Best Budget power Cords

I am reasonably sure that a poorly shielded power cord can degrade the sound and/or create rfi problems. Beyond that I am not sure what you get when you start playing with different cords.
I have recently purchased 2 Volex 14 ga. cords from Newark Electronics for $35, including shipping and they seem to work fine. The changes, were, however only subtly for the better. These are the same cords that many diy'ers modify by changing the plugs.

Just put together some Asylum power cords from diycable.com and heard an improvement from stock cords in a headphone system. If you put them together yourself they're $38 for 4'or assembled for $63. In my speaker system I use Silver Audio Power Burst at $140 for 3'which definately made a difference. Both systems have PS audio power conditioning. I've never actually compared the two in the same system.

Absolute Power Cord.

Or, give Rick a call at Virtual Dynamics. He offers a 14 day trial period, plus free shipping. If you do a search for Virtual Dynamics on AudiogoN, you can find his contact info.

I have a few Harmonic Technology Pro-11AC power cords. They can be had between $90 - $125 here at Audiogon if you keep looking for them. They will most definitely be an improvement over the options mentioned above. You have a very good amp and CD player, they deserve a decent power cord. I have power cords whose values range between $125 and $1500 in my system. My Musical fidelity HT600 power amp showed significant improvement when I tried 5 different power cords. I settled on a Yamamura Quantum, but the Harmonic Tech was much better than the stock cord. Good luck.

The Assylum cord is as good as it gets.
You can pay 5 times more and get nothing better.