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.
bruce1483

Showing 3 responses by jaykapur

Many times the power cord has made no difference in my system. If I were somehow brainwashed into believing in the placebo, I would think I heard the difference all the time. But I don't. In my system, the differences are most apparent on my preamp and TV. I've tried different cords on everything else and they don't make too much of a difference.
Jadem6 - Very interesting experiement. First, you learned that your friends are honest. Second, you showed that people don't buy into the placebo effect all the time. Maybe there IS something to this and we're not just nuts for trying out wacky tweaks.
Marketing hype actually makes people more skeptical of a product, not less. When products start claiming fantastic results, they expect nothing less. If they don't hear an astounding difference, then they are more apt to think its a hoax than to fall for the placebo effect.