Why Power Cables Affect Sound

If you visit the Cable Asylum forum you can read where many members build their own DIY power cords. You don't have to spend a fortune for a good power cord.

@jea45
I think if you care, this is a great idea! :)

I move stuff around far too often. I can't see myself making the perfect power cord that I would use for long, but DIY is the smartest approach I think.

I remember reading an article where John Curl said he would spec a certain grade of components, for a piece of Parasound audio equipment he designed, only to be overruled the owners of the company saying it would make the price of the piece of equipment to high and price it out of the market competition.

I have read this before, and I feel it is unnecessary sour grapes.

I mean, sure, we all dream of cost is no object for all the gear we buy, or might envision, but the reality is that all engineers face cost / performance challenges. How they solve them is the mark of the very best engineers.

I like Paraound, I think the Halo line provides excellent value for money. Would I buy an A21 or A23 if it was 2x the cost? Probably not.
What would be interesting to me is to hear the difference. That is, what would a JC spec A21 sound like vs. what was produced. Would we hear it? Would we be willing to pay the price for the differences? That would absolutely be interesting.

Best,
E

One reason I like Pangea is they make decent power cords for no more than I can hand make one. I made a 6ft powercord with DH Labs $8 ft 12 gauge wire (on sale) and Furutech ’28’ series Rhodium plugs (also on sale) and spent $268. (more than the Pangea AC9SE mk2 signature power cord cost. The results of a ’shootout’? they are in a dead heat. very near the same. Now my latest purchase of a Pangea AC14XL clearly beats out the other two. and it cost (on sale) $180
So making a power cord can often be an exercise gaining no more than you could have had buying a ready made power cord. and the ready made may cost you LESS.

PS the DH Labs cord, with much cheaper Wattgate plugs, (total about $90) sounded worse than the Pangea AC9SE mk2

Not that anyone cares, but I will no longer be responding to any naysayer comments. It is obvious to me, that I, and others here, have a greater degree / ability to hear certain things, and it is a waste of my time and energy to indulge in any more of this nonsense and immaturity. I wish everyone here, and yes everyone, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year. And again, those that have not  "tried " to listen, do not, imo, belong on a high end audio forum, such as Audiogon, as it is still all about the " listening ". Always, and Enjoy ! MrD.

@jea48  - "Well designed"  what does that mean?   If you look at the power cords out there, they all have widely differing design concepts.   If you had a power cord that intrinsically attenuated noise say 40+ dB from 30KHz out to 1 GHz while having 0 dB at 50 or 60 Hz, then sure it would keep the noise out.   If there is one out there that does it, I have never heard of it and it probably wouldn't be using copper or silver for a conductor.   The only way I know how to do it is with a filter. 

@elizabeth She has a good point.  I designed a power cable with a built in line noise filter and I wanted to sell it for $99.00.  The idea was I would publish the measured performance it produces, at least folks would know what they are getting.   Well, I couldn't do it at that price point.  Even if I built 1000 of them, I still couldn't do it for that price point.   The world does not need another $600 power cord - I don't care how good it is - there are other options.

I also need a power cable that was 24 feet long, at that distance making one started to make sense since the factory ones get pretty pricey at those lengths.   Unfortunately Pangea doesn't make one at that length and when I called the company I discovered it can't be custom ordered either.  So, I am building it. 

@mrdecibel - one thing that might pacify the naysayers is some real science in the marketing and advertising from some power cable companies.   Gosh, it is sadly lacking with some companies and I get real squeamish about shelling out a few hundred dollars based on nothing more than advertising and few raving comments from unknown people.    Yeah, some companies allow a full refund if it doesn't improve the sound but I am still out the freight and I am not willing to put my freight money based on ads.   There is plenty of information in this thread as well as this site to confirm cable differences but that is not advertising and little of it is science.