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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. 
128x128mkgus
swanlee597
9 posts
 
I always find the people that say nothing makes a difference as bad as the green pen/snake oil crowd. I remember before Jitter was identified and measurable people thought those of us that had issues with CD's were nuts.

I’ve clearly heard differences in all sorts of cables over 30 years of being in audio. Just because you may not have or year read about some ABX test doesn’t mean others haven’t heard it.
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jtucker
76 posts
 
We have test equipment that can measure small differences in impedance and no they are not inexpensive.  My inquiry is not so much about the impedance of PCs but rather is there measurable difference in the quality of the plus and minus dc power rails of the end equipment or a measurable difference in the ac line (EMI) due between stock and aftermarket PC cables (looking in or looking out relative to the end equipment).  At this point, I don't even want to say whether or not it makes an audible difference.  I just want to know if it makes a measurable difference.  If you can see that there is a measurable change in noise / ripple /  EMI ( or some other quality ) then it follows that you  (may or may not) be able to hear it.  I think it would be interesting to do a comparison between a stock cable and an aftermarket cable under controlled conditions.  I am an EE that has worked in power for many years (disclaimer, not ac but dc/dc converters).  If there is an audible difference, there should be a measurable difference ( and yes I agree that it may be possible that we don't know how to measure that difference yet ).  Anyway , it would be interesting to me at least to look at the obvious characteristics like conducted EMI and PSRR.  Those differences would be easily explainable.  If there is anyone in the DFW area that is interested in doing some real (and unbaised) testing let me know.
mkgus's avatar
mkgus OP
324 posts
 
@jtucker I like your idea. Let’s settle this thing once and for all and produce some measurements. It shouldn’t be hard to do given that the audibility is so apparent. I don’t know exactly what to measure but I would be inclined to look at transient behaviors instead of steady state properties. 
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