Why $250.00?
You may like the $45.00 Furutech plug ends.
I did, that is until I tried the plugs further up the line, though they weren't quite $250 a piece,I did need two and so will you.
And for the extra money there was an improvemnt in the sound and the build of the better plugs is also much better, steel housing compared to thin plastic.
I have used 4 different wall sockets- hospital grade Hubbels which is a nice place to start for well under your budget.
Still under your limit is the Shunyata RZ1, and I felt it was a bit of an improvemnt, perhaps the cryo treatment?
I also have used the FIM blue/gold receptacle, and this was great when I had solid state gear as it seemed to take a bit of the edge off.
Now I use the Furutech GTX D gold receptacle and can't find a thing to fault with it.
It's solid constuction, has a solid connection and delivers a solid sound, it doesn't colour the sound as far as I can tell, it just seems to let more energy into the gear as silly as that sounds.At the same time it does seem to offer a little less background hash behind the music and there's more force and speed, more decay after the notes trail off than I've noticed with other recptacles that I've used.
I believe this is still in your budget,and one area where I wouldn't scrimp.
I have found that sourcing the wall receptacle and the ends of the power cord from the same company and in the same price category works better than splurging on the IEC's and scrimping on the wall receptacle.
If I had to decide which way to go, it would be to spend the most money on the wall plug.
Having said that,I would assume you will also be running dedicated lines?
If not, make that your priority, and scrimp on the connectors if you have to.
Your budget of $250 to $500.00 should include the cost of running dedicated lines, and then spend waht's left on the plugs.
