Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat The Old Snake Oil topic

There's some truth in that, in terms of small differences in placement having a large perceived effect. It's one reason I don't believe in blind testing over a short period.

However, the logic falls down in what's happened in my case above, and with power cords in general for me. Firstly, I've noticed a negative difference with more expensive cords - how does that fit in with placebo effect/expectations? It's happened a lot in audio with me that a more expensive item doesn't sound better.

Secondly, I'm not just testing the item in question over a short period, but over many weeks, months or years, and I'm not just judging from the 'listening position' (which hasn't changed, by the way), but just the general SQ around the room/house over a long period, which eventually irons out the types of difference he's arguing in the article.

I used the stock power cables for ages, and these new ones for a few weeks before passing judgement, my conclusion in this case is the stock cables sound generally smoother and less 'edgy' for whatever reason, so I'm going back to them until I can afford RA ones which again have proven themselves for over 10 years through various system moves, upgrades, etc.

The other flawed part of the argument is the claim that we're talking about things which 'can't be measured'. I think it's more likely no one with sufficiently accurate equipment has bothered to measure them (usually because they *believe* it's a waste of time, because they're convinced there can't be a difference). This was the case with jitter, until people took it seriously as a cause of better/worse SQ and then developed ways of measuring it more precisely. When they did (as in the case of the RA powercords), there was a difference, whether you can hear that difference or not is up to the listener.

I find it curious, when the fundamental basis of science has always been to explain observation, that it is often used in cases like this to deny observation. If all the efforts made to dismiss phenomena observed (by the ears) of more audiophiles than not were applied to open-minded research and explanation than closed-minded dismissal then maybe we would all have better systems based on true understanding of subtle phenomena currently dismissed as silly fantasy.