What power cord would you recommend?


I have an Arcam Diva AVR200 and am thinking of upgrading the power cord. First question, is it worth it? Next, what pc would you recommend? I’m willing to spend up to $300 new or used. I’ve read articles on AZ Tsumani II, Van Den Hul Mainstream, Cardas Golden Reference, and Transparent Reference Powerlink etc. etc.
The rest of my setup include:
Totem Model 1 signatures (L, C, R)
Van Den Hul CS-122 Hybrid with jumpers
Totem Mite (Surround L, R)
Van Den Hul Clearwater for a 30' run with jumpers
Totem Thunder Sub
Pioneer Elite DVD Player
MSB Nelson Link III & P1000 Power Base (Cardas Hexlink 5C)
PS Audio high current uo, juice bar, power port, xStream Plus

I mainly listen to Jazz, Opera and Symphony music and watch lots of sci fi movies.

Any other advice on tweaks would be appreciated.

PMP
pmp_421
I second Semwin1 on some points. There is a lot of homemade junk around. Understanding that if you take your outlet out of the wall and connect all of the wires together w/o cutting the circuit at the breaker box, something electrically bad will happen, does not make you and electrical engineer. AC power cord geometry and quality of materials and construction are necessary to clean up some of the grunge that arrives in the Romex. Romex provides Direct Current (DC) one way into your house. From the outlet to your amp is Alternating Current (AC) where the current needs to go both directions. The AC power cord has a job to do just like I/C's and speaker cables, and it's not quite as simple as some would have us believe other wise we would be connecting our amps directly from the wall with 12/2 or 14/2 Romex. As I stated before, this job is to allow for enough current to arrive at the amp without constriction and to provide this signal as cleanly as possible. Now this sounds simple enough, but as we all know with any State or Federal employee, some do their jobs well and others....don't always have the quality components necessary to do the job at all. For those of you who live/die by the Bryston article, there are amp designs and manufacturers who include adequate for their equipment and others who will admit to including cords which should be upgraded. The reason I've heard for not including better cords is that they do not want to endorse a particular aftermarket cord company and will leave the chioces up to the customers. I'm not sure i agree, but I've heard it. The standard cord that arrives wit Krell, BEL and others looks to be about 12AWG (although cheap looking) where many others are 14AWG or smaller. It's simply a matter of belief and I fully support both sides of this argument.
My answer to the Arcam question is...

I find power cords are NOT like interconnects. I find they either work well or they don't. If a power cord only works well with certain components, there is something wrong with the power cord to start with.

At that price point, I find the BC62 is nice and clean. There are better cords, but they are also a lot more money.

Even the smaller/cheaper BC61 is a good step up from a stock black cord. The larger BC62 is at the point where the laws of dimishing returns start to kick in, the more you spend past that point. In other words, the $100 more for a BC62 is worth it if you can afford it, but another $100 or $200 past the BC62 does not get you as much improvement with power cords I have tried. I obviously have not tried them all.
I second the Blue Circle power cords, I have both the BC62 and BC61 and completely agree with Sugarbrie's comments.

Regards,
I have no real experience with $500 cords, but your question relates to up to $300 and I do have a bit of experience there. My suggestion is this: buy 4-5 ft. of the cryoed JPS in-wall cable from Gene at Takefiveaudio, along with a cryoed Marinco 5266 male and 320 IEC. Also buy the adapter for $5 to burn the cord in on your refrigerator for a week or two. Total cost will be about $125 U.S.

I have 3 of these in my system (one on integrated, two on line conditioners). In the past I've owned, among others, the LAT cord, the Blue Circle BC 62 and the Cardas Golden (not the reference, but a cord that sells for $370 retail nonetheless). This DIY JPS cord (no soldering, very simple to make) is substantially better than the cords I listed above and will save you a ton of money.

I have no affiliation with Takefive, other than being a satisfied customer.
by far the best,virtual dynamics.there nite series.
and rick schultz is one of the nicest people you will
ever meet
al