I wonder why......

To the OP; just try. I never built better systems until I started trying things out for myself. :)

I used to have a friend that enjoyed audio as much as I did. The problem with him was that he didn't want to spend any more than what he thought he should pay.

He was always jealous and could hear the difference but over time he rationalized his point of view to the extent that he would intentionally get into arguments with salon owners, confronting them on the cost.

He would listen to any new piece of gear I bought and just stand there, getting upset and trying his best not to show it, but his facial expressions and body language betrayed his feelings. Jealousy. Pure and simple.

He could hear the differences but outright dismissed them as not important enough to justify the cost. His only joy was to play it as loud as he could and grin and smirk about it, as if he achieved something.

That is what I hear when people deride and decry such things as the efficacy of aftermarket power cords, or anything, for that matter. The put on a show, portraying themselves as out to save you from yourself. 

All the best,
Nonoise

The comparison to high end tires is weak. Tires are easily tested for speed, control, and tread life. Its easy to test tires on a track and pick out good performance tires vs stock Ford Fiesta tires. To me, that's where making statements like "a huge difference" is valid. Audiophiles are constantly preaching  to the enlightened choir because the average music lover will never understand what they are not hearing. Sad.

Nonoise, your friend reminds me a lot of this one audiophile I used to know. He couldn’t go two words about wire without turning it into some kind of rant or snide comment. Or for sure the eye roll or like you said, facial expressions and body language giving the truth away so no matter what he said you just knew he was convinced its all BS. Which I wish I had on video the time he brought his masterpiece homebrew wire over to demo, only to hear with his own ears just how pathetically awful it was. I mean there was no denying it. And he knew it. No matter what he said, the truth was as plain as the pain on his face.

This is what I really do not get. If you can’t hear a difference, why not just say you can’t hear a difference? Totally understandable. We all start from zero. Or if you can hear a difference but its not enough to be worth it to you, if you value your money more highly than your sound, why not just say so? Isn’t this the very basis on which to build a system? By putting together a bunch of components each of which are deemed the best value at the time? "Not worth it" is in that sense positive. Progress. Essential, even.

To be in denial though, that I do not understand at all.

The year is 2019. Four years ago Ted Denney came out with the 20th Anniversary Edition of his AC Master Coupler. 20th anniversary. Plus 4 years. According to my math that is 24 years. And Synergistic Research was hardly the first. They just happened to be the one to come out with a power cord so freaking good it sold for over 20 years and still commands high resale value even now.

That is an awful long time for there to still be people around so obtuse they still don’t get it. I mean that is the kind of dense known to warp space and time itself.