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 4 responses by jea48

cleeds
Is it because of the better quality AC connectors? Is it the geometry of the cables themselves? I honestly don’t know. And I don’t care. And this being a hobbyist’s group,
Add, it is possible the cord used is helping to prevent induced AC voltage and noise from transferring onto nearby ICs.

I’m not required to satisfy anyone’s demands for technical proof of any kind.
Add me to that camp! I really don’t care why it does what it does. There are plenty of credible theories out there to read for those that want the why.

I am currently running early 1960s Amperex 6922 PQ white label tubes in my Sonic Frontiers preamp. To my ears I prefer how my audio system sounds with the tubes over current production Sovtek or EH 6922 tubes. Measurements? On my Hickok 6000a tube tester they measure the same. Measure the same??? Then they have to sound the same. Measurements don’t lie. Right?!
Jim








erik,
Please explain how the noise of the switching of a full wave rectifier in a power supply can pass back through the primary winding of the power transformer and through the power cord and end up on the AC mains.
Jim
erik,
I am not disputing anything you said in your previous post. I am in agreement with most of what you said.
My understanding is the noise created by the rectifier does indeed end up on the AC mains unless the designer/manufacturer of the equipment adds some type of filter on the AC line of the equipment. My understanding, from what I have read, digital equipment is the worst.
So if noise on the AC line can cause distortion in audio equipment, then it stands to reason, if, say a CDP is putting noise back out on the AC line, the noise will inter through the power cord of a preamp that is plugged into the same wall mains AC outlet as the CDP. Correct?

Jim