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 3 responses by radiomanjh

I've been a believer from many moons ago but my latest power cord for my subwoofer totally changed my systems SQ for the better and it wasn't subtle. Like the OP I just want to know why this happens but after reading this thread I guess the one that was on the subwoofer before was indeed letting noise through. Great info and I've learned a lot from many on this thread.  New PC was just over a c-note.
mzkmxcv:

The only thing I changed was the pc on the sub and even my wife commented how real everything was sounding.  focus and more precise base, soundstage stayed the same but voice and instruments were easier located from one another.  I understand your comment about timbre, wife plays keys and I play guitar but damn it sounds real!  all I know is we're enjoying the music very much so!  maybe we hit the jackpot with system synergy?
Twinterfinder you and I have similar results. My wife definitely heard and felt the difference with different pc’s also. She plays keys and I guitar and she also wears hearing aides. One thing we both have noticed is that tunes start to really change for the better in the early afternoon through the evening. Can someone explain this or experienced this also? Could it have something to do with the power grid?