Why Power Cables Affect Sound

I once believed in the power of measurement and placebo. That was back when I struggled to hear any difference between DACs and CDPs. Well after years reading nothing but Stereo Review, with Julian Hirsch and his wire is wire measurements uber alles mantra, what else was gonna happen? Especially since he had the technical argument wrapped up, while the other side seemed suspiciously all snake-oil marketing. 

Plus, personal experience. First time out I stood right there as one guy who had driven 300 miles to compare two DACs auditioned them side by side. And the guy said, "I don't hear any difference."

Yeah. Right. Because there is no difference. 

But again, this was before I learned and developed any real listening skills. Thankfully the dealer was very patient and let me bring in my Magnavox CDB-650 to compare. Sort of seemed not quite as good as their Proceed, maybe. But hard to say for sure how.

(This by the way is part of the problem. If you want to talk psychology, try the psychology of why it is very hard to notice something you have no language to describe. Unlike placebo, this will actually be fruitful.)

The breakthrough for me was when I made the drive from Seattle to Portland just to compare interconnects, because they had this little XLO device that let you switch quickly between them. Because, the story goes, its impossible to remember such miniscule changes for more than a fraction of a second. Which is total crap. But I believed it.

So I drove to Portland. With my patch cords. My Julian Hirsch patch cords. Because surely what they throw in the box for free must be good enough, right? (And people here have said the same about power cords, so its not like I was the only one sucked into this nonsense.) Only, bad luck, dealer says sorry it broke, but you can still do it if you want.

So I said okay, waste of time, but might as well. Only don't further waste my time with that $750 (yikes!) interconnect, let me try something I might actually buy. So he gives me something for $75 from XLO. 

Then he just leaves me alone. (This btw is what the really good dealers do. They leave you alone to relax and listen. If what they have is really good it sells itself. Seriously. On the way home my wife was asking if we could buy those speakers. Which we did. Even though they cost a lot more than what I had just bought less than a year before.)

After a few minutes listening to the $75 I got up and changed the input and swapped to my patch cord, and changed the input back and... HOLY CRAP quick turn that off and see what you did to BREAK HIS AMP before he finds out! Honestly, seriously, that is what I thought. I was sure I had totally messed something up. I was still standing behind the amp. Never even made it to sit back down. Checked everything again. Sure looks okay. But Gawd it sounds awful!

It was the interconnect. In spite of everything I had been told for years and years, they do not in fact sound the same. You can in fact remember long enough to switch them out. The differences can even be so glaringly obvious you don't even need to sit down and try and listen.

Again this was years ago, way back when I was first learning how and what to listen for. Which I remember like it was yesterday, even though it was well over 20 years ago.

Probably all the guys who have gone through this are nodding agreement. When you know, you know. There is none of this placebo measurements yadda yadda. Even questions of how or why fade to mere curiosities. When you know, you know.

At that moment, I knew. And once you do know, believe me, it only gets better and better.

But first, you gotta make the effort.

 

I started the placebo suggestion, and where I was going with it is, not to say there is no effect on sound. If you have noise in your system and replace the power cord and it cleans it up, a 5 year old can distinguish between the two. It's the claims of " so obvious that it cannot be missed". Just like picking out a Magnepan from a JBL speaker. At that level of difference, you would not have to live with a system for days, it would very easy to blind test, a casual listener would prefer 1 over the other every time. If there is a marked difference between cables and advanced audiophiles can perceive it, don't worry about blind testing. I mean it's "obvious". Just like spending $10,000 on speakers instead of $500. It makes a big difference.  

The reason I never replied to @prof was that I went to sleep after my last post. The urgent and provocative nature of his reply belies what seems to be a basic need to argue, however skillfully, to no apparent end. The man loves to hear himself talk.

Waking up to the provocations and like was entertaining, to say the (really) least.

His analogies are tangential at best, as they are off the subject and designed to lull lessor discerning folk into conflating an obvious conclusion with one not really relatable. Nice tactic. 

It's like listening to a broken record. Take placebo. This has been hashed to death and yet it rears it's stupid head. When it comes to audio, anyone can be fooled by a cheap parlor trick, as it's done in the short term. Myriad variables are introduced in a A/B test that are simply not present when listening as a pleasure.

After being fooled in a A/B test, one simply goes back to their system and in short order, they can recognize the differences that fooled them after immersing themselves in a listening session. The placebo excuse assumes that we all go on listening the wrong way. A simply silly notion.

To assume that we are so fallible, broken and easily fooled all day, every day, and we are not to trust our senses, begs the notion as to why we're all still alive, having not blown up, shocked, or killed ourselves in some silly manner due to placebo, or some other phenomenon. 

All the best,
Nonoise

My feeling of the flaw with A/B testing is the test is exercising a totally different part of the brain than the part that can notice fine differences in music. In A/B the part being called in to use is the conscious judgemental rational frontal lobes. When we listen to music, relaxed and not under stress to ’choose’ different areas of the brain are most active.
I would think some people could ’LEARN’ how to be able to do it well, in an A/B test situation. but not everyone. I would bet Professional Classical music conductors would naturally excel at it.

Power cables are all about EMI.