Why treble & midrange conductors in PS Audio power cables?

AC power is 50/60Hz, some power plant models allow one to change output frequencies but only up to 120Hz I believe, so it’ll still be in the bass range. So why put treble & midrange conductors in power cables?

When we are talking about AC power, it has nothing to do bass, mid-range or treble. I am not sure what power cords you are talking about that have different gauge wire for different frequencies. Speaker wire will often have different sized wire when bi-wiring.

Here is a definition I found that explains hz related to AC.

hertz

Hertz is a unit of frequency (of change in state or cycle in a sound wave, alternating current, or other cyclical waveform) of one cycle per second. It replaces the earlier term of "cycle per second (cps)."

For example, in the United States, common house electrical supply is at 60 hertz (meaning the current changes direction or polarity 120 times, or 60 cycles, a second). (In Europe, line frequency is 50 hertz, or 50 cycles per second.) Broadcast transmission is at much higher frequency rates, usually expressed in kilohertz (kHz) or megahertz (MHz

Thanks for the reply, jeffstar.

I was talking about PS Audio’s power cables.

I understand that AC power is not the music signal, but 50/60Hz (or even 120Hz) IS a bass frequency. PS Audio optimised their power cables for carrying not just bass (AC power) but also midrange and treble, e.g. in the AC5 “… one LCC hollow conductor for the treble region, a large LCC rectangular conductor for the midrange and multiple gauges of LCC bundled together for the bass”. Any idea why?

They are not optimized at all to carry midrange and treble. Power cable geometry does greatly affect the perception of the frequency range however. This likely has to do with different sized conductors having different leakage back into the wall and how the power supply interacts with the wall. Also, different geometries may produce uniques noise profiles in the power supply which will alter the frequency perception.

cxp said

They are not optimized at all to carry midrange and treble.

According to the PerfectWave AC Series white paper, they are. PS Audio licensed US patent 6969805, a patent on full frequency range audio signal cable structure, for use in the design of their AC series cables. For treble & midrange, they used hollow core and flat/rectangular conductors in order to increase the conductors’ surface area (hence increase skin effect) without also increasing the core size compare to a round conductor.

PerfectWave AC Series white paper:
http://www.psaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/PerfectWave_AC_Series_white_paper.pdf
Patent 6969805:

Agreed. The technical features on the PS Audio AC series cable product web-page also promote optimisation of frequency response by manipulating conductor geometry and gauge. (This is also a Shunyata Research claim).

Very hard to substantiate except by listening (e.g. ive never seen this confirmed by measurements) and it is a great topic of debate regarding veracity.

On the subject of AC mains frequency - i haven’t heard that the cycles/sec frequency is linked to audio performance - it is linked to decisions made a long way back. This page may help;

http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/ac_world_volt_freq.htm#.WhSm-qIsWEc