hospital grade or commercial grade receptacles ?

Psychicanimal, stop telling me to shut up. Observation must be tempered by understanding, or you don't know what you're looking at. In this case, the very notion that something outside of the signal path can have such subtle effects on the signal path is a long stretch at best. When that something outside of the signal path, that has no active circuitry, and has identical measured specs to something you claim is inferior, that's snake-oil, pure and simple. That's lousy science. Circuitry ain't like aquatic systems because you can't observe it, you have to measure it. And for the record, it does not appear you know anything about electronics.

Boa2, this discussion started out, for me, to see if I could keep the original poster from being taken in by you snake-oil salespeople. After that I was simply surprised by the fervor of the counterattack, and the discussion became fun. I'm being told to shut up, go away, and I'm being rather humorously insulted.

By the way, you are confusing my contention that *power cables* and outlets can't affect the sound (as compared to properly functioning and spec'd alternatives) with a blanket statement that all cables can't affect the sound of a system. Interconnects and speaker cables can provably affect a system's sound, though usually if they are incorrectly engineered. If you use 22AWG or smaller speaker cables, interconnects with overly high capacitance, or numerous other situations I can think of off the top of my head, there will likely be audible artifacts. This is because THESE CABLES ARE IN THE AUDIO SIGNAL PATH. See how that works?

On the other hand you would be correct if you assume I don't think there are audible differences between two cables - of any sort - with the same specifications.

Tbg, lighten up. I once read about the scientific method, and it did include something about observation, but I think that meant *valid* observation. Listening for differences without a double-blind environment is not considered scientifically valid, so let's get off of our scientific high horse. But DBTs aside, I still don't understand how outlets could affect the sound of an audio system, and no one here can explain. I have a rudimentary knowledge of electronics and I can't explain how it could possibly be that two outlets of similar specifications make a "night and day" difference.

One could reasonably complain that I haven't changed my outlets, so how would I know if they made a difference? Well, my outlets are brand new (as is the whole house), and I did change the power cords and did not notice any difference in sound. Not even a little bit. Is there a difference between outlets and power cords? How could there be? Of course, I wasn't expecting to hear a difference, so maybe THAT'S why I didn't. I wonder if I've stumbled upon the real answer...

Tbg...In keeping with your suggestion to make observations, I went outside and looked around. I observe that the earth is flat.

Eldartford, does that mean you agree with Irvrobinson?