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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 3 responses by vair68robert

vair68robert
635 posts
 
mkgus

In my opinion you won't get the answer here because as jea48 just
posted ( from a John Curl interview ) listen to what you hear ,
if it sounds better to you then GOOD , if not then try something else .
Experience in your system is the only way to evaluate and come to a conclusion .  
I've been able to try different power cables and have been amazed 
at the difference in sound between different manufactures .
Since  the manufacture Pangea has been kicked around I'll share my experience , my friend has an Oppo CD player so he have purchased 
a 14 gauge pc for it , better than stock , then he tried a 9 gauge pc and it sounded better !  doesn't make sense but it did .
Engineers would have calculated the current draw required and installed the appropriate gauge ( 18 ? ) .

Try the Cable company since they have a try it policy or buy used cables to try and keep what you like and sell the rest .

Good Luck

vair68robert
635 posts
 

I can't believe that insulting those who have heard differences between power cords or
by saying that it's our imagination because we spent money therefore 
it must be better makes for intelligent conversation .

"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. "

from mkgus's original post !

Happy Holidays



vair68robert
635 posts
 

Nobody is trying to convince anybody ,
a question was asked and yet people answering seem to not be able to read , just troll.
It's about POWER CORDS and it is a legitimate question that I don't think that can be answered by anything other than listening.

"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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