This thread speaks to the idea of things being system dependent. I’ve found that the electricity coming out of the socket one plugs into has been more important than any of the cable swaps I’ve made. I followed the oft made recommendation to install a dedicated circuit just for the audio gear. That made a very noticeable improvement. The second such improvement came when I purchased an Audioquest Niagara power conditioner. Sources and preamp were connected to it, but the amplifier went into the wall socket. The improvement in clarity was even more noticeable than after using the dedicated circuit. It was the “aha” moment.
The power in my neighborhood is notorious for brief outages, spikes when power comes back on, lightning induced spikes, etc. We live at the end of the utility’s service area, which apparently has something to do with it.
In a summer place, a dedicated circuit isolated with a separate transformer made far less of a difference.
The only component for which a power cord made a significant difference was my high power, dual mono, solid state power amp. Perhaps the heavier gsuge wire made the difference, but there was more snap and clarity to transients. While interconnects have made a difference, using XLRs wherever components allowed made the most noticeable improvement in clarity. But none of the cable ugrades matched the clearly audible difference of the dedicated circuit and power conditioner in our primary residence.
