Power cords - a BASIC question

Wow, no nay-sayers yet. Fritz, after playing with designing power cords, it seems that good power cords need to have decent guage, good purity of conductor, good dialectric, shielding and a geometry that provides common mode rejection. The effect seems to be similar to a power conditioner, yet without the limiting of dynamics that you get with most conditioners. If indeed there is a conditioning effect then this might explain why there is a beneficial effect when changing the last meter. Either way, the effect is noticeable and as reported above, not always beneficial.

Fritz, every post has good info - I'll just add by saying I have no idea why they make a difference but they do. My first pc was 2 years ago, went on a transport into a panamax extension cord and the improvement was unbelievable, and the rest of the components had stock cords. I now have aftermarket cords on all components except my preamp which is captured. Even one on my amp, an Eel reference, which btw is an unbelievable cord, made a huge improvement. It does seem that the transport or cd player makes the biggest difference so start at the top and work down to the amp IMO.

The DIY cords mentioned are a Bob Crump/TG Audio design. Bob sanctioned this project as a public-domain gift to the audiophile community. Bob is quite the cable guru; the design is well-engineered, simple and effective, as Elizabeth reported. The husband and wife team are attempting to adopt a little girl from Guatemala via the proceeds of these fine power cords. They offer the recommended matching Pass and Seymour outlets as well. An easy recommendation for both tyros And more experienced 'philes. The prices are very reasonable, especially for the excellent performance, particularly on source components and lower-powered amps. For the cost-conscious, No brand of cable has a lower mark-up, and the cause is highly righteous. Happy to email contact info for those interested.

What may seem like a basic question is frequently controversial because your question makes a lot of sense, and so do many of the answers and opinions posted here. The simple answer is that it makes a difference. I use 2 power cords that cost $150 each, and heard definite improvements, mostly in background levels and bass weight, but I sure can see the point of being skeptical about all the hype and psuedo science as well. Let me relate this one experience that pertains directly to your question. A friend returned a favor by giving me 4 power cords to choose from for my main power source. I had no idea what they cost. All made differences, but not necessarily improvements, one stood out from the crowd and gave my system a touch of magic and soul, (if you will forgive the vagueness of such a statement) it turns out that the power cord I chose was worth around $1500. Being a gift, I was happy to be able to keep that PC for my $2200 receiver. Now if I was shopping for a PC I might look at power cords in the $100-300 price range for it. The difference the PC made was like a jump in class level for my system, and well, it should be at that price, but as Brucel pointed out in another post I also think that you get more bang for the buck by spending the higher percentage of budget on hardware (speakers, amps, sources, etc.). That said, some power cords may have some filtering capabilities that help clean up the AC from your wall a bit, so the fact that power may become distorted by traveling for miles is not the point, the point is that we can do something about it on our end.

So how bout rewiring the house?
I mean it can't just matter at the "last meter". If the opportunity exists to do so, why not just rewire the outlets that you're using for your amps and high end components. Typical house wire is 12guage. These outlets could be rewired with 4gauge wire. Granted, it would still terminate at the same breaker box. But with a higher quality, higher gauge wire running through the house and then using a high end PC to terminate the last meter, I'd think that would make a difference. Thoughts?