Amp+Cords or New Amp, best bang for $$$

Meta-ThaT's a tough one. I would buy the best amp, because you can always- down the road -get some cords but it may be tougher to get a better amp, being stuck with your old one. Yes, IME, I bought a used V.A.C. triode amp (knowing the weakness' of this amp) and just fell in love with the voicing. I have been pleasantly surprised in tweaking its sound with both N.O.S. tubes AND after-market power cords; 1st E.s.P. "ESSENSE", 2ND Shunyata BLK Mamba, 3rd Shunyata Sidewinder and finally Shunyata Viper v2. The E.s.P. & Sidewinder I still own the BLK Mamba was upgraded to the V2. So, in the short-term I think you could possibly get a better sound with a nice amp AND a nice PC, over a real nice amp with a stock cord, but that route in the long-term may be more limiting. This is highly speculative, in terms that it is extremely dependant on the choice of equipment, what its hooked up to and listener bias. Make sense? Mike

my 2 cents. put most of the $ into the amp and get a moderate PC. IMHO amps don't(should'nt) need the conditioning that one gets w/, say, a viper or king cobra. thats for your front end. what a power amp needs is plenty of juice,i.e. a cord w/ large conductors. something on the cheaper end like the sidewinder or the old cobra. for an amp cord you could get by w/ 2 to $400.- used. so go ahead and get a killer amp. p.s. check ouy the new belles 350.

Metaphysics, all advice above me is good. Your Lab Cable is is very good and it will cost you much more to get the big improvement you are looking for. A cobra in an amp can sometimes work better than a king cobra. Will you like one of those snakes better than the PSLC? IMO the right PC is just as important as most amps, pre and digital but ya gotta pay. I have listened to a lot of PCs and if you are going to spend big $$$ on PCs, best put them in pre or digital first. Amp last.

I agree with the gist of the above posts. I would not base my amp purchase decision(s) on power cords. If needed, they can come later, and they don't necessarily have to be expensive. Cheers, Craig.

Your equipment is pretty nice stuff already; you'll find that changing to the "right" cords can significantly enhance what you already have. I validated this fact myself when I had assembled some highly-rated hardware into a rig that sounded pretty lame. That's when I realized that "everyone's playing around with AC cords, interconnects, & speaker wire" so I tried it. It takes a lot of experimenting with various cord-combinations. When you finally find yourself a nice musical combination, you won't believe what your present rig is actually capable of. I myself am still amazed at what cables can do! You'll end up with a collection of leftovers that will then go up for sale to the next experimenters. Buy used when possible, so then you won't lose a bundle of $. Cable Co. was somewhat useful for me, but kept suggesting to try the cheaper stuff which just wasn't doing the trick. Taught me a lot about "what I don't want" though. Ended up buying a number of used high-$ cables & cords; sold some, & kept some others in my collection for further experimentation. Have fun Meta!