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
prof " Why don’t you take their tone to task, I wonder?"

Because they are not " derailing the conversation with antagonism", as the OP requested

boxer12,

So you fall in to the "If I just repeat the same criticism without any more evidence, and without addressing the other person’s points, that will do."

That doesn’t exactly elevate the conversation here.


In fact it seems rather...antagonistic.


Look at my first post - it’s not antagonistic, it’s civil and simply presents another alternative, including that I am not claiming to be "right" and others are "wrong." I’ve kept that stance through the whole thread, even in fhe face of actual antagonism.


I’ve simply expressed my reasons for not jumping on the aftermarket AC cable bandwagon - including how my own experience with AC cables helped form my stance. Where the AC cable supporters declare from their own experience "AC CABLES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!" I have been more cautious, saying I WASN’T going to claim from my own negative experience that AC cables don’t make a difference.

If you refuse to notice this imbalance in how views have been presented, and can only interpret the presentation of the alternative viewpoint as "antagonism" that’s frankly where the problem lies.
prof,
I have no doubt you’re a smart guy, just read the last two sentences of the OP’s original post. He wasn’t looking for an alternative viewpoint

I understood his last two sentences to mean that if one is skeptical, not to be antagonistic. Which I abided by.
Now, if the OP meant that ANY suggestion of skepticism was by nature "antagonistic" then that I think is unwarranted. There’s no reason differing views between mature adults should be rejected as "antagonistic" simply because "it’s different from what I believe, and I don’t want to have to deal with alternative viewpoints."

However, IF the OP had written something clear such as "This thread is based on the assumption after market AC cables can alter the sound of a system: if you are skeptical about this, please do not bring that to this thread, as I wish to discuss purely the ideas of how AC cables could alter the sound of a system. Thank you."

If it had been clear like that, I would completely understand and wouldn’t have entered this thread with another skeptical view of "why power cables affect sound."
Anyway....having made my case I'll refrain from posting more in this thread.  (Unless possibly baited to, or unless someone is actually interested in my responding).


Jafreeman,

I’m not at all embarrassed, nor likely to become embarrassed by my posts. Simply put, you posted a quote from ARC and grossly distorted it to apply to this conversation, and I called you on it.

While it may be true true that PC can affect the sound of an ARC amplifier, your quote from that particular manual sure as heck doesn’t show that ARC feels that way. You know it, I know it. That’s enough on that matter I think.

Much more interesting to me now, having seen on this thread, is just how many people are convinced that (essentially) they own equipment with inadequate power supplies.

It is nearly (nearly) inconceivable that a decently routed PC could pick up enough noise that it affects the sound. But it’s easily conceivable that noise is on the AC lines up to the receptacle. (But again is a PC really capable of cleaning it up?..,, and yes, I know, I keep on using that word, and you don’t think I know what it means)

I’m going to try and find a company that believes strongly enough in their power conditioners or rectifiers that they offer money back guarantee. I’m sure some naysayer would blame my Lyngdorf processor or Bryston SST or B&W speakers or interconnects or speaker cables of inadequate resolution if I can’t hear the difference, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

It it would be interesting if any of the people who are hearing improvements in PC swapping have ever found equipment with adequate power supplies from the factory that simply can’t be improved on with a different pc. It can’t all be c__p out there, can it?