I used to DIY power cords out of Belden and other cables, yes, including Romex. Shielded 12ga. was good too, and I was happy. They got power to the equipment from the wall, were not prone to EMI, and this all seemed really good!
If you had told me I would be buying silver foil power cords for a big chunk of change, I would have laughed.
Until I passed through Atlanta and went to Verastarr Audio. Mike had invited me in to hear his power cords anytime, so I thought I would stop by. A phone call arranged a demo.
I was on my way to Florida, I had decided to move after selling my small business. My MN house was being completely remodelled, and all my systems were taken down and in storage for the foreseeable future. I sure didn't need to buy anything.
It was the best demo I ever had, and the best I had ever hear a system sound. I have never hear Magnepans sound like that, ever. They never actually disappeared because the speakers simply were _not there_, ever. This is unbelievable because this rarely happens with Magnepans, and when it does, they generally disappear for only a few seconds at a time, not so with his system!
I had never experienced this anywhere close to the degree I heard it at Verastarr.
Mike Powell had a fully modified Jolida integrated driving Magnepan MG-12 speakers, with his Grand Illusion II power cord on it, and his DAC had a Grand Illusion II power cord too. At the time, he was voicing the newest revision Grand Illusion II power cords
To get some sort of baseline, I asked him to take the power cord off the DAC, and put a general purpose, cheapie IEC cord in its place,
After about ten seconds, I asked him to please put the Grand Illusion II cord back into place.
The music had been completely robbed and stripped of the dynamics, rhythm, and snap, the PRAT was diminished, the goosebumps on top of goosebumps were all gone. (Normally this would leave one layer of goosebumps, but in this case, they were ALL gone.)
The sense of being completely immersed in the musical moment was completely gone! Simply put, it sounded _like a stereo_.
Like I said, I would have laughed. if you had told me I was going to spend good money on a power cord, I would have laughed at you. Even more so if you would have asked me to purchase them when my system was in storage, and not even set up...
But MSRP got discounted, and then it got affordable. The credit card emerged. I knew I had to have the cords on 2 CD players and a preamp, for starters...
And the fact that I was remodeling and my system was in storage became moot- I knew I would have it together again, and I needed what these cords brought to the party.
Now I own three of them, and I'm convinced that nothing but a foil power cord will give you the results I have gotten. There is simply something about foil topology that just sounds right.
I hadn't actually bought anything from Mike for many years, probably since 2010. Usually I don't buy ANYTHING new! I was happy to put my money down.
(I realize this sounds like a shill, but I am not affiliated with Verastarr in any way other than a customer. And it had been five years since I had previously purchased his lowest priced interconnects and speaker wire.
To the OP- send Mike your Jolida for the full mod package. When I heard that integrated, the performance was so good, it made me upset! I have a pair of tube amps that retailed for 45k, and another that were 30k. That modified jolida... grr. The fact that anyone got that level of performance for that little money made me feel like I missed the boat...
