Custom-HT's custom power cables impressions

[afireinside]

Well instead of focusing on a tube amp, I decided to delve into a new realm of audio insanity - power cables. After looking around and nearly vomiting at some of the prices I was seeing I found a little ad on audiogon by a man named Gary with a price that didn't make me question my sanity! So I shot him an email and he hooked me up with two custom length (3') cables for my headfive and OMZ.

Fastforward two weeks and the cables have arrived.



Standard stuff you'd expect from a high quality custom cable. Tech flex, heatshrink, and hospital grade connectors. The wire is 16awg "Beldfoil shielded" shielded wire and the cords are much more solid and sturdy looking than the previous cables I was using (pulled from computer power supply boxes)







I listened through a few songs quick and switched cables. I have not A/B'd them for fear of realizing there is no difference, but I don't need to! Almost right away I noticed a difference. The bass impact improved greatly and the sound stage opened up even more! I'm sure there's a bit of placebo going on but there was certainly an improvement all around.

Overall I'm very pleased with my purchase. I'm just a bit worried I'll buy more expensive ones Gary was a pleasure to deal with and I'd highly recommend him and his products. Here's the audiogon listing if anyone is interested

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.p...abl&1184374924

[gotchaforce]

Originally Posted by afireinside

I listened through a few songs quick and switched cables. I have not A/B'd them for fear of realizing there is no difference, but I don't need to! Almost right away I noticed a difference. The bass impact improved greatly and the sound stage opened up even more! I'm sure there's a bit of placebo going on but there was certainly an improvement all around.

Ah yes certainly, my mind cant trick me, i am super human!

[Pibborando]

Originally Posted by afireinside

I have not A/B'd them for fear of realizing there is no difference, but I don't need to! Almost right away I noticed a difference.

Ahahah. This made me laugh. Good show.

Of course you noticed a difference. The moment you got the cable, looked at it, saw that it was thicker and nicer looking that your old ones, you're brain made this unconscious association: New cable = good, old cable = bad.

There's no way your brain would let you NOT hear a difference from that point on.

Your ears do not "hear", your brain does. Ears transform air pressure differences into electrical signals. This is objective. But then it has to be processed by your brain before you actually hear it. There's NOTHING objective about how our brains work.

Your other senses, sight, touch, etc. are influencing your perception of hearing on an unconscious level. This causes the placebo affect.

It's not bad that it sounds better to you. That's great! I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoyed my music a bit more when I upgraded from cheap lamp cord to nice AudioQuest speaker cables. I'm aware that there is probably no real physical difference in the sound waves emminating from my speakers with the new cables in place, but sometimes placebo really works.

I don't know why I wrote all that...

[happyangryhappy]

Thanks for reporting your impressions afireinside.

I too have been experimenting with power cords lately and so far I have tried 6 different cords by 5 manufacturers of varying prices and aesthetics. Some have sounded better and some have sounded worse, however just like interconnects so far I have found that in my system both cost and looks has often been the least important factor in my preference between them - often with the cable I wanted to like the most being my least favorite and vice versa.