"Audiophile" Power Cables: The Greatest Audio Conspiracy Theory of All Time?
Just mention the word “audiophile power cord” in a group of seasoned audio enthusiasts and the resulting exchange will resemble the calm and collectiveness of someone throwing a firecracker in a chicken coop. In the audiophile world, there is no other subject as polarizing. Some scholars have even argued that the phrase “WTF?!!” was first introduced into our contemporary culture moments after some Neandertweak claimed that “premium power cords can make an audio system sound better!”
The details of the origins of the “audiophile” power cable are a little obscure. Perhaps long ago an energetic employee working for an audio cable manufacturer had the “Ah Ha moment?” He’d spent more than his share of quality time developing better sounding speaker cables, and one fateful day glanced over at his amp and thought: “Speakers get AC from the amp. Amps get AC from the wall. If this meaty cable works great for speakers, what would happen if I made a power cord out of the same stuff?” And so, he decided to cobble up a set. He approached the power cable with the same attention to detail as he did with his speaker cables, and after terminating each end with something that had a low likelihood of not catching the lab on fire, he plugged it in … and BEHOLD!!! To say he liked what he heard was an understatement. An alien craft landing in the designated employee parking area of his lab would not have left him with a more bewildered look on his face. But, unsure how to connect the dots from theory to reality,he developed a new audio vocabulary to extract a "believable" technical explanation of what he just heard. He polished up his demo a bit and invited a couple of colleagues over for a listen. With the world’s first premium power cord, newly formed technical vocabulary, and wll-recorded demo material on hand he convinced his colleagues they heard something pretty spectacular, too. Word got around. More auditions. More positive feedback. Then it hit him: “I gotta tell management about this!”
But not so fast. The technically inclined in Section B got wind of this. These were the modern-day equivalent of Nostradamus. They could analyze a handful of measurements and predict how something would sound in the future. So, the guys from Section B prepared to come at him with the full force of industry standard hand-held HP calculators, pocket protectors, Radio Shack SPL meters and electronic theory in their arsenals -- ready to humiliate the “power cord dude” in front of his pack of the “audiophile” power cord faithful. They were going to be a tough sell. Meticulous. Exacting. These were the guys that measured out precisely 5mm of Brylcreem™, when “just a little dab” would work just fine for the rest of us. The guys from Section B placed themselves between a pair of decent loudspeakers ready to pounce on any inkling of “better sound.” They were quite emphatic about not hearing anything different. Afterall, their Radio Shack SPL meters have never lied to them yet. Why would today be any different? Upper management observed stealthily from a distance.
It turned out to be more like a geeky version of “Rope a Dope” than dismantling “the cable dude” and send him scampering out of the room with his cable between his legs. The cable dude just stood there like a giant redwood taking blow after blow, carefully listening to their pleas for sanity and acknowledging their technical evaluations. Always countering with the same remark: “Yeh, I get that. But have you listened to it?” Exhausted, the “deniers” stomped off, knowing full well they had won the debate, but still frustrated that they couldn’t convince the power cord dude he that he possessed the mental agility of a small soap dish.
Management took notice and found themselves in the unfortunate position of being compromised regardless of what position they took. Do, we slap the cable dude in the face and ruin his ego (and, perhaps his productivity) for life? Or give the green light to a product that pegs the BS Meter of the guys in Section B? After careful consideration, management came to the only logic conclusion: “There’s money to be made here!” Section B was never the same.
The power cord dude was promoted to Power Products Designer and a finished prototype was only days away. Then, something interesting happened. They took their newly developed “audiophile” power cable to an international industry trade show and put it out there in front of some of the country’s best high end audio dealers for their feedback.
Music played. Heads nodded. Orders were placed. Shelves were stocked.
I’m certain the first “audiophile” power cable customer had to convince someone(s) that he just didn’t throw his hard-earned money away on something with no technical merit. He remembered his visit at the audio salon and the salesman’s pitch, who remembered the factory representative’s pitch, who remembered with district manager’s pitch, who remembered with factory trainer’s pitch, who remembered the power cord dude’s, eh, Power Products Designer’s pitch, and pulled off a flawless presentation. Well, to the surprise of everyone in the room (especially his wife) he managed to get his buddies so fired up that they HAD to go visit the dealer’s showroom and plead their case to snag a set on loan so they could audition them on their OWN systems.
