how can a line cord affect frequency response ?

Go drop a Purist Dominus power cable on your
favorite power amp, or DAC or preamp for that matter, and make note of
the bottom octave presence and control that was not there before.

John
Jafox (Threads | Answers)

Exactly! Exactly!
Exactly!

Furthermore, experiment with a Dominus Fluid and Dominus Ferrox, and
hear the differences the two materials make on the sound.

Wouldn't have believed it two years ago, but I've heard their magic in
three different systems as the cords have been progressively added, and
the results are conclusive. Oh yeah, one of us is a non-techie and ex-
drummer, another is a medical technician and piano player, and the
third works in the Physics department of one of the finest universities in
the USA. You couldn't get a more disparate background of audiophiles
who all agree on the benefits of aftermarket power cords.

John,
well said.

Albertporter...I don't wish to argue the merits of exotic power cords, isolation devices, and similar audiophile paraphinalia, but some manufacturers doing demos at shows will admit that they have to incorporate these things in their setup or else their potential customers will not take the demo seriously. Like chicken soup...can't hurt.

Jafox,

With all respect, you being an EE and fully capable of an exact technical explanation for "Mrtennis", why yet hasn't anyone come forword? Just more of the same unverified "personal" testimonial responses we get from every other Agon reply.

As mentioned earlier to "ronniekoh", I've witnessed countless cable blind-testing events where self-touted Audiophiles failed to pick the premium designs over basic configurations during my adult 30-or-so years of HiFi tinkering. This included some of my audio dealer friends who sold exotic cables, as well.

It's not like I haven't paid my dues with personal testing. It went hand-in-hand with my interest in electronics, followed by a professional carreer.

A few others, and myself, attempted to offer an explanation to Mrtennis, and even advised hime to contact as many component manufacturers as needed. Note the sarcasm/derogatory responses directed towards the engineering-minded, yet it was manufacturer's engineering claims that attracted most cable buyers towards their purchase.

Metro04 - As an educated EE, I clearly do not have the experience today to begin a scientific or engineering investigation on the matter for which you so very much want definitive answers. But I am not sure we are there yet anyway.

As advanced as our semiconductor and software industries have become, they still fall very short of the ear/brain processing to analyze sounds and therefore music. How and where do we even start to develop processes and systems to identify those sonic attributes that the ear and brain immediately tell us what is the real piano, what is a close simulation or what does not come even close? It's not only frequency or phase response analysis. Music is not this simple to quantify. If Mrtennis or anybody else requires these answers to get confirmation that differences do/don't exist, I suspect he is going to be waiting a long time.

Some of the most brilliant engineers are working on the latest developments of digital systems. And the test equipment for these systems has to be even more precise. And yet, in the final analysis, when I hear digital music, as enjoyable as it can be, my brain immediately tells me something is very wrong. Do we have the ability today to measure and quantify this? And if not, how can we expect the industry to provide a solution sheet with all the answers to explain why I can hear that power cable A affects an amplifier differently than power cable B?

There are events when I can not hear differences between some cables in certain links of the chain; this is good news as it leaves money in my pocket. And when there are differences, the more expensive product is not always the one I prefer. Again, good news as it saved me the expense. But there are times when I discover a cable or any other component for that matter that brings on more abc or xyz; it gets me that much closer to the musical performance. It's a win situation in any of these cases.

If we go into the audition with a seeded mind that we will or will not hear a difference, we have to be prepared to accept that the outcome could be different. And this is independent of any survey, poll, testing, etc., done by any other person or group who have documented that cables in fact do or do not make a difference.

I am clearly no self-tauted audiophile. And I am not trying to provide unverified testimonials either. I simply shared my experience that this closed-minded enginner let his ears be the factor vs. a printed technical report to determine that such differences do or do not exist. If one person can hear that differences exist, then they do. And that person could very well be a third party.

As an engineer, I know how easy it is for data to be "presented" in a way that would cause anyone to initially come to any conclusion. And how many of us have access to the facilities to prove or disprove such claims? We rely on others to do this. So this too is all based on faith.

As Mrtennis reported, "hearing is believing, either i hear a difference or i don't hear a difference. at this point it's an anecdotal report which cannot be verified". But Mrtennis, as any of us who are just another citizen of the larger collective, reading a report is believing, and often neither you nor I can verify such. Thank you, but in the case of audio cable differences, I have more faith in my own ears.

John