Power Cords: A Skeptic Looking to Dabble...

Vegasears - you identify something most people often forget about - UL Certification

Fact is - any DIY project, like power cables, are not UL certified - even if the actual cable is.

Most cables, like Furutech, DHLabs, Nelson etc.. are subject to rigorous testing and scrutiny beyond that imposed by various agencies - i.e. except those fake cables that are appearing for sale on the internet.

Buyer beware!

Even store-bought power cables may carry the UL certified sticker, but even that may be counterfeit these days.

I once purchased a nicely constructed and packaged power cable from one store and when I tested is it was incorrectly wired.

From that point on I decided the UL certification sticker does not quarantee quality and to make my own

When it comes to power - ya never can be too careful.

Patrick at Cullen cable here on this site has some great and inexpensive cords that will make a nice difference for you. He also has an outlet filter that will be much better than the PC you are using. I think its the Cullen ultimate outlet. Trust me the outlet is like $100 and his cables are around $100. Get the gold series 10 amp cord for your tube amp and copper 15 amp one for your source and with his outlet will be VERY happy and it is not much money. Plus he is a great guy to deal with. His dad owns Cullen circuits and he has made stuff for his dad, W4S and PS Audio, etc. Really helped my system and I have some semi-expensive gear. Thanks

Despite claims to the contrary let me be the 3rd to endorse Pangea, a lot of cable for a very reasonable price. I bought a Triode Wire cable with copper connectors (not plated) recently and like it very much but it wasn't cheap.
I am also afraid of making my own cable but after all these exhortations to try it I may. I have a real nice Audience cable which you should be able to buy used. And for the third time, different sound, doesn't mean better sound.

Vegasears - It makes absolutely no sense to me that smaller AWG power cords would outperform larger AWG power cords. If the primary issue is the ability to transfer power and I'm assuming that configuration/design of the cables you were comparing was essentially the same, then this is exactly opposite what I'd expect?

Williewonka - "A good power cord will contribute to those transient demands being better satisfied resulting in a better image, which in turn improves clarity and image."

What are the design parameters that allow this to happen? What is a good power cord designed to do that a cheap power cord doesn't do?

If I understand what you wrote correctly,a good power cord is likely to make less of a difference when used with equipment that has a power supplies with sufficient headroom to not be reliant on the incoming power to support transient demands. It seems that one could then make a general observation that a power cord upgrade is likely to make more of an improvement on a less well designed and likely less expensive piece of gear. This makes sense to me because I would expect the margin of improvement to be significantly less on a really expensive well designed piece of gear where nothing of spared due to cost.

I made a similar suggesting at my local audio store that Nordost Sort Kones should have less of an effect as the equipment design gets better because I wouldn't expect a $500 CD player to include the same level of care in the design as I would a $10,000 CD player.