Can a better power cable make a difference if NOT plugged directly into an outlet?

@hilde45 : to answer your question, yes, the power cords plugged after power conditioner make a difference. IMO, the power cord feeding the power conditioner is often the most important.

‘Pangea are solid , decent entry level power cords, a step up typically from stock power cords, scratching the surface so to speak. But really, entry level power cord. Have you tried any Audience power cords? Since you are already using their power conditioner. Further, have you asked Audience what they think their own power conditioner is recommended to be paired with in terms of power cords? Before and after power conditioner itself. Lots of options out there in power cords. In order to hear any difference, you will need to experiment with above entry level power cords. Chances are an entry level power cord will sound very similar to another entry level power cord from another brand. Experimentation is key, and dare I say, fun

Those who say power cables never matter, please go watch a cute cat video instead of posting here, please.

Not into that thing myself, but cat videos have a huge following. I had a colleague a few years ago, who spent more time watching cat videos than doing any actual work. 

I use Pangea AC 9 SE and AC14 SE cords, at present.

This setup has been quiet and hum free. 

Improvement in power cords does not mean fixing audible noise issues you can hear, such as hum, buzz, distorted sound. Coincidence I received the following email newsletter this morning from Paul McGowan of PS Audio, copy/ paste below:

———-

Crossing wires

When my parents were coming of age, the telephone system used a massive number of patchbays and operators connecting one phone to another. On occasion, they would make the wrong patch which is where the term crossing wires comes from.

Not only telephone operators cross wires. 

In a recent video of mine I speak at length about how USB noise impacts audio quality. I further go on explaining that adding a USB hub or stepping up to our new galvanically isolated MKII DAC is needed to clean up and isolate this noise.

Not until a rash of negative comments about folks unable to hear this noise did it become obvious to me my mistake. Ears were placed next to tweeters with and without their DACs connected to USB without any additional noise.

Fraud!

My broad use of the term noise could easily be thought to meant audible noise: noise in the range of human hearing.

Noise that impacts sound quality on USB is, of course, outside the range of human hearing. It's in the megahertz region where computers are most active: side effects of high speed number crunching.

I am certain most of my readers understand this but—and it is my bad—I need to be a bit more careful throwing about words that have many meanings.

Otherwise, that which I am trying to communicate will get its wires crossed.

Your moving system into the dedicated room is huge improvement by it self.As someone posted it will be even more evident making cables changes.Maybe not at first but as things settle and your ears hear the change’s that youve made.

I just changed out all name brand made cable for my diy/parts wires and went with no shielding (alpha 3) on amp and conditioner...just cd player that is plugged into simple shunyata hydra 4 is shielded.Its been a learning experience and to my ears connectors along with conditioner cable seem to make biggest impact.It providing feed for upstream.

@thyname   It's interesting he mentions "galvanically isolated" for DAC's to "clean up  and isolate noise", since doing so introduces a transformer or capacitor in the USB chain, which can change the phase of the signal.  But it hardly matters because this is the analog side of the signal, which is not used directly by the DAC. 

Finally, all but the cheapest USB hubs are already "galvanically isolated" to ensure an accurate clock signal on the downstream USB ports, so I'm not sure where's he's going with the entire message.