hospital grade or commercial grade receptacles ?

The sound is hard to measure objectively, but the electrical signal, or the difference between two signals, is capable of unambiguous and precise measurement.

Which results in only the measurement, not what it will sound like. By the way, I corrected your misspelling of the word "unambigious" for clarity.

I don't believe we know how to measure everything we hear. I am not saying it cannot be measured "someday" but not right now. I came to this conclusion after listening to thousands of pieces of equipment and reading the advertised and measured specifications.

A perfect example of science not imitating art is the ongoing project to measure every parameter of a Stradivarius, even down to the aging of the varnish. The goal is to build a perfect modern version. So far it has failed. We are unable to recreate what was done because (current) precise measurements of all the parts does not reveal everything we need to know.

Rather than argue that a power cord can't work, how about hooking up one and giving it a listen? I have tweaks in my system that are the absolute best available and cost $5.00 or $10.00, unfortunately I also discover some that cost a great deal more.

Either way, I use what works and care little about the claims or specifications except as information. A perfect example is the Kenwood amp I linked to. 1000 watts and lower distortion than any amp I own. I would bet money it sucks in my system.

Albertporter, my system is definitely not up to the task of letting me hear the difference between power outlets, or power cables for that matter. Nonetheless, as a previous poster insinuated, it isn't from Radio Shack either. A Levinson 39 feeds a Sony TA-E1 over a foot of balanced Blue Jeans, which feeds twin Levinson 334 amps over 45 feet of balanced Cobalt Cables, biamping a pair of Legacy Focus over about 4ft of 10awg Sound King zip cord with WBT bananas and some spades I can't remember the brand of. The power cables I described in a previous post. :) Now I suppose you're going to tell me that if I got rid of the, ahem, non-audiophile interconnects and speaker cables I could hear the difference when I switched power cables (which I just did a few months ago). Certainly my friend David thought so. If you agree with him I recommend a BS in Physics. (Advanced degrees are probably unnecessary for understanding simple stuff like audio electronics and audio frequency signal propagation.)

There are some puzzling things about this system. First, I think the ML39 sounds better feeding the Sony than it does in pre-amp mode feeding the 334's directly. It shouldn't, but I was convinced enough that it does that I bought the pre-amp. It might have something to do with the 334's having a lower than spec (100Kohm) input impedance at some frequencies, combined with whatever effects 45ft of balanced line has, but the truth is I don't know. I don't even know if the effect is real, but it seems that way. An ML32 sounded just as good as the Sony, but I wasn't paying that kind of green for a pre-amp. It was way cool though...

Then there's that bi-amping thing. What's up with that? Normally, I think bi-amping is a waste of good amplifier hardware, especially in the class of the 334. And especially considering the Focus is worth about 95db/2.83v or better (Legacy says 98db, but I'm not sure I believe them). Anyway, I try the 334's and, whoa, mucho effortless sound compared to a 335 (twice the power of a 334) or my old pair of KMA-100mk-II's. Why would that be? Well, I don't know. I suspect a bunch of reasons, but I can't prove any of them so it ain't worth discussing. Nonetheless, I bought the 334's and I've been happy ever since. So even I'm not immune to (probably) deluding myself, but at least this stuff is active circuitry in the signal path.

I'd also be willing to admit that I might be hearing differences that aren't there, and that I just may have chosen to bi-amp because it looks cool. (It does.) Every once in a while I use only one amp just to convince myself bi-amping is still better, and, funny, it always works! :)

Albert, good to have you back posting again. Always lively. And I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE SAID IN THIS THREAD. Sorry I didn't read it earlier.
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Other than plating there isn't a heck of a lot of difference between hospital grade and commercial grade outlets even as respects pricing. Material used is normally 688 brass for either the Hubbell or the Pass & Seymour so get the ones that are easiest to obtain and look for the heaviest duty ones in the respective catalog. Also look for no steel parts as some have clamps that are steel.......You can take it a further step by looking into silver plated outlets that are available through ACME and others as these do focus a bit better than their unplated P&S counterparts........Cool thing about outlets is they are cheap in the scheme of audiophile things and you might like the ACME or the fancy Hubbell that Albert sells or a combination of the two or perhaps some other outlet mentioned above as they all sound a bit different from each other....