Are upgraded power cables really worth the money?

Should have added - One cord for a VAC PA100/100 amp and one for VAC Standard LE MKII pre. In comparison to Volex 14 ga that I had put upgraded ends on.

Here's a question from a skeptic on the issue of power cords. Given that your house is wired with standard residential wiring (extremely inexpensive stuff), and that that wiring comes at the very end of a line running from a power station located miles away, how is it that 3 feet of expensive power cord is supposed to offer some kind of upgrade? And if it did upgrade things, why wouldn't it make more sense to build a power cord that was, say, 2 feet 11 inches of house wiring, and 1 inch of super-expensive power cord?

That is a very old question which has been answered many many times. Do some research.

"That is a very old question which has been answered many many times. Do some research."

I took your advice, or perhaps I should say, followed your order, and discovered two things. 1)No blind test has ever shown that anyone has ever been able to distinguish a $10 power cord from an $800 power cord. 2) Wolff Auduio sells $800 power cords.

I live in a 50 year old house with 50 year old wiring. And yes, I was skeptical about power cords. I tried a couple when I was first assembling my system and wasn't too impressed. Part of my skepticism was an engineer friend telling me since my source power was crap already, that was my ceiling so long as I plugged into the wall.

That said, I decided to give a power conditioner a try (Isotek G2 mini sub) and added a couple of very inexpensive Transparent Audio power cables for my amp and DAC. All I can say is...WOOOOW. The low end had punch and clarity, the high end sweetened up and allowed the previously foggy midrange to present a very clear and very defined stage.

Different strokes for different folks. I don't think you have to go overboard with power cables, but I had great improvements with a relatively cheap investment.