Music played. Heads nodded. Wallets came out.
It didn’t take long for the audio dealer down the street to get word of the business he just lost to his competitor. A highly agitated dealer called HIS audiophile cable rep and asked why THEY are not in the audiophile cable business?! This quickly worked its way up the chain, and before you can say “Autocorrelation Sonic Holography Preamplifier”, there were not one but TWO cable companies offering “audiophile” power cables. Including the new industry standard at 2x the price of anything offered by the other guys.
Before long the news of this new product category reached the true connoisseurs of audio perfection – the respected high end audio reviewer -- the guy who could tell you what Joan Baez had for breakfast that morning just by listening to her sing Diamonds and Rust. This guy’s got ears, and a typewriter, and he’s not afraid to use them. And, yes, as predicted, he “heard something” and wrote nice things about it. Potential advertising revenue and saying nice things about a new product are, let’s say, not out of phase with each other. Like many others before him, he struggled to describe in industry-standard engineering terms WHY the power cord sounded like it sounded. But he was convinced that every existing high-end audio system was now demoted to mere mid-fi without them.
Then, quicker than a toddler can modify the structural integrity of a Clearaudiio stylus, audiophile power cables were an adopted component in any NOTE-worthy audio system. Manufacturers developed real business plans with real business strategizers and got to work setting up distributors, field reps, product trainers, marketing plans, “key customer” dealer events -- complete with their own recommended playlist, suggested wines, and catering via White Castle.
The Dupeologists (individuals highly effective in the art of duping people) were embedded at every level in every crook and cranny. The Power Products Designers got bigger offices, entire power cable product lineups were developed and every company that had the ability to wrap strands of high purity copper with a jacket and attach plugs on each end was in the “audiophile” power cable business. On the consumer level, it was quickly reaching a level of respectability that demanded involvement by serious music lovers at some level. The audiophile power cable that was installed on the power amp, was now joined by one for the preamp, CD player -- even the Samsung sound bar. An entire product category had developed and didn’t just take the industry by storm. The number of audiophile power cable enthusiasts reached thousands worldwide, eventually exceeding the number of consumers who enjoy the convenience of single-cup Keurig coffee makers in their motorhomes.
Oh, the humanity!!
You have to ask the question: “Where were those consumer advocates hiding? How could they let this happen?” You know who were talking about. Those guys who parachute out of the sky in a moment’s notice to protect the rest of us from bad decisions. If these guys could time travel, they’d go back and lock elbows with Ralph Nader to reinforce the position that the Corvair’s rear suspension could fold in on itself. They’d ALSO prove that the Corvair didn’t have air bags, AND would have failed miserably in a rollover test, AND didn’t have a catalytic converter! I could have used these guys when I was a young lad waiting in line to make my first purchase at a hifi store. An intervention, including full body takedown, would have been entirely justified for saving me from spending $7 on a glorified lint brush wrapped around a walnut handle peddled as a “record cleaning system.”
But, alias, it appears to be too little, too late. The avalanche has started. We’ve got guys out there that claim to not only hear the differences between an OEM cable and an audiophile cable but claim … wait … here it comes … the differences between different brands and price levels of audiophile cables!! Then there’s they selected group of Techomutants out there that build their own stuff from scratch, claiming that home-made cables sound better than … get this … FACTORY-built OEM cables! This makes about as much sense to “Section B types” as adding a Paragraphic Frequalizer to your system.
It’s (finally) time to jump into the meaty part of the discussion – The Conspiracy. I have a theory about conspiracy theories (if there is such a thing). Here goes:
“The shelf life and voracity of a conspiracy theory is entirely dependent on who controls the information, not the validity of the claims.”
