Why Power Cables Affect Sound

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?

Let me share my experience.  As you can see I do not spend a lot of time posting on forums, for I spend most of my time working.  I have an engineering background in education and last 18 years have spend most of my time developing technology to enable the next generation circuits for smaller and more efficient semiconductors.  If you have owned an Apple product or an Xbox or another device which uses semiconductors you likely have owned a product which I had some part in designing.  This includes many patents.
The reason I tell you this is because I want you to understand my background started with known mathematical equations but when you get into the real world those equations although not wrong fail to capture all the variables which drastically effect the out come.  When I completed my education I would of told you power cables would not matter if they satified the basic requirement for impedance, etc.  My new college graduates with Masters and PHD's typically make these same assumptions and quickly learn that imperical data is king.  When you are dealing with the tolerances required to be successful in semiconductor design we can not assume or theorize an outcome with known electrical equations and material properties.  It requires experimentation because nothing is perfect plus we as humans have not discovered all things.  We are still learning.
We also understand each human can have an inherent bias so we have training to understand these bias's and work so they do not influence our decisions.
That is my work,  my passion is audio.  Because of my background I use to test everything and that included cables when it comes to audio.  Mostly of my testing involved digital and interconnect cables but also power cables.   Once I was familiar with the sonic characteristics of cables, we would perform blind testing and not only would I hear a difference but I could tell which cable was being used.  This was repeatable many times over.   Over the years of testing, my blind testing matched my non blind testing.   I no longer question if the changes I hear in my system are real.  I do not claim to know why there is a difference in all cases.    I am sorry if you do not know cables can sound/feel different even if they measure the same.  I trust my ears.