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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.
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.
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- 845 posts total
I'm not the one who introduced the term "placebo" and would not - as I had clearly stated - simply attributed either real audible results or imagined audio results to the "placebo effect." As I keep mentioning, we suffer a range of perceptual biases. "Placebo effect" is often raised in threads like these as a short hand for bias effects. The placebo effect is absolutely fascinating in that it's not restricted to mere bias and perceptual error, but it can actually produce a variety of physical results. Lots is known about the effects of placebo, but very little understood about the mechanisms. In the drug trial I mentioned the subjects comprised people with a history of peanut allergy reactions, so they were familiar with what it was like to react to peanuts. And yet some who were given the placebo pill actually vomited...even had hives and other physical reactions...of the type they get when they are exposed to actual peanut protein! The power of the placebo effect (among other biases) is why - whether we know the mechanism or not - if you are testing for the efficacy of the drug in question, you have to control for the placebo effect to sift the efficacy of the drug from that caused by placebo. The necessity of these controls was further apparent when, after the results were unblinded I talked to the researchers. They had, in essence for "fun," been trying to ascertain which of their subjects was on placebo and which were on the actual peanut protein. It turned out in many cases they were simply wrong, due to the confounding reactions to the placebo. Some people they felt SURE were reacting to peanut protein were on the placebo. Some people they were sure were on the placebo (due to lack of symptoms) were on the peanut protein. This shows how utterly skewed their empirical inferences could have been if they had not conducted a controlled, blinded test. In fact there was a fascinating article in the NYT a while back I read on people trying to get to the bottom of the mechanisms involved in the placebo effect. Here it is: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/magazine/placebo-effect-medicine.html But, all that said, as I've written many times "placebo effect," although often used as a short-hand in these discussions, does not at all denote, or cover, all the specific forms of bias and phenemonena going on in human perception, including what we would have to untangle in understanding the relationship between our gear and what we are hearing. I also have mentioned many times I would never expect or advocate the idea everyone needs to go blind testing everything...or anything!...they buy. I don't. We all just have to satisfy ourselves. It's only when we get in to discussions trying to understand what is going on, and when claims start being made - e.g. "AC cables DEFINITELY alter the sound of a system" and "I know this because I've heard it, and it can't be on the basis of any perceptual bias"....when people make these declarations, it's fair to raise the reasons one can have for caution in just accepting such claims. |
It really is interesting, provocative, and revealing that there are so many contributors to this forum who are so linguistically limited, challenged, and incompetent that they must essentially and practically resort to hieroglyphics in order to be able to communicate with those who are literate it is a real reflection on the quality of their education. |
Goes to show I must have touched a nerve in Geoff..To gain such a solid chunk of his scorn! But I have to agree my general attitude is ’"What?... EVER!" My interest in tweaks is limited to easy to do, (and somewhat cheap, usually) And I am not open minded enough to buy into most of the BS spouted on audio sites. As for Geoff. Even lashing out at folks who LIKE him. |
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