Bill Lowe, the founder of Audioquest explained it to me once. He said first, their power cable uses better quality copper, also a few solid core conductors shielded from each other instead of cheap skinny copper and many conductors laying on top of each other. The thicker copper made it easier to draw power and the aftermarket powercords have better shielding. All the rest of the stuff he told me went way over my head and therefore I don't remeber! It did make a big difference on my DC-1 though. The strangest tweak of them all is the sorbothane feet because both my collegue and myself noticed a difference but couldn't tell you what it was, although someone else who had them noticed a difference and was able to put the difference into words for me.
How can power cords make a difference?
I am trying to understand why power cords can make a difference.
It makes sense to me that interconnects and speaker cables make a difference. They are dealing with a complex signal that contains numerous frequencies at various phases and amplitudes. Any change in these parameters should affect the sound.
A power cord is ideally dealing with only a single frequency. If the explanation is RF rejection, then an AC regeneration device like PS Audio’s should make these cords unnecessary. I suppose it could be the capacitance of these cables offering some power factor correction since the transformer is an inductive load.
The purpose of my post is not to start a war between the “I hear what I hear so it must be so” camp and the “you’re crazy and wasting your money,” advocates. I am looking for reasons. I am hoping that someone can offer some valid scientific explanations or point me toward sources of this information. Thanks.
It makes sense to me that interconnects and speaker cables make a difference. They are dealing with a complex signal that contains numerous frequencies at various phases and amplitudes. Any change in these parameters should affect the sound.
A power cord is ideally dealing with only a single frequency. If the explanation is RF rejection, then an AC regeneration device like PS Audio’s should make these cords unnecessary. I suppose it could be the capacitance of these cables offering some power factor correction since the transformer is an inductive load.
The purpose of my post is not to start a war between the “I hear what I hear so it must be so” camp and the “you’re crazy and wasting your money,” advocates. I am looking for reasons. I am hoping that someone can offer some valid scientific explanations or point me toward sources of this information. Thanks.