Which brings us to the question of WHO is controlling the information? What entity (or entities) could have this level of penetration to reach the ENTIRE globe and endure the constant barrage of debunkmenship of dozens of Section Bs working in unison? <whisper> It’s rumored that it could be The Deep Stasis? A secret organization of all-knowing, all-reaching, infinitely powerful group of individuals who can make anyone believe anything related to audio performance. We could appoint a special council of the most proficient AudioGon members (the guys with the highest number of razor-sharp, one-sentence stinging rebuttals in the forums) and aggressively go after them. But how do you go after an organization that “doesn’t exist?” Great question. And, since we’ll never get the answers the audio world and ancient astronaut theorists are looking for, The Deep Stasis theory appears to be a dead end. So, it looks like it’s on to Plan B.
We’ll have to drill down so deep and extract so much useful data that even a biochemist working for Exxon would be proud of our accomplishments. So, outside of The Deep Stasis, we need to look at some “plausible” answers to that powerful question.
“Audiophile” Power Cable NIERS (the opposite of DE-NIERS):
Were DUPED!!
Someone put LSD in their oatmeal.
Have seriously degrading hearing but THINK they are just fine. Or, better than fine. They ARE audiophiles, you know.
Work for, or in, a business enterprise that financially benefits from the successful market penetration of audiophile power cables. Follow the money?
Have confirmation biases and just imagining they are hearing a difference. Only their shrink knows for sure and HEPA rules won’t allow us to speak to them about it. So, like The Deep Stasis, it just another dead end, and we’ll never know for sure.
Or…
Those who claim to hear differences in audiophile power cables vs OEM are highly-preceptive, intelligent individuals (many with advanced degrees) who have spent many decades engaged with the critical listening and evaluation of state-of-the-art high-fidelity components, source materials, adjustment & calibration, room acoustics and other factors contributing an elevated musical experience. They also possess an excellent control of vocabulary, are highly articulate, and masters at successfully communicating those observations to others.
As the author of a serious piece of investigative work, I need to maintain my neutrality. Therefore, I can’t offer an opinion.
I’ll just leave you with one final question:
Does anyone have any idea how to hide 5 pairs of Audioquest NGR Thunders behind an equipment rack setting just inches away from the wall?
Personally I have never used a conditioner that didnt, at best, take me one step forward and one back. The best I have used seemed to quiet things a bit, but have diminished tonal complexity and texture. I found this true especially with my amps. Perhaps my power is really clean and plentiful. I live in the rural Midwest.
I have always heard improvements with a select group of power cables referred to me by some of my peers. I also believe that I can hear differences in outlets. Particularly between the hospital grades and more esoteric brands.
I would like to think it isnt my imagination, but even if it is a fiction, and think I hear an improvement do I not? Seriously I am way past caring what others think and just enjoy the pursuit.
All I ask is that doubters reach their conclusions by going beyond the theoretical.
Thanks for the kind comments. Coming from you, I means alot. I’m with you on the importance of acoustics. A "hard sell" sometimes when "other" factors come into play -- particularly when important people in your life put razor wire around the room and control what goes in and out of the space. It’s easier to slip a new PC into a space than a 4’x4’x2" acoustical panel. Especially, when a signed, framed, Barry Manilow musical score needs to be moved to another position.
Your observations are well-founded and your conclusions are reasonable.
I was dragged kicking and screaming into this category. The concept of premium PCs pegged the needle on my BS meter. Then, I was shamed into trying one at home in my system. Now I have to admit that I a bit of a fanatic on the subject of power delivery. Premium PCs everywhere. Updated wall plugs. Internal equipment mods, including "hacked" Richard Gray Power Company conditioner/surge/distribution. A few years ago, I took my wife’s brand new luxury SUV and built a custom harness so I could home run power from the battery to the head unit and amp. Night and day. Breakers vs fuses? I’ve done it. I even did an experiment with a non-audio piece in an attempt to MEASURE performance differences between a stock 15A cable and a premium PC. And, yes, a MEASURABLE 10% difference in performance. (The guy who designed the cable said it made sense to him.)
