To All Cable Deniers, 1 Very Simple Question.

Once, for shits and giggles, we took several different quality cables, ranging from a pair of Audioquest cables (they were like $500, so not crazy stupid cables, but this was almost 20 years ago) to literally barbed wire (which we spliced into a run of lamp cord and wrapped in a roll of electrical tape for “insulation”, and not a one of us could tell the difference in sound from the Audiquest alone.

For us,that shut down this argument forever.  The only thing I make sure of now is that it’s a well made, well terminated cable that is insulated with something better than electrical tape and I’ve never looked back. 

I also figure that if the manufacturer of my $2500 CD player and $3000 energizer, etc. include a set of cables (power and/or interconnects), then those should be good enough for me.  
 

funny enough, I came across this today: https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/s/EhA6V1Nfg1

@samureyex I have very simple, single question for you. Your power cord is likely about 3-6 feet long, correct? Your wires in the walls, connecting a power outlet with the main electrical box is most likely tens of times longer, if you live in a house.  Can be much longer in apartment buildings.
So, what makes you think that the last couple of feet of a power cord make such a big difference?
You are saying, it is a copper grade. Okay, do you know the grade of a copper used in the wires inside your walls? I bet, it is the most standard grade.

PS: Both power cord and wires inside your walls construct a single electric circuit. Replacing small pieces of this circuit does not make it better (although it can make it worse). To make it better, you need to replace the whole circuit. (no use, though, as it is already following common standards to deliver electricity as intended).

Y'all need to stop listening to everyone's opinions and just go to MWAVE. The money you'll save after experiencing those objective tests will save you far more than you'll spend attending it, flight included.

https://midwestavexperience.net/

@toro3 what you write is no BS, if you'll forgive the pun. May I offer a partial answer to your question of why people on hifi forums don't stick to answering the original poster's question but instead engage in caustic and tangential rants? It may be that grumpy old retired men tend to fight despair over their feelings of irrelevancy that develop after ceasing to work for pay by raging at the dying of the light, as Dylan Thomas did at his father's death. On the other hand, wise old men (who don't drink as much as Dylan Thomas), a group in whose company I hardly belong, more often remain quiet, gathering their limited energy to simply stay focused on matters at hand.

Back in the days a pair of RCA cables came with the cassette player, I borrowed a pair of heavy well made interconnects and the difference between the two was dramatic! So I’ve been a believer for maybe 45 years.  Having said this, I have never experienced such a huge change from power cords.  Yes I can hear a difference between that 18 gauge zip cord and a well made 10-12 gauge cable, but it’s no where near the difference as I hear with the throw away cables that used to come with tape decks, tuners, turn tables etc.