The French are conducting interesting research right now on the resonances of the corona effect on the air molecules in the listening room. It seems that it doesn't matter if "the next 100 or so feet to the breaker panel is romex" or not because corrections can be made at the back end - e.g. power cords in particular (compared to ics at much lower signal voltages) since the effect is very small to begin with. If you are interested in details, let me know and I can type up huge long emails about it.
I don't know that I agree with all of it but I definately feel we don't know everything we think we do - and this as an electrical engineer.
I used to be like McIntosh (i.e. a literal engineer) in that I didn't think cables made a difference. Well, I don't think that anymore after having been impressed with how my McIntoshes reacted to my MIT Z-cord 2 PC. I don't think speaker wires or interconnects make a huge difference (they do make a small one SOMETIMES) but PCs do modify "something" that is audible in many cases, provided your speakers are transparent enough and your hearing is good, of course.
I don't know that I agree with all of it but I definately feel we don't know everything we think we do - and this as an electrical engineer.
I used to be like McIntosh (i.e. a literal engineer) in that I didn't think cables made a difference. Well, I don't think that anymore after having been impressed with how my McIntoshes reacted to my MIT Z-cord 2 PC. I don't think speaker wires or interconnects make a huge difference (they do make a small one SOMETIMES) but PCs do modify "something" that is audible in many cases, provided your speakers are transparent enough and your hearing is good, of course.