We run a part time service business where we try to prevent decent hifi gear from going into a dumpster. Once in a while, we’ll do something "interesting" on the bench. So, I was thinking of a cheap, stealthy way to upgrade the sound of computer speakers for a family member. So, I ordered a cheap (under $100) Class D plate amp with the goal of mounting it to the modesty panel inside of an office desk. Then attach a pair of (cheap) 2 way speakers and small sub. So, we fired this thing up and were not blown away with it. I’d say downright nasty-sounding would be an accurate description. I was moments away from hitting the eject button on it, and thought: "Would a better PC make a difference? Probably not, but everything is still hooked up. What the heck?" I had a $69 AQ NGRX2 close by, so grabbed it and plugged it in. Expectations low. Then, BOOM!!! The nasty upper mids were calmed down considerably. There was bass extension where there was none before. And, a one-dimensional (mono out of 2 channels?) had depth and space. Instruments became separated where a hodge podge of musical mush was there before. Once again, I was smacked upside the head and unable to explain why this was happening from a technical perspective. All I know, is that I was no longer embarrassed to recommend this solution to a friend with a budget close to zero for their system (around $300 total).
Cables/power delivery improvements never cease to amaze me. We’ve done internal power deliver improvements in vintage gear. Yes, we get the expected increases in detail and focus, with more headroom and authority. But, the totally unexpected (for me) was a complete transformation in the sonics. The TONALITY of these things is different -- in a GOOD way. Much more relaxed, warmer, linear -- and musical. Big boy high powered receivers go from a "typical" big old-school receiver sound, to the sonic character of a much more expensive integrated. Big smiles from customers. That’s what we’re going for.
Sometimes you can hear differences and sometimes you can't. What I've found is that if you can hear a difference (and not just confirmation bias) its very likely measurable. The more power your cord has to carry, the more likely you'll hear a difference and this is entirely to the most basic electrical law out there, Ohm's Law.
For example, if you have a tube amplifier there' s a good chance you'll hear a difference, especially if its a bigger tube amp. That's because there is a voltage drop across the power cord (Ohm's Law), which might not seem like much, but if you take into account that the voltage drop will cause the filaments of the power tubes to run at a lower temperature along with the B+ being slightly lower, its easy to see that the output power could be affected. I've seen (measured) a 2 Volt drop across the power cord, resulting in an output power loss as high as 40 Watts.
IOW you measure the effect the cable has on the equipment, rather than measuring the cable itself. So you can see that if you have a class D amp which has minimal power draw, the power cord might not be nearly so important- you might not hear any difference at all, particularly if the class D amp is of the self-oscillating variety which tend to have high feedback (the feedback allows the amp to reject any effects the power cord might have other than total output power).
So a lot depends on what kind of equipment you have as to whether you hear anything or not.
FWIW, compared a top Pangea PC to my Shunyata (use this brand on all my components) plugged into my Luxman D06u CDP. No contest. And will gladly admit that, IMHO and using my ears, wire does make a big difference. And I do have a decent system; Joseph Audio Pulsar speakers, CJ ET5 pre, Pass Lab 250.5 amp.
My Sansui amplifier is connected to the wall directly...Because it is better for it but i use the panamax conditioner for a dac and low cost preamplifier...
Power conditioners vary in negative and positive impact as vary the gear needs and as vary the electrical noise floor of each house grid system ... There is no universal rule to apply here: power conditioner or not, power cable or not ...I dont even adress the way untrained ears versus trained ears perceive soundfield...
i modified all my low cost cables in my own way because the magnetic field around them can be acted upon with various minerals...
I am not an engineer i dont claim to understand the physics of cables but it is very simple to verify the difference using a piece of shungite on any cable compared to quartz , shungite compress the S.Q. a bit and quartz decompress it ... The balance between the two is the craft i use...Cost: peanuts...
I dont buy costly tweaks i create mine ... Creativity pay more dividend at peanuts costs...
Electrical,mechanical and acoustical embeddings controls together matter most than any gear piece upgrade in a relatively already balanced system ,in my experience most of the times... Acoustics especially exceed any upgrade gear piece by far ...
Save if you go from my active speakers at 150 bucks to many thousand dollars one and you must pick them well and put this upgrade speakers pair in a good acoustical room because my speakers are modified and beat almost probably a big % of speakers under 1000 bucks in their acoustic room ...
Congratulations for the OP intelligence and english writing talent ....
Another NA sayer that can’t hear the difference. Why do such people even bother with this hobby? So much of this hobby is how we appreciate the finest in audio reproduction and understand each component plays a critical role in that aspect. For those who troll these forums with an agenda to disprove what other believe, find something you can believe in and step away from the things you don’t.
