How can power cords make a difference?


I am trying to understand why power cords can make a difference.

It makes sense to me that interconnects and speaker cables make a difference. They are dealing with a complex signal that contains numerous frequencies at various phases and amplitudes. Any change in these parameters should affect the sound.

A power cord is ideally dealing with only a single frequency. If the explanation is RF rejection, then an AC regeneration device like PS Audio’s should make these cords unnecessary. I suppose it could be the capacitance of these cables offering some power factor correction since the transformer is an inductive load.

The purpose of my post is not to start a war between the “I hear what I hear so it must be so” camp and the “you’re crazy and wasting your money,” advocates. I am looking for reasons. I am hoping that someone can offer some valid scientific explanations or point me toward sources of this information. Thanks.
bruce1483
Stevemj and 702. Until you actually plug a cable into a player like mine and have valid comments about such, I am going to do my best to ignore you. We have beat this topic to death in one way or another on multiple posts. We have literally devoted thousands of words to this and have arrived at exactly where we began.

You and 702 come here to fight, I come to learn about music. There are always people like you who know so much that they have their mind made up before they even begin. You definitely fall into that category. You will eventually learn that there are reasons that cables perform differently, and there may even be a scientific explanation for it (someday).

Until then, I am content with the high performance music that real life experience and long term listening has provided. You will remain content, fighting over theory and numbers. I got the better end of the deal. Your system, based on what you post here, sounds terrible. That should be punishment enough for you, it certainly would be an unacceptable experience for me.
Albert, Brulee, Hdm, and others- We've all gone round and round with these individuals who continue to hold to the rationale that would justify their not obtaining/purchasing "expensive power cords". They continue to refuse to participate in the wonderful world of self experience. Regrettably, they are the only losers (musically speaking of course) with this attitude. The rest of us few will continue to obtain greater levels of enjoyment from our audio systems because we are willing to try and experience for ourselves. I wish them well in their smaller world, where troubling ideas and thoughts are vanquished with the wave of a textbook (I'll bet written from someone else's experience?). It must be comforting to live in a world where ALL is known and so thoroughly understood. I for one will enjoy the company of the few souls who wish to travel the road less often taken. Just one man's opinion.
Power cords make a difference, because they are in series with the AC current that supplies the audio equipment's power supply, with AC electricity.
Many times the power cord has made no difference in my system. If I were somehow brainwashed into believing in the placebo, I would think I heard the difference all the time. But I don't. In my system, the differences are most apparent on my preamp and TV. I've tried different cords on everything else and they don't make too much of a difference.
Jhunter

The difference between stock cords and expensive cords is the difference between the system "working" and being more "musically involving, emotionally involving, live, present, soundstage, etc." .

Your system will "work" with the stock cord. But, the music enjoyment will be choked off in my experience.

Anyone who has ever heard and appreciated the difference that good PC's make will never go back to stock cords.