I used to think pricey interconnects were snake oil...

Ain't life grand?

One more upgrade path!

Without getting into cables and the snake oil debate, I personally think money could be better spent before cables.  Room conditioning would be a start IMO.

the snake oil part is needing to spend thousands or even 10’s of thousands to get a good quality cable.

At the price point you trialed you might want to check out Zavfino Arcadia. IMO a far bigger bang for the buck than AQ

next up from Arcadia is Fusion and that is less than $400

Unless you do a blind test sighted bias is in play. 

The good news is you can buy exceptional cables and power cords from Ali- Express, There is a couple chinese cables threads in the forums