Mitchb:
I don't know why your power cords would be reversed, but to meet current NEC codes, they have to be polarized the the right way. For your basic 115 V three prong cable, the big one is earth, the wide one is neutral, and the smallest one is the hot or line.
Now that being said, there are some older cords which are not polarized correctly, as they were made long before polarity for line cords was written into the NEC. The thing is, I am pretty sure by the time the IEC connector came along, polarity had been in the code for a while. I do believe this was the reason the IEC connector was adopted. I am writing this from memory; I don't have a history of NEC at my disposal.
I suggest you pitch the incorrect polarity power cords. If you are in doubt about which one is correct, go to your local hardware store and buy a Belden cord for about 7 bucks or so. This will be correct; compare everything to this and toss the ones which are polarized opposite.
You can check your wall outlets in your house/apt easily enough: when you are the hardware store, pick up a line polarity tester for around 5 dollars or so. On this are a series of LEDs which light up depending on what is wrong. You can get expensive and blow up to 10 bucks on one if you want to also check the GFI outlets in your kitchen or bathroom, but you won't need GFI testing for your stereo stuff.
By the way, if one of the cables you find is polarized backwards and it has a UL sticker on it, please call your local UL office, they are in the phone book. I am SURE they will be MOST interested!
I don't know why your power cords would be reversed, but to meet current NEC codes, they have to be polarized the the right way. For your basic 115 V three prong cable, the big one is earth, the wide one is neutral, and the smallest one is the hot or line.
Now that being said, there are some older cords which are not polarized correctly, as they were made long before polarity for line cords was written into the NEC. The thing is, I am pretty sure by the time the IEC connector came along, polarity had been in the code for a while. I do believe this was the reason the IEC connector was adopted. I am writing this from memory; I don't have a history of NEC at my disposal.
I suggest you pitch the incorrect polarity power cords. If you are in doubt about which one is correct, go to your local hardware store and buy a Belden cord for about 7 bucks or so. This will be correct; compare everything to this and toss the ones which are polarized opposite.
You can check your wall outlets in your house/apt easily enough: when you are the hardware store, pick up a line polarity tester for around 5 dollars or so. On this are a series of LEDs which light up depending on what is wrong. You can get expensive and blow up to 10 bucks on one if you want to also check the GFI outlets in your kitchen or bathroom, but you won't need GFI testing for your stereo stuff.
By the way, if one of the cables you find is polarized backwards and it has a UL sticker on it, please call your local UL office, they are in the phone book. I am SURE they will be MOST interested!