In "medieval" audiophile times, about 40-50 years ago or so, when human understanding of many things audio was primitive prior to later years high end audio enlightenment, there were two main things most people considered when choosing wires.
1) gauge, ie lower gauge = a bigger "pipeline" which provided a broader pathway for the current to flow, which seemed logical and seemed to consistently deliver results. 10 gauge speaker wire was the bomb, 16 gauge for cheapo newbies. At least that's how it worked in all teh audio and electronic shops I worked at back then. No attention was payed to such things as gauge of powercords. So maybe that is the key that best distinguishes a good power cord from a bad one, all else aside? Makes sense to me. I always tend to choose beefier, "lower gauge" power cords over scrawny, higher gauge ones. Not sure if many audiophile cords even specify a gauge? I guess there are more important factors they want us to covet.
2) physical properties of the metal conductor. Higher conductivity was good, lower bad. Most wires were copper in practice, so not much to choose from there. You might go for gold plated contacts if you could afford such things.
Then monster wire upset the cart making things "bigger" and badder than before. Then all the other nonsense came along, as did perhaps an occasional innovation, but deciding which was nonsense and which was innovative became a lot harder, especially with vendors intentionally muddying the waters when they could in search of larger profits.
My favorite ICs these days are DNM Reson, which look like old high gauge 300 ohm antenna wire made into an IC. Dat coherency and rightness from top to bottom....ah! Go figure?
THings were much simpler in "medieval" times......
1) gauge, ie lower gauge = a bigger "pipeline" which provided a broader pathway for the current to flow, which seemed logical and seemed to consistently deliver results. 10 gauge speaker wire was the bomb, 16 gauge for cheapo newbies. At least that's how it worked in all teh audio and electronic shops I worked at back then. No attention was payed to such things as gauge of powercords. So maybe that is the key that best distinguishes a good power cord from a bad one, all else aside? Makes sense to me. I always tend to choose beefier, "lower gauge" power cords over scrawny, higher gauge ones. Not sure if many audiophile cords even specify a gauge? I guess there are more important factors they want us to covet.
2) physical properties of the metal conductor. Higher conductivity was good, lower bad. Most wires were copper in practice, so not much to choose from there. You might go for gold plated contacts if you could afford such things.
Then monster wire upset the cart making things "bigger" and badder than before. Then all the other nonsense came along, as did perhaps an occasional innovation, but deciding which was nonsense and which was innovative became a lot harder, especially with vendors intentionally muddying the waters when they could in search of larger profits.
My favorite ICs these days are DNM Reson, which look like old high gauge 300 ohm antenna wire made into an IC. Dat coherency and rightness from top to bottom....ah! Go figure?
THings were much simpler in "medieval" times......