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. 
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mzkmxcv364 posts01-15-2019 4:20pm@geoffkait

They scored better than the musicians though...

Any song offered in DSD likely has better mastering, so that’s a factor. I also believe that DXD (format used to make DSD) is just a high-rez PCM anyway, and then it’s converted to DSD on export.

>>>>I reckon I’ll file that one under WHATEVER.
Funny, all this time I thought this thread was about power cords and they sound the way they do rather than digital vs analog and magnets versus phooby dust.  Maybe I need new glasses?
HEY! FINALLY someone has the guts to mention "phooby dust"!
I know it is an embarrassing topic.. but hey we all might get phooby dusted.... NOT ME! NEVER.. NO way.. BUT I know someone who knew somebody... It was really bad...
Running Springs offer the Mongoose or the HZ crown jewel’s power cords i believe so if a company that deals with improving the quality of the mains that supplies your system offers quality power cables that means power cables do make a difference to the quality of the mains electricity, they have sold enough conditioners and power cables over the years so people must be hearing the improvements of a better quality power cable
when using the Running Springs conditioners.
I believe the Audience Adept Response has choices on which power cord you choose when you buy that.
PS Audio just to name another brand that offer different approaches to improving the mains that powers your system also have various choices of power cord.
To many people are reporting hearing improvements with power cord upgrades, there are so many company’s selling better quality power cords, they cant all be mad or in it just for a buck, i think the non believers just begrudge spending the extra money so they convince themselves power cords do not improve the sound its much cheaper to think like that.
A better piece of equipment would bring a higher improvement than a power cord at the same price but in the end better power cords equal better mains quality that offers sound improvements in your system, its all over the internet read what audiophiles are experiencing we cant all be wrong can we ?
If you buy into this nonsense then you should start at the breaker box.  Of course, someone will have to market audiophile quality breakers, audiophile romex,  audiophile outlets...