The Truth About Power Cords and there "Real" Price to Performance

The power cord doesn’t matter as long as the gauge is correct for your circuit.  
15A circuit = 14AWG
20A circuit = 12AWG
30A circuit = 10AWG

You can use hospital grade outlets if you want a good, solid connection from your cord to the outlet.

Spend your extra money on a power conditioner / re-generator / filter.  Those actually matter and *can* make an audible difference if you have noisy AC power.  If you have coax service (Cable TV) into your system you may have buzzing / ground loops on your sub; fiber optic/Toslink can break that ground loop, as can a nice filter on your coax.

The above information is real-world vs. all the cable voodoo nonsense I see on here.

Hmmmm I live in Atlanta.  I might be interested, Mike Powell.  Are you talking IEC cords?

Not sure what your correct gauge for the circuit is supposed to convey. I am not arguing one way or the other, I just don't see the relevance. Peak currents on the AC waveform can be higher than average rating to AC waveform modulation at the equipment can happen. Obviously the run breaker box to wall plug is more important as is equipment to equipment ground.  Again, not saying the cord will make a difference, just don't think that statement about gauge and current is relevant.

My power cord test involved a good-quality CD player (Oppo 105) and a good-quality set of headphones (Sennheiser HD800.) The CD player has a headphone output, and so I chose a familiar CD and listened to the sound quality from each power cord in the test. The PC was the only variable in a controlled test. My sound quality target was what I was used to hearing through my Woo Audio WA22 headphone amplifier with a set of premium NOS tubes (such as the WE421 power tubes.) 

I began with the CD connected to my power conditioner using the stock cord. The sound was unlistenable. Of course, it's easy to blame the headphone output in ANY component, especially inexpensive ones. Then I moved up the power cord food chain, starting with the least-expensive PC from a small shop that cost $75 - a noticeable improvement, but still pretty dreadful sounding.

I made a series of moves to higher costing PCs that I had accumulated in my quest for truth, using better small-shop offerings that cost $150 to $250. To my surprise, the sound quality from the headphones was now quite listenable. If I had to live with this limited headphone system, this CD player and power cord would be all I needed. Total cost: $3K.

When I moved up to the expensive category of commercial PCs ($1,000 to $3,000 - which I buy at 1/2 retail or less) the sound quality improved by another significant amount. It now started to sound like the reference sound from the headphone amplifier.

So, there you have it: a "poor-man's test" of the effect of power cords. When it's the only variable, the results can only be attributed to the power cord - or to one's own delusions. 

Worry not: the Woo still won the day, but it was because of a better output mechanism and quality amplification that provide the delivery of the more nuanced qualities that separate good sound from really excellent sound. Unfortunately, that move costs a lot of money. And as someone already pointed out, the money should go first to better components and not to a better power cord.

Hey dynaquest what exactly is "unearned" money?


By the way, I dont feel there is ever any need to preface anything stated with an "in my opinion" as this is universally understood as a given.