After Market Power Cables - Gold or Snake Oil?

I have read so many posts that start with the "why" question, that make me wonder at whether they have any practical value at all - for anyone.

My experiences with power cables lead me to see them as of similar importance as speaker cables - ie. having a very significant impact on both the quality and character of the system. For all practical purposes, that is all I need to know.

I have heard several quite different explanations of why PCs make a difference, such that I really don't have a clue why they make a difference at all. But I am none the poorer for that.

So Checkmate110, I want to ask you a "why" question. Why do you want to know? Are you a cable designer? If I give you an explanation that Power cables improve the sound according to how much floobie dust is in the cable, and then give you an explanation of how floobie dust has been scientifically proven to attenuate RFI and EMI on the cable, how does this change anything for you? The scientific proof of a reduction in RFI and EMI might be thoroughly conclusive, but how can you be sure that it has anything to do with whether or not the PCs sound different? What if floobie dust does work but that the effects are totally inaudible? How does the floobie dust explanation help you?

Let's consider an issue such as a silver cable rather than a copper cable. If I ask on Audiogon "why do people think silver is better than copper?", then I will get answers which can be scientifically verified, such as that silver is a better conductor than copper. But is that really the reason why silver sounds different from copper? A great many audiophiles prefer copper to silver and some even prefer poor conductors such as carbon (VdH) and brass (Magnan). Does knowing that silver is a better conductor than copper mean you should buy ANY silver cable, since they all conduct the same and therefore sound the same? Does it mean every silver cable is superior to any copper cable?

I know that some of these why questions are really about people who are simply curious and interested. But most of these why questions posted here are about someone wanting just one believable reason to suspend their disbelief - and this appears to be the case with this post. But that almost always turns into a fairly meaningless task, and the post turns into a vociferous argument about the level of proof about floobie dust. What is great about the responses to this post is the preponderance of posts that simply concentrate on "I hear a difference" and "the improvement over stock PCs is worthwhile". That is where the real value of these forums exists - credible weight of opinion.

So Checkmate110, and the many that have started similar posts before you, my advice is to accept that the best value you will get from this forum, if you are struggling with your disbelief, is to listen to the credibility of the experiences people list here, using a healthy dose of scepticism, and then select which of the recommendations you will try with your own ears. The last thing you should do is seek some scientific explanation of the effects of floobie dust and blindly go out and follow the mantra of buying the most floobie laden cable you can find. That would be a recipe for sonic disaster.

But my point is that the "why" you might receive may have nothing to do with our claims of a sound difference, so if we are deluded you are merely asking for a rationale so that you can be deluded too.

Oy Mate, my point is simple - I do not know "why" PCs make a difference, but they do. If I gave you a "why", then that does not prove anything. No matter how plausible the "why" I give you, it does not assure you of ANYTHING.

What has a greater chance of being relevant is this. I have heard the difference so many times both between different PCs and between after-market PCs and stock PCs that there is no room for doubt in my mind. Others here will tell you the same. A very few others have said they hear no difference. That is all folks - the rest is up to you to try it for yourself, or not to.

Debates as to "why" will get you nowhere. If you don't believe me then look up the archives and find how your question has been asked here many times before, that many explanations have been put forward, but that this proved nothing to anybody, simply proving my point that we are all none the wiser unless the discussion causes you to try it for yourself.