For those that are using price as an excuse... give me a break!! A manufacturer could easily burn in an amp with tubes, then replace those stock tubes for $10 or $20 each. Assuming the amp was over $1000 to begin with, that's an insignificant amount.
Same thing goes with power cords. It might cost hundreds of dollars for an audiophile to buy a power cord as a consumer, but the actual manufacture cost should be insignificant. Any maker of components should have the connection within the industry to source quality cords -- it doesn't matter if it's hospital grade, or audiophile grade, or if it uses a different type of wire or twist. Those are easy! Some companies might charge you $20/ft of silver wire, for instance, but do the calculations: a ft of .1" diameter (roughly 10 gage) pure silver, weight around half ounce; right now, silver is $14.5/ounce, which yields about $7 for the wire. Just to make the point that component manufacturers who could mass produce this stuff could conjure up a fancy pure silver cable with techflex pvc covers dressed up for under $50 (or maybe $20), depending on the connector.
Same thing goes with power cords. It might cost hundreds of dollars for an audiophile to buy a power cord as a consumer, but the actual manufacture cost should be insignificant. Any maker of components should have the connection within the industry to source quality cords -- it doesn't matter if it's hospital grade, or audiophile grade, or if it uses a different type of wire or twist. Those are easy! Some companies might charge you $20/ft of silver wire, for instance, but do the calculations: a ft of .1" diameter (roughly 10 gage) pure silver, weight around half ounce; right now, silver is $14.5/ounce, which yields about $7 for the wire. Just to make the point that component manufacturers who could mass produce this stuff could conjure up a fancy pure silver cable with techflex pvc covers dressed up for under $50 (or maybe $20), depending on the connector.