2. cables
  3. 141153-122613

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
mkgus's avatar
mkgus OP
82 posts
 
Indeed, if it sounds better to you, go for it. Just keep in mind it’s all placebo.

However, I can say with most certainty that the sound coming from your speakers is 100% identical

It’s not placebo though. I have found the differences in sound between a $2 factory-supplied cord and a well-built high-end cable to be drastic, and repeatably so. I’m sure there are instances where cables don’t make a big difference, but so far I’ve found upgraded cables to help with each piece of equipment I’ve tried one on: amps, DACs, preamps, etc. The funny thing about it is that I didn’t want cables to make a difference - I didn’t want to spend money on them. Then I heard the differences clear as day and came to understand that cables are components that you cannot overlook if you want a truly high-end system. Mzkmxcv, do you have a revealing system? Why not just try a 30-day money back guarantee power cable in your system and see if you can hear it?
mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
@nonoise

I was on my phone and fell asleep to people reacting to what they see/saw, fell asleep, woke up, and I saw it differently, and never changed back to the incorrect colors no matter when/how I saw it. I really was freaky, as I was most posit e it was white/gold.

All I’m saying is that just like people still see the dress as white/gold even after being shown it’s blue/black, people’s ears also play tricks on them.

But like I said, if you hear a difference, buy all the power cords, brilliant pebbles, WA quantum chips, etc. that you want. Just don’t confuse your reality to actual reality. All it does is deter newcomers.
mkgus's avatar
mkgus OP
82 posts
 
I feel sorry for anyone who believes that reputable high end PCs cannot improve the sound of a system in many ways--in fact, too numerous to list.

I do too. It’s like going to an art museum with your friend and being brought to tears by the beauty of a certain piece of artwork and having your friend glance at it for 1 second and say “there’s no scientific research showing that that specific piece of art is beautiful, therefore it’s just placebo effect.” To which I would reply, “Have you tried simply looking at the art piece? You’re missing out on a lot of life by carrying around that attitude.”

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
4,382 posts
 
@mzkmxcv,

I'm not confusing anything as it was simply due to an imbalance of the white setting. All of the thousands of stations broadcasting are not entirely in sync. No mystery involved although there was a lot of blather as to what could be the explanation.

If anyone is susceptible to placebo or influence, you just admitted to it with your story of how you saw it and what you went through. I didn't.

So heed your own advice and don't confuse your reality with actual reality. All it does is deter newcomers. 👍

All the best,
Nonoise
mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
@nonoise

The reason people saw it differently is not a display white-balance error, but if people thought it was in a store with Daylight lightning or 2700K-3000K lighting, illustrative comparison. Not sure if you’ve seen this optical illusion, I think I’ve linked to in previous threads, it look at this Rubix cube looking object, the “brown” square centered on the top face is the same color as the “orange” square on the shaded face, no matter that you know this, you cannot see these as the same color (if you don’t believe me, zoom in and screen shot them).

My realty is that if your upgraded power cord did nothing to the electrical output of the signal, then return it. And no @mkgus, saying a power cord did not alter the sound coming out of your speakers is no way related to the appreciation of a painting.
More to discover