audiphile power cords

The general rule of 10% is good to follow if you are confused by what sort of quuality to go for in a powercord or Interconnect.
Just as a suggestion for folks who are unsure. For those crazies who feel certain, no problem.
I use Pangea powercords. I like thema lot and yes they make a difference. I carefully compared several of the Pangea AC14SE, the AC9 and AC9SE.. all found a place in my system.
Some sound better here, or there.. So definitely I can hear the differences in them on my Powerconditioners, preamps, poweramp, and DAC.

"Has any component manufacturer ever gotten on board with recommending any aftermarket power cords for their equipment?"

Mitch4t, one example: Joule Electra recommends Purist Audio Design power cords for their preamps. I contacted them and this was their preference and recommendation. Price of entry though can be steep. I had a used Ferox Dominus once.

Lots of different opinions. I think that's what makes this hobby interesting. Sounds like the best approach for me is to maybe purchase used merchandise and see how it works out for me in my system. Is 50% of new retail in line for used merchandise in good condition?

The right price as a % of retail will vary, especially with wires.

Best to set a budget and go with that.

Wires are excellent candidates to buy used in order to get the right price.

I bought a very high quality $300 retail Pangea power cord new for $90 from Audio Adviser via Amazon recently. So you can see that manufacturer retail prices are often not a good indicator of actual value, especially with hard to nail down products like expensive wires.

Bojack gets my "best post of the week" award...agree or not, it's fabulous. I like power cord descriptions from Pangea and the like as the bombast kills me...it seems that any system without premium AC cords must sound like screaming death bats, and with them the electrons are SO much happier and more organized when entering the labyrinth of fuses, resistors, transformers, the spleen, chokes, filters, etc., that your system will suddenly rise from a cloud of stinking mud fog and fix your life.