"If you have an engineering degree and you're hearing this and you're shaking your head and you're saying this is nonsense, my response to you is that you're logical. Based on what you have learned, I completely understand your response, but unfortunately, the way that power cables operate is not the way that we were taught in electrical engineering necessarily."
"Power cables were always thought of as series devices. If we add this 2 meter power cable to 2 miles of powerline, why does this 2 meter power cable make a difference?"
"The power cable is not necessarily a series element of a system. The parallel elements [of a power cable] and way they interact with RF in the room in a common mode sense to ground is incredibly important. [Meaning in parallel to ground]"
Here's my vote on the side that power cables can matter.
I've tried 11 power cords on my Denafrips Pontus II DAC. Some were loaned by a friend. Other purchased and returned via Amazon Prime.
Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty: $15
WAudio 10AWG HiFi Power Cord 3.3FT : $35.99
Pangea AC-14: $44.95
Pangea AC-14 SE MkII: $79.95
Supra LoRad: $91
Shunyata Venom V14: $135
Audience F3 Forte: $150
AV Options Cryo TibiaPlus12 Power Cord: $249
Synergistic Research UEF Blue: $499
Shunyata Research Venom V10 NR: $600
Shunyata Research Delta XC: $1400 - intended for power conditioners not DAC, but my Pontus DAC doesn't seem to do well with power cords with built in noise reduction.
Best sounding of all of these on my Pontus DAC? The $91 Supra LoRad. The sound quality improvement over the next best power cord was immediately noticeable. The improvement changed the sound quality of the Pontus II DAC from being very good for its price to something that might sound better than DACs several times more expensive.
In fact, I auditioned a $14.5k dCS Bartok streamer-DAC last summer. The improvement brought on by the $91 Supra LoRad cable was bigger than the sound quality difference between my Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra streamer + Denafrips Pontus II DAC and that dCS Bartok streamer-DAC. In fact, after coming home and listening to my own system, I think the Pro-ject Stream Box / Pontus II DAC actually sounds better than the dCS Bartok.
I tried the power conditioner. Nothing was wrong with my power coming into the house and the conditioner took all the bass out of my music. I returned it after a few hours of listening
The power inlet IEC quality, and the wiring from the power inlet to the board inside the component can effect the sound, let alone the power cable itself. That truly is the last foot of wiring in the 10 miles from substation to your system.
Cable rolling, tube rolling, capacitor/resistor rolling and even electical duplex rolling have all resulted in different "flavors" as to how my system presents the music over many years of trial and error. To me, this is part of the fun in this hobby. Good listening. Jeff
As someone who had been interested in power cables for a very long time but never had an opportunity to try until recently. I can say power cable has been one of my biggest improvement in my system. Next to placing a rug on a hardwood floor. My cable was very inexpensive. Only $70 but the difference is so worthwhile I'll never go back to the black basic one again.
I don't feel like I need to convince anyone here. The ones that want to try the cables, will. The ones that don't, won't.
An audiophile version of "Mein Kampf". I'm right and everybody else is wrong and stupid. Not enough derisive toxicity in the pool, so you added more. Super gemacht! Presibo.
In addition, if there ever was a conspiracy to drive cash out of audiophiles pockets and into the hands of the High End Audio manufacturers, it is the nonsense regarding EQ’s! If you put an EQ in your system you will not be spending gobs of money chasing your tail to get the sound “Just Right”. No more cables as tone controls or buying gear to make up for bad recordings or terrible room acoustics.
Experienced many cords and prefer ones that address power quality issues directly. Transparent and MIT have never disappointed and offer incredible results. Some type of power conditioning is generally needed but often too much of a good thing can be detrimental.
I asked the power company to install Audiophile cabling all the way to my house., but they refused.
If a $5k 2ft cable stuck on the end of power company + house wiring makes difference, there must a reason. A technical reason. But I have never seen a technical explanation that makes sense. And I have seen some that make no sense whatever (on AQ's product site in fact.)
And the diference should be confirmable via double blind comparison. Never seen that either.
To me, that sounds like the opposite of what is actually happening, though.
