Are manufacturer AC cables good enough?

For delivering power to the gear of which it came with ? Yes , I would at minimum put the AC3 on the Ayre and go from there after you hear how much better it can get.

I think manufacturers cables are sufficient enough to get the job done. Maybe it is cutting costs, or they have intentional designed their equipment to work well with bulk cable. But getting the last bit of performance is for happy tweakers something to look for.

Some power supplies perform better with quality cables, or sometimes a better cable doesn't interfere as much with the rest of the cable salad behind you rack. Just test and listen.

Try out what you have, come back and tell us if you heard a difference.

I use Ayre QX-5/20 digital hub, DX-5 DSD disc player, KX-5/20 preamp, and VX-5/20 amp with KEF Reference 1s. I suppose the AC 3 cables should go to the preamp and amp, the AC 14 cables to the digital hub and disc player. I buy used, aiming for 50% MSRP, still that setup cost a fair number of bucks. Surely Ayre wouldn’t comprise on power cables when they’re so obsessed with details like fully balanced, zero feedback, and stepped volume control. Nevertheless, I’ll try the cables.

db