Do powercords make a difference in sound?

Another reason many manufacturers don't include power cords is that they don't want to irritate many power cord manufacturers while pleasing only one. Also many audiophiles might be irritated that they had to buy a pc that they didn't like.

Mainly, if anything I buy comes with a pc, I just leave it in the shipping box and figure it is worth probably about $3.

I have discussed the subject of designing an amp with a fixed power cord or an iec. several have said that an iec degrades the sound, and a well designed permanently attached will provide superior sign. in fact, conrad johnson wasa using attachable power cords for a long time, and only recently designed their amps and preamps with an iec for marketing reasons, not sonic ones.

at this point in the discussion, i would think that one can sum it all up by the following:

those who believe power cords make a difference are entitled to tehir opinion, while those who don't are entitled to their s' .

there is no way to prove the hypothesis that powercords make a difference, it may or may not be true.

any thing else to say is probably redundant

Computers and portable appliances did help make the detachable universal IEC connectors popular. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_60320]

09-09-11: Tbg
Another reason many manufacturers don't include power cords is that they don't want to irritate many power cord manufacturers while pleasing only one.

i'm not so sure about this explanation. for example, krell apparently decided that there was money to be made in the "upmarket" power cord biz because they introduced the "vector hc power cable". krell says of the vector hc power cord that it is "engineered to the same rigorous standards as krell electronics".

yes audiophiles, if, after spending $40,000 or $50,000 on monoblock amplifiers, you still feel that you haven't spent enough money, krell will now accommodate your wishes by offering you the opportunity to spend another $4,000 on a pair of "upmarket" power cords.

09-09-11: Mrtennis
I have discussed the subject of designing an amp with a fixed power cord or an iec. several have said that an iec degrades the sound, and a well designed permanently attached will provide (a) superior sign(al).

theoretically this is true; the connection is a potential source for the introduction of noise into the signal path. the same reasoning would suggest that you would achieve superior sound if a phono preamplifier had hardwired load resistors instead of switchable ones. but the questions you have to ask are what is the amplitude of the noise and what is the frequency range of the noise. i mean, unless you have your audio system in an emi shielded room with extra precautions to shield each component and each cable from cross-emi, then your audio system operates in an environment where are all kinds of ambient sources of interference noise that could theoretically degrade the signals traveling through your audio system. but the real question is: can you *really* hear them? if you believe that you can, then you may want to take appropriate actions.