Why Expensive power Cables when Romex behind Wall?

Hi Albert. You are correct, I did not read your entire post. I got to where you were explaining the lengths you had gone to improve your service, and stopped there. Now that I have read the entire post, I have a couple of questions for you. Is your private transformer a pole or slab transformer? Can you tell me the manufacturer and model number of the unit. The reason I ask is that I was a custom home builder, built a home for a Doctor who had about a $150k system a few years back. This guy was driving me nuts trying to get me to change his transformer because he was having to spend thousands of dollars on hi end power cords, and he blamed the transformer (also private, but because of his location). I spent an entire evening at his home listening very carefully to his system, while he switched power cords to prove his point. And he was right, the expensive power cords did make the system sound better. But his argument was that he did not previously need them. Finally I called in a favor with a friend at FL Power, and had a new transformer installed for the Doc. It was by a different manufacturer. Not even a day passed and the Doc was on the phone to me inviting me for dinner and thanking me over and over. He wanted to prove to me that he was not nuts, so I accepted. We went through the identical listening tests as with the other transformer, switching pc's, but this time - NO DIFFERENCE could be distinguished between the expensive pc's and the stock Levinson pc's. And I have to say that his system just sounded better over all. There was one pc that did seem to sound different out of the 10 or more we listened to, but I can't honestly say it was better. At the end of the evening, the Doc gave me a $500.00 tip and told me I had "saved his system". So, if you have a room full of people that all hear when you switch pc's, I would say that it is very possible that you have a bad transformer. I don't mean defective, as FL Power tested his old transformer, found nothing wrong with it and installed it on another street. Jerry, my friend at FL P did tell me confidentially that the difference between the two transformers was aluminum. One used some, the other did not. So, if you can tell me the brand and model of yours, I will drive up to the Doc's home (he no longer lives there, but I can still check the transformer). And it just so happens that the very next home I built has the same type of transformer (I had become keen to noticing this by now) as the one I replaced on the Doc's home, so I can check it too. I doubt there are that many manufacturers of transformers commonly used by power companies, so I've got a feeling you may not have even heard your system at it's best yet.

Trich, I have absolutely no doubt that your comments are true. My years of listening and testing have shown me that the only absolute is "we don't really know anything."

I have no idea about the transformer, it is a 25K VA model supplied by TU Electric, and is the third one on my home in the last few years.

Between the wet tree limbs, squirrels and Texas weather, this neighborhood is hell on transformers. That being said, the last two sounded identical as far as I could tell.

Florida is not to kind weatherwise either, sounds just like yours. Maybe FL Power had to change his transformer too and it drove him out? Who knows? The guy drove me nuts for 6 months, but anything I know about hospital grade wiring, I know from him. He even went in and red chalked the slab with notes to the drywallers where he wanted the drywall glued and not screwed. He drove my electricians crazy too, but they made a mint off of him. He was paying the installers all kinds of money for "electrical favors". At first I was charging him when I saw things I wasn't making a markup on, but there came a point I gave up as my electricians charged me only the bid amount. Just one question though, being as that you went to such extremes to make your supply the best it could be; wouldn't a power plant of ample size been a better move? So that no matter what transformer you ended up with, voltage drops, spikes, etc, the power was cleaned and constant?

Psychicanimal - Just because a cord makes a difference does not mean that the last 6 feet is somehow magical. It still has to do with the inductance of the entire run to the panel. The last 6 feet reduces the overall resistance and inductance compared to a typical "rubber" cord. Cryoed cables can perform well because they are lower resistance.

I make cords myself and you can see all of the measurements, analysis and theory on my website:
http://www.empiricalaudio.com

I may be naive and this may garner some 'flames' but ... I've got to believe that the main impact of upgrading a PC is not to do with the cable but more the CONNECTION. Hello ? There are two of them. One to wall recepticle, and one to the equipment, if I understand correctly. My guess is that if you simply unplug and replug an existing PC you'll end up with a better connection and hence, hopefully, improved sound. Cleaning these connections would help to.

Freezing them (I'm in Tahoe) - does this help ? Bummer that it only gets down to -20c here in winter and the better half would be distinctly uphappy if I opened the windows and shut down the stove to improve the sound ;-)