In term of construction, what's the difference between cheap vs. expensive power cables


When it comes to interconnects and speaker cables, it is easier to understand the justification for the costs of these cables.  But when it comes to power cables, it is a little difficult to understand.

Some believe that as long as the power cable has enough gauge the that's all you need.  I've used some cheap power cables vs. some high price cables and there are clearly differences in sound, so the "gauge" of the cables is not the ONLY thing and it's a little bit more complicated than that.  

In speaker cables design, you can adjust the R/L/C parameters to achieve a certain kind of sound and it's easy to visual how these parameters will affect the sound.  For example too much C then the sound will lack leading edge.  Too much L then the sound will be brittle.  If too much R then the sound will lack dynamic.  Or if the cable has too much jitter, then the transparency will be affected.

But the power cable main job is to establish a DC source, it's not too clear how the R/L/C parameters will affect the sound the same way these parameters will affect the sound of the speaker cable.  Also I am not sure how jitter would affect a power cable either

So the bottom line is what's actually inside a power cable that make them so expensive?  Do they use fancy dielectric?  How about construction geometry?  

For a designer, I mean how do you fine-tune your power cable.  How do you know your power cable will sound good?
andy2

Showing 5 responses by andy2

PS Audio said that a good PC Cable lowers the overall impedance and it seems to make sense.  Of course the impedance varies with frequency so it's just not DC impedance.  
Give him a break.  With only 16 posts, I mean he's just going through puberty.  
After reading through a few of your posts it’s pretty obvious that you don’t have much of a clue about Audio.
I guess you do.  Maybe you can educate the rest of us, young Luke?


I got a question for you guys.  If we use silver speaker cables, the sound will tend to sound a bit on the bright side right.

What if you use a silver power cable, will the sound be bright as well?