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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
jea48
2,944 posts
 
mzkmxcv339 posts01-13-2019 11:30am@jea48

I don’t have a subscription to access AES papers, so nothing 100% credible, but here are some measurements of RCA cables. Of course it’s not Nordost Odin 2 or anything that ridicoulous. As for the stereo crosstalk, keep in mind even the worse offender is still well below the signal to be considered inaudible, and the 3” generic cable performed similarly/better than the 3” “expensive” silver one.

EDIT: Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed, even though they break none of the guidelines. Love the open discussion.

@ mzkmxcv,

Sorry, Not what I would call reliable credible proof. Who is the guy? What is his back ground? You’ll have to better than that. His bench setup could have caused his measurements to be flawed. Wouldn’t be the first time.


EDIT: Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed, even though they break none of the guidelines. Love the open discussion.
Notified by Agon through an email? Was the material copyright protected?
From my experience here on Agon they do not edit a post. They just remove the entire post.
OR
EDIT: Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed, even though they break none of the guidelines. Love the open discussion.

"Wonderful, just notified some of my comments were removed,".
Did you mean to say "noticed" instead of "notified"?
If you meant to say noticed it could be you did not proof read the page before posting it to make sure everything you typed was there on the page.

Maybe it’s just my computer but only on Agon if what I am typing goes beyond the bottom line of the message box it is not being saved. If you find yourself at the bottom of the page, add more space by hitting the enter key several times.









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mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
@elizabeth

The wave form hits the point in space.. how long does it take to touch pass and leave that point. It cannot be instantaneous.. it takes time. how much time? no one cares?? is it spending a lot of time there from start to finish. or fast? from start to finish. True frequency would make to whole thing faster, but ignore that. for any specific frequency, the wave front time from first point to last.. How long? can it be longer? being fuzzy? or faster, being tight? you have NO IDEA. If you say it cannot . be then you are claiming the wave is an infinite point? no time spread at all? Can it BE fuzzy? you don’t know that either

I don’t think you have a fundamental understating of how audio (in real life or in a Hi-Fi system) works. We do know of long a waveform should be (at a given temperature).

Here’s a nice calculator for 72°F:
http://www.mcsquared.com/wavelength.htm

A “fuzzy” waveform means distortion/noise.

You cannot make a wave faster/slower unless you change the temperature of the room. If you make it “faster” without doing so, all you actually did was change what the actual frequency is.

@jae48

I received two emails stating my posts were removed by a moderator, the one talking about how I can’t tell you what food you like, but I can tell you if the output of your speakers changed if you “upgraded you power cords, and another one thanking @stevecharm for the most sensible answer to my question, but then asked him what he thinks about how the OEM cables already provide the performance as stated in specs, and how audible changes could be if distortion and whatnot are already very low, keep in mind the THD of your speakers is magnitudes louder than the THD of a DAC.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
The *velocity* of all the audio frequencies are changed equally when the temperature changes in the room. Be that as it may who would listen in a room that’s 60 degrees or 80 degrees, anyway? Answer at 11. Even if the temperature was 60 or 80 degrees the sound would be about the same as at 70. Mystery solved.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
My apartment is ALWAYS at 80F. 79F is ’too cold’. In the Summer, it can be 83F easy.. Maybe even 85F.. no problem. I am a Florida sort..
Even though I live in the North. Geoff already knew that...
I know mzk-etc cannot fathom my question. No problem dude. I forgive you.
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
300 posts
 
To throw something else out there, on many occasions Ralph (Atma) has noted that balanced equipment lessens the need of expensive interconnects. Does the same go for power cords? I run differential components sans the power amps. Entire system runs on Equi-Tech and BPT for AC. For the longest used Mcintosh MC60s with captive power cords and was advised not to change them. Upgrade (I hope) is coming.
Power cords will be needed. Does my balanced power relieve somewhat the need to go high end on the power cords?


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