Can a better power cable make a difference if NOT plugged directly into an outlet?

Yes that is true, and it is all subject to bias for sure. I have never been one to buy into the super expensive cables. I am more a mid tier guy. 

The age old debate. The only way to find out is try it, if you can not tell the difference then send it back. 
 

Make Audio Great Again?

I am not a cable denier and I have Transparent Audio mid level cables through out my system the Premium and XL's and a smattering of other brands like Cardas and Belden. 

Well, then there are the MAGA nutjobs...

Love what the folks at Schiit say about Power Cords and IC.

6 Power Inlet
Plug the end of the supplied IEC cord in
here. You can also use fancy audiophile
types, but they won’t really do anything—
what about the thousands of feet of crap
copper cables in your walls, huh?

Beyond Just Technology: SuperUltraHyperTechnology
PYST cables are made from only the finest 6-nines Unobtanium™ alloy, molecularly assembled in our Alternate Universe™ reality-distortion tesseract field , using a secret geometry reverse-engineered from crashed UFOs, painstakingly smuggled out of Area 51 by deep-cover operatives. Performance is further enhanced by the use of a QuantConnect™ quantum-entangled pair of transmission interfaces, held at absolute zero by our exclusive Stasis Field™ technology. The cables are then wrapped in NanoAeroCap™, a nanotechnology-enabled aerogel anti-capacitance insulation system, featuring Fractal Interleaved Geometry™ to create negative inductance for maximum audio transmission quality.
 
Or, er, well . . . again, no. These are nice, high-quality cables, with solid, reliable connectors. That’s it. Hope you like them!

@thyname I am not this Jerry, and this is getting very tiresome. Also if you had one ounce of intelligence, deductive reasoning or critical thinking skills you would have seen I was quoting another post that had since been deleted.  That was the gist of my remark, looking at your history in the archives you never fail to get your little political shots in, I was simply having fun with the other guys post.

@carlsbad2 I do believe in upgrading cables, just not mortgaging the future to buy them. 

@carlsbad2 That is about what most manufacturers send with their amplifiers. Forever AVA you did not have an option for changing out their PC it was hard wired in.  I do believe in a better PC just not mortgaging my house for a cable.