A different view of power cords

This is one of the many major challenges involved in building a really good system: weeding through all the BS! I don't mean just the usual BS, people who know next to nothing blathering BS at a rate 10X those with actual useful information. This version of BS encompasses all the many products out there that pretend to be really good when in reality they are just not all that. 

When I was starting out there was no internet so hardly any reviews and near zero user reviews. It was pretty much all word of mouth. Which I now know for the above reason (10X nonsense to sense ratio) doomed me to failure. But you have to learn this one the hard way it seems. Some never do....

Another challenge, the range and variety of audio characteristics we are able to hear is near infinite. That is why so many reviews resort to describing how much different and better certain music sounds with a certain component. There are so many different aspects to listen for it is too much to try and do any other way.

So one thing that happens, people latch onto one or two things they find easy to recognize. Like in this case tone. Didn't notice at first the wire was hyped, probably never would have bought it if he did. So it is a listening skills exercise. 

Freebie rubber power cords are so absolute crap that I have to think even if the Transparent is worse in being hyped (it is, that is Transparent, that is the way they sound!!!) still it is better in a slew of other ways. It just got so bad now you can't stand it.

There is a saying, sins of commission are worse than sins of omission. It is easier to live with rolled off than hyped. Lots of reasons for this. 

Anyway, that's the story. Do not draw from it the bogus conclusion all power cords are like this, or that freebie rubber power cords are any good at all. They are not. They are junk. Absolute horrid waste of space junk. Bring yours over any time, happy to prove it to you.

I"m not sure if your use of the phrase "rolled off" was in reference to the sound of my system without the aftermarket cords MC, but I can assure you the effect was just the opposite. I'm hearing much better top end resolution than before.

In any case, I remain completely open to the possibility that a different power cord would improve the sound of my electronics and would love to know what those cords are. Perhaps once I recover my footing after this discovery I'll venture back in.

Transparent is one of those brands where after hearing a couple awful examples they never even get my consideration. The hyped sound you describe is what I heard even however many years ago it was. How some companies stay in business never once making anything good I will never understand.    

Still and all, the factory power cord you are talking about, unless CJ does something very unusual it is a standard off the shelf black rubber piece of you know what. I don't say POS lightly, the cheapest power cords I have ever tried handily beat the rubber POS. 

If you managed to buy the one power cord on the planet worse than a rubber POS you simply need to do a lot better job of selecting your power cords. You could start with the cheapest oldest Synergistic Master Coupler, which in spite of being 30+ years old they are so widely regarded as excellent they sell today for what they sold for new back then. That simply does not happen without it being a lot better than the freebie you are using now.

Personally, I don't like power cords/ICs  that have a "network box". Seems to me that a well designed cable shouldn't need these things.

Thanks for your suggestions! I appreciate it.