Most Beneficial Cable Upgrade

at the very least step up the quality on every cable first.

I would recommend something like VH DIY PC and Morrow or Signal or Blue Jean ICs and speaker wire.

In other words do not get ICs and speaker wire but ignore the PCs, there is too much to be gained from good PCs.

There is a big step up with the initial move up from stock cables in every location.

fwiw in case you have not considered this...

Following are some factors which will affect the answer to your question:

1)Sensitivity of the system to interconnect cable differences will be increased if:

(a)The output impedance of the component driving the cable is high.
(b)The cable is unbalanced (rca) as opposed to balanced (xlr).
(c)Ground loop effects involving a particular pair of components are present, as indicated by low level hum, buzz, or noise that goes away if a cheater plug is placed on the power plug of one of the components.
(d)The cable is carrying a phono-level signal.
(e)The cable length is long.
(f)The existing cable has high capacitance.

2)Sensitivity of the system to speaker cable differences will be increased if:

(a)The speakers have low nominal impedance.
(b)Speaker impedance is low in the bass region.
(c)Speaker impedance is low in the upper treble region.
(d)Speaker impedance fluctuates widely as a function of frequency.
(e)The speaker requires tight woofer control and high damping factor from the amplifier.
(f)Cable length is long.
(g)The existing cable is marginal in gauge.
(h)The existing cable has high inductance and speaker impedance is low at upper treble frequencies.

3)Re power cords:

(a)Power amplifiers and components containing significant digital circuitry tend to generate high frequency noise, which can couple from their power cords into other system components, with unpredictable effects. Therefore using shielded power cords on power amplifiers and on components that contain significant digital circuitry can be important.
(b)Some power amplifiers are particularly sensitive to line voltage differences, and therefore to voltage drops that may occur if large amounts of current are flowing through their power cord. If there is reason to believe that the amplifier's power cord is marginal in gauge, or if the amplifier is specified as requiring large amounts of ac power, its cord should be particularly focused on.
(c)Keep in mind that rfi/emi effects can be affected by physical placement of the components, and the physical routing of their power cords and cables.

The bottom line: As Stan indicated in his first post above, there is no universal answer. But consideration of these factors can reduce the randomness of the process.

Keep in mind, also, that more expensive does not necessarily equal better. What can be expected to matter most is how the cable interacts with what it is connecting.

Regards,
-- Al

Schipo,
I think your expalantion is logical, it makes perfect sense. How could the last 6 feet of cable attached to the electrical outlet make such a difference when there a several hundred feet of standard wiring in the walls and out to the street that are not specially designed to improve conductance or filter out RFI.
There is a lot of marketing hype about how the expensive after market power cables improve sound by improving condutance and rejecting/filtering out RFI. Have there been any objective (scientific)studies that proove these claims? Have there been any BLIND listening tests which where listeners can consistently identify a power cable change and describe how it improves the sound? Many of the high end power cables can cost thousands of dollars! For that kind of money, it better make an obvious sonic improvement.
My dealer is going to loan my some power cables to try out (Kimber, Krell, possibly others). I plan to use them in the R/L power amps, pre-amp, CD/SACD player.I don't believe I will be able to detect an improvement.

You know, the job of a power supply is to convert the AC to DC, and filter out whatever kind of noise might be prone to occurring on any of its outputs, including ground.

If a power supply successfully does this, there is no need for any power cord beyond that which can convey enough power.

If a power cord TRULY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE, there's something wrong with the power supply its attached to.

Schipo,

I suspect you are correct.

High end audio manufacturers like Krell, for example, are in a very small, competitive, nitch market. Krell started marketing their own power cables only wihin the past few months. I know Krell is very concerned about how their products (as sold) compare to their competitor's products. If these high end audio companies felt expensive high end power cables significantly improved the sound of their products, they would be selling their products with high end cables to give their products a competitve edge. Only a few years ago Krell made all of their amps with non-removable power cables, they didn't want people tampering with after market cables because they felt it could compromise the performance of their products. Krell proudly stated that their power supplies were superb and would adequately filter out noise. After market cables would not improve sound of their amps, and could be harmful.

Krell power supplies are still superb. But, they now sell great amps, pre-amps, etc. with removable power cables. And, they sell power cables. What has changed? Unfortunately the high end audio business environment is now extremely tough due to social economic issues (poor economy, rampant use of Low-Fi products like I-Pods, lack of interest in high end audio by a large portion of our society). Closing of many high fi audio shops has made high end retail marketing tougher than ever. Companies like Krell (and don't get me wrong, I love and own Krell products) need to tap every potential source of income. They are riding the cable market hype, created out of necessity by the cable companies, in my opinion. The margin on high end cables must be enormous. It is inexpensive and low risk to add power cables to their product line-up. If people will buy it, they will sell it; it's a matter of survival.

I have not seen any objective power cable reviews with blind comparison. Any cable review that is done without blind comparison is useless. The audio differences (if any) are simply too subtle. Placeb effect is too influential.

I challenge anyone with a great high end audio system to consistently, blindly identify a power cable change and describe how it changed/improved the sound(stock cable to any high end cable, both in excellent condition). In ten trials how many times do you think the change could be correctly identified by anyone of us? Would you be guessing or would you honestly know the difference without looking? I predict if a hundred experienced audio nuts (like me) did this test, the average would be 50% correct, which is meaningless. Unless you can detect an improvement with a blind test, what difference does it make? The answer; none whatsoever. That is why reviewers don't do objective, scientific, blind testing with cable (or anything for that matter). It would interfere with their ability to promote their advertisers.

As stated earlier, I am a non-believer in power cable upggrade. I do have several dedicated power lines with a dedicated elctrical power box for my audio system. Dedicated lines are extremely helpful. But I think the power cable upgrade issue is nothing more than market hype. I will try some high end power cables soon just for kicks. I don't think I will detect a difference. I will report back.