How can power cords make a difference?

Listen Albert, The differences in power cords and ICs that you ,I and others hear, are also quite audible to non- audiophiles as well. I have done the trials on many people in my sound room. I am sure Steve and 702 would hear alot of what the rest of us hear too. The simple fact is that these people don't hear the changes, because they don't want to hear them!! No amount of dialouge is going to change their philosophy. If I put these guys in a room with, say ,Radio Shack ,MIT, Siltech and Magnan cables and changed them in that order, with the same music and amplitude level, and they told me NO DIFFERENCE, then I would have to say they were flat out lying...these are not subtle changes. You dont need golden ears to hear these differences, you just have to be honest with yourself.
If they were to say, "We hear the changes, but will not support the obscene prices and therefor condemn the entire wire and cable scene as plain robbery", then that would be a more honest post.
In the end I think the driving force here is the thrill of conflict with you guys (and gals). This will continue to be a weekly battle with no results. I must admit it does draw alot of interest, but forget about the truth ,it won't happen........Frank

Dekay is correct that measured distortion has nothing to do with the changes you will or wont hear. I did the experiments 20 years ago before exotic PCs existed. Back then all we had were cords by giant commercial cable companys,(like Belden, Columbia, Woods etc.) Even with the off the shelf wire, some large gains were made by trial and error. Also different solid core lines from the breaker to the outlet made dramatic differences. Blindfolding is nonsense. The truth of the matter is evident with living with the changes you have made. If your change was positive, you will know it as you listen. If negative, you will want to turn the whole thing off, as fatigue sets in.
I do not think the whole ABX crowd is really in tune with listening to music over extended periods, because there is little doubt in the changes being real once you listen long and hard.....Frank

Steve, The boombox example does not apply here. We are dealing with the top 3% of the market here. My amp distortion could approach 1 percent, and these differences will still be clearly audible. Ran old McIntosh MC-60s and PILOT tube gear from the 50s with distortion levels that were sky high. Same result.
BTW. I have never said that expensive meant better, just that a change in sonic character occurs. As far as the 50 or 100 foot extention cord idea, get ready for huge losses in resolution and dynamics.

702,I mostly agree with your last paragraph to me, regarding the "creative process" and older tube cicuits. There is a falacy existant that in MODERN circuits,there still is this cookbook recipie, that tubes produce coloration and sweetness and SS cicuits produce accuracy and extention at frequency extremes. Tube circuitry today can achieve sonic nuetrality should the designer wish it that way. The human voice is the most difficult thing to accurately reproduce. I have yet to hear a SS circuit (amp or preamp) get the voice as accurate as the Tube units. How do I know? We used to do live vs. recorded tests on the Ampex ATR-100 . We used flamenco guitar and voice.
The musicians themselves (amatuer) would always say when the ARC tube amps were in the chain, "Thats us". When Phase Linear, Stax, and Bryston were used (late 70s), the remarks were "thats not us anymore". Now I realize the gap has narrowed today, but not sure if it will ever be closed.And BTW, there were 3 different types of loudspeakers in the room. The results were consistant on all three.
Regarding great audio pioneers, who in your mind were they?

Redkiwi, I do not think that "stonewalling" of any member including 702, Steve etc., is good for the overall A-gon climate. Suppose a topic arose that 702 had expertise in, technical or otherwise?
Now 702, I know that there are alot of thinkers on these controversial subjects that are in your camp, but you have not demonsrated any testing that you have done regarding the subject, where many others (including a great gottcha test by Jadem6 above) have.
Are you truly interested in the pursuit of better music? This is the question you need ask yourself.
I know a great many "Audio" people, and a whole lot of "Music" people. Sometimes the technical gurus cant hear what the music oriented hear(I have seen this many times).
And to quote the Warden in "Cool Hand Luke", "Some people you just can't reach"
I think your "Mr Spock" personality here has left many cold towards you, but I am sure you are loving this, eh 702?.....Frank

Red & Greg, two excellent posts. I have an even more severe test for you Mmccoy. Take solid core 14/2 or 12/2 Romex and attach the appropriate male/female IEC ends, and compare that to your stock 16/2 or 16/3 stranded PC. You should immidiately hear some pretty big differences in sound. Usually, brighter, glassier and harder than the stock cord. Of, course this is also bad sound, but should be sufficient enough for anyone to hear, and therefore know this is a real occurence. Perhaps Red or Greg have also tried this in the past. The PC that showed me the light, was manufactured by the now defunct, DISCRETE TECHNOLOGY company. When the stock PCs on QUAD ESL-63s were replaced with this, the speaker became a legend to my ears, back in 1985 or so..........Frank

702, So Bill Johnson, Richard Vandersteen, Arnie Nudell, Mark Levinson(the man), Jim Winey, and other manufacturer/designers are all hearing things(these are NOT cable manufacturers) when they tell you to use "tweako" cables to make their products sound best. Right??