Which cable has most impact - IC, Spkr., power?


Curious as to what people think is the most critical cable in a system, i.e. the one that has the most impact on the overall sound. Is it interconnects, speaker cables, digital, power cables? Of course there's synergy and everything matters, but which cable makes its presence known the most?
joc3021

For me Power Cords make the biggest improvement
with my Krell gear. I am suspecting that high dollar
powercords filter noise out of the A/C without suppressing
the current flow (like those nasty monstercable power
conditioners). But no matter the reason all I can say
is power cords can transform a system more so than
anything else in my experience.
Is there a consensus yet? Good, I'm not too late.
For me it's speaker cable. The only times I hear a difference that I truly believe is there is when making changes to speaker cables.
With ICs there has never been a noticeable change. I have tried some pretty spicy cables so maybe my sonic taste buds aren't sensitive enough.
Same with power cables. No change. I'm thinking either my equipment does it's own filtering, as any properly designed piece should, or my AC is clean. I know the AC is clean so probably a combination of many factors including a healthy dose of skepticism.
As the thread originator.....I'm still searching for an answer. My brain tells me it should be IC's connected to source components. The old theory that if you don't get the information at the beginning of the chain, everything downstream suffers. Lately I've been changing a lot of cables in and out of my system and my preconceptions (and this theory) are not holding up. What's having the most discernable impact is speaker cables, by a wide margin, followed by IC's (source and amp/pre about equal) with power cables bringing up the rear. Maybe this question is so system dependent that there is no definitive right answer, but it seems to me there should be.
Definitely depends on the compatability of the equipment/cable link and the synergy between all of the equipment and cables. If you cannot establish a synergy between all of the cables, you will be changing cables frequently. Some people decide to change the equipment instead. I would focus on upgrading your speaker cables and build around them. If you build around the interconnects, it can be a lot more expensive to constantly be changing speaker cables. For me, speaker cables made the biggest noticeable change, which I feel also reduces the amount of noticeable change derived from the interconnects and power cables.