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. 
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Showing 1 response by rickjamesdj

I am new to this site and trying to learn as this is a hobby for me.  I am curious how the power cable makes a difference when the copper wire running from the fuse panel is low grade copper.  I think 50 feet cost me $33.00. I ran a dedicated line and breaker for my home theatre. Wouldn’t that be the weekest link in the system?  The only thing I can think of is everybody must be using some sort of power conditioner and this power cord is after the conditioner.  That is why the new cord would make a difference.  I am wanting to try this to hear the difference, do I have to have some sort of power conditioner first?  Sorry for my ignorance as I am trying to learn so I do not make costly mistakes.  I can tell there is a lot of knowledgeable people on this site.  Thanks for the input and I hope this is keeps with the topic of why power cords make a difference.