Ghostship
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I think first we need to ensure a clean power supply; a solid gold straw will still suck up dirty water.
Next, connect that clean power to your components without adding electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio-frequency interference (RFI). Whether $25, $2500, or $25,000, if your power cord doesn't address this, it is simply an expensive antenna.
Routing. If your cords, interconnects and cables look like an octopus orgy, your sound quality will suffer.
Fuse. Audiophile fuses or fuse replacements pay huge dividends. If you haven't addressed this weakest link in the power chain, you may not experience audible differences in cables.
Then deal with the current delivery. Amplifiers need instant, unconstrained current during large dynamic shifts or deep bass hits. So, select a power cable that uses lower-resistance metals and optimized geometries to prevent current compression.
Finally, pay attention to the strands and separation...solid-core conductors that are insulated from each other tend to result in improved sound quality over twisted strands assembled close together.
So, if your quality power cable addresses these areas regardless of price, you should hear a lower noise floor, darker background, increased dynamics, and better bass.
If not, at any price, you probably won't experience any improvement in sound quality, and it is very possible that an expensive cable actually sounds worse.
Anecdotally, I have used inexpensive cables, audiophile inexpensive cables, Decware cables, and expensive cables from Audioquest and Synergistic Research. I achieved noticeable sound quality improvements the more criteria are addressed in the design.
AudioQuest performs an amazing demonstration of their cables. They simply play music with their lower-end cables, and then progressively swap them out, technology level by technology level, until they reach their top of the line. This clearly ended the "do cables matter" debate for me.
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