Do power cords really matter?

Interesting question with the normal two sides of opinions with the responses.

On the one side you have the "does not make a difference" who has given it the hours of listening and has determined that there is little to no difference. Since this type of person has never been exposed to interconnects and speaker cable that sounds better than lamp cord it isn't much of a surprise that the systems they listen to power cords in won't reveal the type of change that happens with power cords.

The person who has heard distint and not subtle changes with power cords has probably had an exposure to i/c's and speaker cable that made quite a difference to the system and moved on to trying power cords. In a system tuned to a level of resolution that reveals the finer levels of detail power cords make an incredible difference.

If you listen to some power cords and can't hear much if any differences don't jump into making your mind up that they aren't worth spending money on, find out what your system is lacking that keeps it from showing you the differences they are capable of making. If you are going to jump on any of the opinions offered in response to a question like you asked use your head to tell you whether or not the guys hearing a difference have arrived at that opinion through their ability to be fooled into believing they heard a difference or actually did, or the ones who say they have definitively determined PC's make no difference because they didn't hear it, or they have not been exposed to a high enough resolution (due to their limited cable exposure) to be able to hear it.

It comes down to whether you are going to be satisfied with believing you have arrived at a high resolution or actually have it in the end. If you can be happy thinking you can get the best with inferior power cords more power to you.

Don't give up on them until you can hear the difference, being able to hear it is where it's at.

Yes, I do believe that power cords can give audible differences and also improvements, but I think some people exaggerate the importancy of power cords with regard to audio systems. You must not forget that in the 1960's and early 1970's "audiophiles" were listening to equipment that were using ordinary lampcords as power cords. Albeit this "lacking" of exotic power cords many systems sounded very good and musical. That is the most important thing: a system should sound musical. I don't give a damm to hyperdetail, "extended" reverberation tail of musical instruments and voices and ambience retrieval to the nth degree. What I want is music.

Chris

03-24-07: Dazzdax writes:

What I want is music.

What you actually want is for the music to sound more real.

Forget detail, ambient retrieval etc. All those things could remain the same ... but add more dynamic gradation, and the music will sound more real. That's what good power cords really help with. That's what you want and that's what you need.

Regards,

I hope you'll agree that in the first place the system should sound in balance and musical. Power cords can give a bit more dynamics, yes. Or a bit more bass slam, or more ambience retrieval. But should not alter the whole presentation of the music that the system and not to forget listening room already deliver. If there is a "major" change towards the sound due to application of special power cords, I would say that one is rather screwing up the inherent qualities of the system.

Chris

Aintitgr8: "Interesting question with the normal two sides of opinions with the responses. On the one side you have the "does not make a difference" who has given it the hours of listening and has determined that there is little to no difference. Since this type of person has never been exposed to interconnects and speaker cable that sounds better than lamp cord it isn't much of a surprise that the systems they listen to power cords in won't reveal the type of change that happens with power cords."

So, you're saying that everybody who says PCs don't make a difference has never had experience with high-end ICs and speaker cable? Just wondering how you came to this highly scientific conclusion. I must have missed out on the survey.

Answers like Aintitgr8's are the reason audiophiles are so often scoffed at.