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Why Power Cables Affect Sound

I just bought a new CD player and was underwhelmed with it compared to my cheaper, lower quality CD player. That’s when it hit me that my cheaper CD player is using an upgraded power cable. When I put an upgraded power cable on my new CD player, the sound was instantly transformed: the treble was tamed, the music was more dynamic and lifelike, and overall more musical. 

This got me thinking as to how in the world a power cable can affect sound. I want to hear all of your ideas. Here’s one of my ideas:

I have heard from many sources that a good power cable is made of multiple gauge conductors from large gauge to small gauge. The electrons in a power cable are like a train with each electron acting as a train car. When a treble note is played, for example, the small gauge wires can react quickly because that “train” has much less mass than a large gauge conductor. If you only had one large gauge conductor, you would need to accelerate a very large train for a small, quick treble note, and this leads to poor dynamics. A similar analogy might be water in a pipe. A small pipe can react much quicker to higher frequencies than a large pipe due to the decreased mass/momentum of the water in the pipe. 

That’s one of my ideas. Now I want to hear your thoughts and have a general discussion of why power cables matter. 

If you don’t think power cables matter at all, please refrain from derailing the conversation with antagonism. There a time and place for that but not in this thread please. 
mkgus

Showing 2 responses by barnettk

barnettk
410 posts
 
Spoken like a true Skeptic LOL. 
barnettk
410 posts
 
Just an observation. Interesting conversation. I started reading it from the beginning but then the same ole pattern was obvious. There are those who have spent the money, did some serious listening, and have drawn some conclusions on if this or that makes a difference in SQ in ones system. Usually these are people who can point to something specific when making such a claim, or explain their observation e.g. better highs, or better bass, or better imaging, etc.. On the other hand there are those who criticize, but only have that criticism with no meat, nothing conclusive to back the claim that someone saying power cables, ICs or whatever the topic is does NOT make a difference. Why is the burden of proof aways on the difference maker. OP You installed the upgraded power cable on your CD player and you heard an improvement in SQ. You did not say you "I think I heard" or "its my opinion that it sounded better". It sounded better. Period. Don't let anyone push you off the fact that you can hear a change in your system. Sometimes we can't explain exactly why something like a new cable, etc makes a difference for the better. None of us are audio equipment designers (well maybe some of you are). We still can't explain how the pyramids were made either but there they stand. Im not saying to believe everything you hear about an audio solution, but if something works it works. So OP good for you. You bought a new CD player, put a upgraded cable on it and now it sounds the way you like it to. You will never get a full answer as to why, but nothing wrong with asking the question.
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