That sounds about right. Wait till you have 4 different one's and you have to try all combo's, ouch. Had the same experience with power conditioners, if anything the amp sounds worse, but everything upstream sounds better. A great step up for my amp that I tried was a gutwire ultimate ground cable. Dropped the noise floor significantly, opening everything up just like the experience you had with the power cable. I also took it one step farther, adding an audioquest splitter and removing the center pins connecting to the amp and streamer. The one cable works on both now. $500 isn't cheap, but a huge improvement cable wise for the amp, more so than a power cord. Maybe you can find one used like I did. Read up on that cable if nothing else, just another way of making improvements. Just my 2 cents of experience.
An interesting experience with power cable.
I’ve read a lot about power cables throughout the years and finally took a leap of faith and bought 1 silver-plated power cable. Of course I immediately plugged it in my amp and turn on everything for a listen. I could hear a tiny improvement but honestly was underwhelmed. I plugged the basic cable back into the amp. I plug the upgraded cable into my DAC for fun.
WOW, immediate and significant improvements. I gained a substantial amount of smoothness and sweetness and perceived clarity was also improved. I have alternate the upgraded power cable into the amp a few times, each time I get the same results, underwhelming, not as dramatic as if the cable went into the DAC.
So that was unexpected, I’m not saying power cable for amps are not significant. What I’m saying is, if you have only 1 upgraded power cable, the rest being stock basic, then plug it in your DAC, you might be surprised as well. Thanks for reading fellas.
Very curious to get a 2nd cable for the amp now.