garcianc2003:

I picked up my Prelude on clearance from Audio Advisor. I doubt I would have ever ordered one if I had to pay the full retail price. $100 and under is my price range. That narrows the field a bit, but the two options I would pursue would be the Shunyata Research Venom for $100, or build your own.

Regarding the second option, I've got parts on order and plan to make some DIY cables soon. My power cord will consist of the hospital grade connectors from Marinco with DH Labs' Power Plus A/C cable. You can order the connectors from Parts Express (Wattgate and Marinco are good brands) and the bulk cable directly from DH Labs for $6.50 a foot; or from Parts Connexion for $5.85 per foot.

So as a roundabout way of confirming Ritz's point, I would never -- not do you have to -- pay $1,000 for a good power cord.

Sorry for the late reply. Thanks Videodrome.
I am not a tweaker by nature. I just don't get a warm fuzzy when the cord looks like it could be crushed under the weight of the equipment it plugs into. I'll check out your recommendations.

Getting away from cords, I am surprised nobody has brought up the issue of port-plugging...

I just read this thread. There are many companies selling upgraded cables. Some of these make sense, others are, well snake oil. The use of litz type wire in speaker cables to reduce 'skin effect' for better high frequency response is one laugher. While skin effect is real, it generally doesn't make any difference until you reach several MEGAHERTZ! The most important thing you want in speaker cable is low resistance, especially with 4 ohm speakers.
So a friend of mine wired his speakers up with #10-2 romex! PS. they sounded great.

Heh. If you didn't need the cabling to be flexible, I could see that working OK. I'm a big fan of Canare star quad 11S cables for speakers.

Best,