I've compared my fancy "garden hose" power cables to ones supplied with a Pass Labs amp and a Bryston power conditioner...no difference. One imagines both Bryston and Pass know what they're doing, but hey...it's hard to compete with the hallowed concept of Expectation Bias...big expensive AC cables make you feel so good about everything because obviously you're smart, clearly have golden ears, and people LIKE YOU!
I keep being reminded of how much power cords mater
I went through a major upgrade a couple years ago. I quickly upgraded my speaker cables and interconnects. But just listened for about a year. Then one by one, in absolutely no hurry adjusted my venue, and USB, power cords… etc. it seems every month I consider and optimize one thing. I know what my system sounds like.
I noticed a couple weeks ago that I still had a Cardas Clear Beyond power cord on my preamp… but that I still had the Transparent Ultra power cord I had purchased for it in my storage room. Hey, I’m 70… my memory was never good… not getting better. Cardas Clear Beyond are good… when you need a little warmth… I do not. I put the Transparent back in… A great shift in the balance, adding detail without loosing the warmth and midrange balance. A very happy and perfect adjustment. (A friend is a real Cardas fan… I had bought as an experiment, and never swithed back).
That got me thinking, what was on my Audio Research Phonostage? I looked. Turns out it was the original Audio Research cord… they are now very heavy copper with 20 amp connectors. So, I took the Cardas Clear Beyond power cord and put it on the phono stage. Wow, what an improvement. Just in case I had not recently tried a stock power cord, this reminded me why one uses high quality cords.
The power cord for my phonostage is definitely not done. I am pretty sure that a Transparent would be better on my system… but I’ll have to try it… or maybe an AudioQuest. So, my odyssey is not over. But each small change ultimately nets a better sounding system.
Looking back at all the increment changes that have mattered in the last few years… the improvements between direct lines, cables, interconnects, power cords, positioning seem to add up to as much improvement as the upgrades to all my components. But the cost of these probably only 15% of the components.