amp question

Dude, don't waste money on a "Magic" power cord. Get a good power cord to match a great piece of equipment, I say spend 90% of your money on gear, including a power conditioner, which I consider a component. But no high end power cord improves sound. As long as you have a solid connection, and there is a free flow of electrons, the sound will come from the brilliantly designed circuits in the amp and the upstream components.

your pre and amp are exceptional

At last finally back of work! I rather rushed the original question during the last 5 mins of my lunch break ( hence the uninspiring title!) To clarify. This is not necessary something I'm considering doing. I was just interested in hearing from anyone who had gone this route. I think for example that Roy Gregory based on his writings would be a proponent for the cheaper component with more expenditure on supports and cables .
One often reads review's that say how an often much cheaper model in a companies line very nearly matches the top of the line models. Of the top of my head an example would be the Audio Research LS26 versus Ref 3 line stages, price difference between the two= $4000 .
Well my question is which would provide the better performance for the same price? The LS26 with say a custom Silent running audio's Ohio class or a Minus K platform or even a whole HRS SXR rack . Or the Ref 3 sitting on say a wooden chopping block!
As no dealers near me carry such specialist devices. I'm unable to do the comparison myself. We've all read the reviews and forum posts that basically say " I have the ....Vibraplane etc and it made my...... amplifier... sound much better" But what I'd like to know , and its mainly only really out curiosity sake is did it made a cheaper but similar component perform equally or better than its higher priced stablemate?. Or is it all baloney!

Philip, I'd think you'd get better sound regardless of stand/component quality if you just moved it out from behind your left speaker. A full Shindo or Crimson system wouldn't benefit from that location!

If your question is does good setup matter, then yes, obviously, regardless of the price of the components.

Expensive cords? Over the last fifty years it has been proven that only double blind testing is the way to compare 'cords'. Absent that way of doing the compare, you are being left open to spending money on non existent differences. ARC make great products, first spend all the money on their components, then get 'cords' on loan to check for improvements. Also, read Floyd Toole's comments in his book 'Sound Reproduction'. Floyd covers the problem in hi-end audio wherein just knowing who the product manufacturer was bias that compromised an honest comparison.