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
celander678 posts12-19-2018 4:39pmCan’t let Geoff have the last word on this one. 
+1, to markalarsen

I’d go further and suggest all cables are influenced by EMI. And some cables don’t have a shield. Just saying that as a matter of fact, not preference or argument. But arguably, some unshielded cables are highly regarded among those cables having the best SQ, including power cables.


>>>>>A little bit of confliction in those statements. 
kosst_amojan1,871 posts12-19-2018 4:

Shielding? The 50 miles of transmission line to your house have no shielding either.

>>>>Strawman argument. Like shooting fish in a barrel. 🐠 🐠 🐟 🐠
mkgus
13. Cable constructions of multiple gauge wires that influence the way high, medium and low frequencies propagate through the power cable.

>>>>Whoa! What? I did not know there were high, medium and low frequencies traveling through the power cord. I was under the impression it was current and voltage, alternating at 60 Hz. 😳
Uh.... Why not buy or build something with competent filtering? IEC modules come in all sizes with varying quality of filters and the best ones are a hell of a lot cheaper and more effective than these cables. 
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