it hit me that my cheaper CD player is using an upgraded power cable. When I put an upgraded power cable on my new CD player, the sound was instantly transformed: the treble was tamed, the music was more dynamic and lifelike, and overall more musical. 

This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:

I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe. 

That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter. 

If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please. 
128x128mkgus
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Stevecham, please be aware all electromagnetic waves are comprised of photons. What we usually call light, i.e., visible light, is part of the electromagnetic spectrum but only a very small part. Radio waves, gamma rays, x Rays, visible light - they’re all photons. Visible light cannot penetrate opaque materials, that’s obviously true, but obviously other higher energy electromagnetic waves in the spectrum can penetrate opaque and solid material, gamma rays, x-rays and ......electronic signals through wire.

The signals in wire are electromagnetic waves - that’s why they travel through wire at near lightspeed. That’s why telephone signals through buried copper cable travel at near lightspeed, that why there’s no propagation delay. And also why there’s no delay over cell phone systems - radio waves travel at near lightspeed in air. And what is the ONLY particle that can travel at near lightspeed in a medium and at lightspeed in a vacuum? Answer at 11. 😳
fossda
108 posts
 
My good audio retailers and the audio literature have indicated that power cables are of first importance in cabling upgrades. I have always done my power amp first because it benefits my whole system. Interesting that many equipment upgrades feature the power supplies. Ie separate box for supply. 
roberjerman
2,086 posts
 
The power of advertising! Tell enough lies long enough and people will believe the lies.
tobor007's avatar
tobor007
59 posts
 
"A 2014 study published in Science Translational Medicine (Harvard medical school) explored placebo effect by testing how people reacted to migraine pain medication. The researchers discovered that the placebo was 50% as effective as the real drug to reduce pain after a migraine attack."

That percentage would pretty much cover the " significant" difference some people are hearing. Spend the extra money on room tweaks.


fossda  "My good audio retailers and the audio literature have indicated that power cables are of first importance in cabling upgrades."

Salesmen tend to do that.  

areed622
14 posts
 
Lots of highly subjective discussion.
I will look at my AC at the receptacle then after the surge suppressor then after the power conditioner. My scope is only good to 100MHz but I think that that should be sufficient. Anything AFTER the power conditioner seems to me irrelevant unless one is willing to modify equipment itself. Personally, I am skeptical about diode noise in PS rectifers (please note... "skeptical") after all what are all those PS caps for? 

Anyway, this will need to wait until later this week when I get some time.
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