Should I upgrade the cable of my Line Conditioner?

OP, what is your system? Power cords and interconnects can make a big and obvious difference.. but it is dependent on your system and your objectives.

Perhaps (it sounds like this) you are largely happy with your system and just don’t want to feel like you missed something. That is fine… I’m not sure if I were you I would do anything. If you really want to get the very best sound (assuming you have pretty good equipment), then you have to be prepared to work for it. Like do some reading and rent a couple sets of high end cords from the Cable Store. Then do thoughtful comparisons. If you try some really high end stuff… even if you don’t want to buy it, the experience can tell you what you can get out of doing it…. a tiny change, or huge. You can direct your further work from their. Typically I would start with speaker cables and interconnects… but they all can make a difference.

If this doesn’t appeal to you, the buy a budget cord an feel good that you covered your bases.. or don’t and feel good that you didn’t waste the money.

If you live in a multi family building, I would guess you can be certain you do not have good clean power. All the appliances and stuff in the building conspires to mess it up.

@xcool --

I was told that the manufacturer only supplies a power cord that is good enough to get you started until you can save enough money to buy a better power cord. Does this not hold true for the original cord that goes in the power conditioner?

If you think what you were told is undeniably correct, you probably will hear an improvement with a new power cord. But please consider the value of spending money on a dubious proposition that may cause at most a marginal difference. Would that money be better spent on acoustic treatments? On a Qobuz subscription? On a measurement mic to help optimize speaker and listener position? On a pair of concert tickets or flowers for your SO? The decision, of course, is yours to make. After trying many, I am dubious that cables are an important place to sink one’s hard-earned money.

P.S. You might find this essay (with measurements) interesting.

@williewonka, thanks for the recommendation on Zavfino.  Will definitely check it out.

@ghdprentice, you are correct that I'm actually pretty happy with my current system.  In fact I recently upgraded a couple of IC and they have made a huge difference.  Do you remember your participation in this thread that I started a couple of months ago?

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/which-interconnect-cable-to-upgrade-first  

Also, thanks to your suggestion on tube amps on that thread, I had decided to do some research, and just placed an order on a Cary SLP-05 tube preamp at a pretty good sales price.   Now I can't wait to listen to it.  

@mike_in_nc,  thanks for your thoughtful comment.  Like I mentioned in my previous post,  upgrading power cords in my system does not seem to make much of a sound improvement so far.  That's why I was curious if upgrading the power cord of my line conditioner will make a difference.

OP, after rereading the string I remember it. I have a terrible memory for names, and none for user IDs. Congratulations on the Cary. Hope you do a great summary like you did with your cable experience. That kind of thing helps everyone.

Over the last 30 years I have experimented with all sorts of power cables.

1. their impact on sound quality in terms of transparency and attack is significant.

2. Their performance can be significantly enhanced by using contact enhancers from e.g. Caig, Acoustic Revive or Mad Scientist Audio

3. In highly resolving systems solid core OCC cables tend to outperform Litz- based cables, particulary on leading edge and reverb. My favorite here are the Acoustic Revive and upper end Nordost cables.

4. Before overspending on power cables I would focus on having a dedicated spur with good power points such as Furutech, Acoustic Revive.

Enjoy the music