i think a few clarifying comments in response to what has been posted might be warranted... try to perhaps shed some ’light’ on this thread, reduce the ’heat’
1. many expensive things sell well, have many takers -- the fact that they do can have alot of reasons... prestige, satisfaction, pride of ownership, enthusiasm, marketing... one is/may be indeed be ’performance’... however performance is but one of many driving forces in a person buying a luxury good (don’t think anyone would argue a $1,000 ac cord is a necessity...)
2. important to note that pc’s don’t carry an audio signal, where as other hifi cables do
3. pt 2 being said, power cables may in fact subtly affect the sound of a component or a system, but whether it is better should be honestly assessed... different and better should not be conflated -- many speaker cables can subtly alter the sound due to their filtering affects...
4. a-b tests are crucial, but doing them fairly and honestly is a skill and a substantial undertaking in and of itself (other threads exist on this specific topic) - our human minds are very powerful in that they can alter how we perceive reality - the ’want to believe’ factor explains so many of the crazy things and behaviors we witness in our world today, far beyond hifi and buying cables
5. even for most hifi enthusiasts, a critical notion here is the relative value and benefit of money spent on alternate aspects of system building... what is the impact of spending an additional thousand dollars on a power cord (or several thousand on several power cords) versus upgrading a component (cartridge, speaker, dac, amp...), for instance?... we each need to weigh the cost/benefit of choices we have for what to spend money on
