Tvad, $5 cord? that's cool, but I said "basically". And the better power cord in your case was the $5 cord for that particular component.
It's a combination of things. Not necessarily one upgraded cord is going to make a huge improvement. Have you thought about what the rest of the power cords in your system are doing? Is it possible that all the other cords there in your system did more harm than good in the combination with your pre-amp and then you drop this el-cheapo cord that in the context of another system would probably sound like crap. And all of a sudden things come to life?
I appreciate what you're saying, but the most important thing is system synergy. You achieved it with the addition of that $5 cord. Congrats. :)