That 2 foot power cable isn't the last length of wire between the power company and your system. It is the first 2 feet between your system and the power grid.
The power company does not 'send' power to your house. You are tapping into power that is already on the power companies cables.
Although, I am still not sure if power cables really make a difference or not...
The most lavish power cord in my system is Furutech DPS 4.1 for my amp. Can't say it made a difference. The other cords are either Belden 83803, or Supra LoRad, which are all good enough. Decent shielded metal is more than enough.
What I would say though is that mains conditioning does make a significant difference, though only for digital source components; and DC power supplies, where applicable. Feeding my integrated amp through my conditioner made no difference, aside from occasional firmware cut-outs. Hegel advised me to feed it straight from the wall.
I've seen significant jumps in SQ from: Isotek Sirius Evo3, Furutech Flux-50 NCF, Plixir BDC Elite. Again, only when used with my various digital sources (Innuos Zenith/Phoenix, EtherRegen)
rodman99999: Spot on. Science is a tool when used correctly, but many have turned it into a religion.
You just have to see how the word "scientific" is used in the media to justify things.
Another major scientific truisms from times past: "When objects burn, they release caloric. When the object runs out of caloric, burning is completed." Thankfully Count Rumford eliminated that scientific truism.
Hypothesize, test, form conclusions in a logical manner. Use a methodology.
"A bad system will beat a good person every time."--W Edwards Deming
So you can be good at something, like listening to music. But w/o a system for judgement, you'll never get consistent improvement. The is why I added Salvatore's system in my last post. Take that process and build on it.
Today, it's hypothesize, reason that you must be right, do sloppy work to prove yourself right, then reconfirm your "rightness" with a louder and louder voice. Or just say equations in a textbook say I'm right, which implies that all knowledge has been figured out.
"It is easier to believe a lie heard 1000 times that the truth heard once."--Mark Twain
I intentionally put the word "audiophile" in parenthesis to indicate an informal reference. "Premium", "well-built", etc would fall into a class of cables of interest to "audiophiles". I am not aware of any cable manufacturer that markets "audiophile power cords", so forgive me if the "street translation" lacked the specificity you were looking for.
To your second point, I've only gotten up close and personal with one of the high-end brands you mentioned, and the supplied power cord would be virtually indistinguishable from what’s supplied with a high quality appliance or power tool. It’s just speculation on my end, but my assumption is the manufacturer may not acknowledge that power cords can have a sonic impact. Or, they just want to save money and provide the end user with just enough equipment that when they hit the power button, all the lights come on and it plays music. They may, or may not have thought far enough ahead to contemplate that the prospect of the OEM power cord may be left in the carton with the styrofoam and plastic rap, and it will be replaced ASAP with something at the user’s discretion.
-does, for example Accuphase/Luxman/Esoteric/ML/McIntosh/or-hardwired-studio-gear power cable, if it is included in high end audio device package, qualify to be called “Audiophile power cable"?
Preferably Zero 😂. Like 0 (zero) dollars, in US dollars. Times the number of cables you need, equals…. Zero. In US dollars. You can then pay your rent, send your kids to college, and retire at age 40 🤯🤯🤯🤯
Can someone answer this for me. Let me know if my logic is off. You have 100ft of Romex from your panel to the outlet. How does a $1000 chunk of boutique wire from the outlet to your components improve the sound? Why would it be any different than if you pulled the outlet and wire nutted in another piece of Romex, connected a female plug at the end and plugged it into your component?
First…. Nobody has any obligation to answer anything you ask. Nobody owes anything. You will have to figure this out your self. By trying for yourself. If trying is not your thing, keep agonizing in the Internet
Second… Even if someone posted something to answer you, I highly doubt it you will read anything. I have a strong feeling your mind is made up, you will refuse to read and learn anything that goes against your preconceived beliefs. Just in case, https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/why-power-cables-make-a-difference/
"How does a $1000 chunk of boutique wire from the outlet to your components improve the sound?"
- Don't know, just that it does and sometimes it makes it worse.
"Why would it be any different than if you pulled the outlet and wire nutted in another piece of Romex, connected a female plug at the end and plugged it into your component?"
