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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. 
mkgus
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Please explain how the noise of the switching of a full wave rectifier in a power supply can pass back through the primary winding of the power transformer and through the power cord and end up on the AC mains.

Hi @jea48 ,
I'm not making the claim it can do this very well, I'm making the claim that you don't want that. In either direction. So, the idea that a broad-band AC cable is ideal seems misguided to me.

But to answer your question, please lookup "parasitic capacitance transformer." I'm afraid I do not have the experience with typical AC transformers to model how much of an effect this might be, but I will say it's' much closer to the realm of known engineering than a lot of other theories.

Best,
E


gwbeers
62 posts
 
After reading 11 pages of riveting commentary -  here's my take away - buy the most expensive cable you can afford. If you hear a difference keep it, If you don't, return it.
jea48
2,944 posts
 
erik,
I am not disputing anything you said in your previous post. I am in agreement with most of what you said.
My understanding is the noise created by the rectifier does indeed end up on the AC mains unless the designer/manufacturer of the equipment adds some type of filter on the AC line of the equipment. My understanding, from what I have read, digital equipment is the worst.
So if noise on the AC line can cause distortion in audio equipment, then it stands to reason, if, say a CDP is putting noise back out on the AC line, the noise will inter through the power cord of a preamp that is plugged into the same wall mains AC outlet as the CDP. Correct?

Jim
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
If electrons are the cars of a train then, as Bob Dylan said, there’s a Slow Train Coming up around the bend. You know, since electrons in conductors, whilst being almost massless, are virtually motionless. Or as close to it as you can possibly be without being dead.

“Do not seek the treasure!”
boxer12
1,703 posts
 
pkvintage, "What happens when you plug an expensuve power chord into a cheap power bar that is plugged into a $1.00 wall socket? Or is it automatically assumed that a power conditioner is part of the equation."
Good question; Everything is part of the equation.

IME, you can control this equation to greatly improve your sound quality. This is what I’ve done to clean up the power to my system:

Power amps:
Have Oyaide Tunami power cables plugged into an audience conditioned which is connected to an SR wall outlet. I’ve tried them directly into the wall & find that the audience conditioner improves the sound considerably.

Preamp:
SR power cable plugged into Acoustic Revive conditioner which is plugged into an ExactPower transformer. The transformer has an Oyaide power cable connected to a Pangea premium XL outlet.

Front end:
Turntable uses DH audio power cable into a VPI analog drive system which is connected to the ExactPower transformer.
CD & DAC are connected with Oyaide (DAC) & Furutech (CD) power cables into the Acoustic Revive conditioner.
Power supply for the DAC & Phono amp have a Furutech flux 50 connected with an Oyaide power cable into the Acoustic Revive conditioner

I’m by no means saying this is the "best" solution to cleaning up the power going into the components, just that it all makes a difference to sound quality.
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