Wadia150,
Wow I could not disagree more soundly. Not with your very good advise regarding speaker placement, room treatment, getting cables off the floor and the like, no I have no issue with that. What I DO take issue with is that power cords are the last place one should look to realize a big bang for the buck when upgrading a system- especially when the OP is seeking to improve a digital source. Power cords are one of the very FIRST places I go when seeking to dial my system in. Every aspect of the sound is effected- frequency information (highs, mids, bass), phase information (sound staging, imaging, layering) and the not so tangible but oh so important aspect of "quality" for all that frequency and phase information (smoothness and airiness of highs, pin point imaging in a huge and convincing soundstage, layering, image height, and so on). As for multi-channel, 5.1 is, well, 5.1 x more affected then a simple two channel system :)
As is always the case, listen for yourself and then decide should be the mantra to follow. If your dealer won't let you take a few cables home for a week or two, find a dealer who will. After that you won't have to take anyone's word for it.
Wow I could not disagree more soundly. Not with your very good advise regarding speaker placement, room treatment, getting cables off the floor and the like, no I have no issue with that. What I DO take issue with is that power cords are the last place one should look to realize a big bang for the buck when upgrading a system- especially when the OP is seeking to improve a digital source. Power cords are one of the very FIRST places I go when seeking to dial my system in. Every aspect of the sound is effected- frequency information (highs, mids, bass), phase information (sound staging, imaging, layering) and the not so tangible but oh so important aspect of "quality" for all that frequency and phase information (smoothness and airiness of highs, pin point imaging in a huge and convincing soundstage, layering, image height, and so on). As for multi-channel, 5.1 is, well, 5.1 x more affected then a simple two channel system :)
As is always the case, listen for yourself and then decide should be the mantra to follow. If your dealer won't let you take a few cables home for a week or two, find a dealer who will. After that you won't have to take anyone's word for it.