- Maybe that would sound different too, better, worse or the same and the thing is, you won't know until you try it. Assumptions don't count.
Can someone answer this for me. Let me know if my logic is off. You have 100ft of Romex from your panel to the outlet. How does a $1000 chunk of boutique wire from the outlet to your components improve the sound? Why would it be any different than if you pulled the outlet and wire nutted in another piece of Romex, connected a female plug at the end and plugged it into your component?
People believe many things without proof, they believe because it makes them feel better (faith). My system is complete, the room is treated, I have my dream system in every regard and there is nothing I can add to it so the final frontier is some jewelry upgrades in the form of moderately priced upgraded cables. The power cords look great, they are flexible and give me enjoyment as a finishing touch. Like cars, clothing, you can certainly find a cheaper car to get you from a to b and a cheaper pair of jeans but we spend money to dress up because of the way it makes us feel. It's all in good fun.
Audio cables (both power and signal) have followed the path of taxes. They start small, are supposed to only affect "the rich" and then they grow like a fungus until they take money from everybody. The initial prices were a bit high, but not crazy. Then human envy allowed every imaginable "improvement" to justify prices that exceed the cost of audio components. It’s a different kind of crazy.
Case in point: I just sold a power cable and an interconnect and used the $3K in resale proceeds to buy a mint condition set of RAAL ribbon "ear speakers" with the adapter needed to run these through a power amp. Better value.
Back in March 2022: a thread about power cords and break/burn-in was started.
I hate to type, so: I'm going to copy/paste some of my speculations.
That a highly complex musical signal, MIGHT affect Poynting vectors and signal speeds, in interconnects, in a much more profound manner than a simple AC (ie: a fixed 60/50 Hz) signal, in a PC, seems likely (at least) to me.
Further: the above and what I'll c/p (seems to me) lends credence to how the application of a stronger, DC voltage/field, outside a dielectric (ala Synergistic MPC and Audioquest DBS systems), might stabilize those vectors and signal speeds, PERHAPS eliminating some time smear and, "burn-in".
Bear with me a minute, in my folly, far as a possibility on why a power cord might make a difference.
Based on some of the theories on how electricity works, simplified:
The conductor acts as a waveguide for the signal/voltage.
Within the conductor: when excited by an AC current, electrons oscillate, generating photons/electromagnetic waves that travel, always from the source, to the load.
Keep in mind: all signals (ie: music, AC) are sinusoidal waves
Those photons/electromagnetic waves travel through and outside the dielectric, which (according to it's permittivity/Poynting vectors) will have various effects on those waves. One of the most obvious, is the dielectric's effect on the speed of the signal.
The better designers of printed circuit boards, even take the above into account, when choosing materials for their products.
I posted a link on the first page that included data on the manufacture of semiconductor chips and what was observed when materials were cryo'd, during process. Short version: better contact/lowered resistance between layers.
Under the scanning microscope: much smoother surfaces observed.
I would hope, by now, it's a given that various cable constructions, twists, braids, etc, can make for a cleaner transmission of signals (ie: Litz, etc).
Just seems to me (a hypothesis): given the above (some theories and some things established/measured/proven), it's not a big stretch to believe a power cord, built of the best conductor (ie: Ohno CC silver), wrapped in a very low dielectric coefficient dielectric (ie: Teflon), cryo'd for the smoothest transfer of those photons/magnetic waves and twisted in some crazy way, might not smooth out some of perturbations/noise, from the crap an AC waveform had to go through, back to it's generator. (run-on, much?)
I haven't tested this, actually comparing two circuits, but: it wouldn't surprise me, if a power supply that used a choke, would be less affected by a better power cord, as the former can eliminate a lot of the high freq garbage, etc, that's either created by, or makes it through all the big converting/filtering stuff, before.
Never thought about PCs before the good stuff hit the market, but: the Physics/QED made sense.
I tried 'em, I like 'em and the science makes my head feel better.
OH, and: it takes some time for the dielectric to form, take a charge, polarize, or however one chooses to define the process, when a dielectric is subjected to electromagnetic waves, which affects the Poynting vectors, measurably/predictably.
The lower the material’s dielectric constant: the longer that takes.
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