Here we see the Toblerone barrel slid against the US power plug. On the other two faces it says 'ShadoXXSeries' and 'DR Acoustics' respectively. The cable loop shows bend radius. It's very flexible for its girth but longitudinal twists show very little play. If plug orientation requires adjustment to meet your component or wall, you'll best sort that with how you dress the cable.

Here comes nobody's idea of a snug fit. In fairness, the generic plugs on universal power bars we use for appliances and computers do no better unless they're right-angle affairs. Then sheer geometry avoids slippage. My subconscious clearly expected this upscale Furutech to grip like a lockjaw but the brand of sockets our landlord's contractor installed are likely the culprit. Furutech's own wall modules should be the hammer but as perennial renters, we use the stock sockets.

As long-suffering audiophiles, our household certainly hasn't driven generic power cords for ages. First up in the media room, the Red Fire Ultra flexed its lower-gauge (thicker!) muscle against a 10-gauge cable terminated with a lesser Furutech UK plug and Oyaide IEC. Whilst my inner blue-collar guy wasn't happy to admit it—isn't there ever an end to this bleeding game he whined?—inserting DR's cord between wall outlet and a Furutech rtp-6e power block made an obvious improvement, not mere change. With the other cord, the sound was smaller, more distanced, compact and damped. Here 'damped' wasn't superior control. It was a sense of constriction. Imagine a weight on your chest to breathe harder. Whilst this intersected with sounding smaller, the same damping also was a separate impression. There was less ease, gush and freedom. As descriptors, those words look pretty pretentious. The actual experience was quite crystal though. The thinner cable had the 4-piece system of Sony Bravia TV, Oppo's top Bluray player, Wyred4Sound STP-SE preamp and Goldmund/Job 225 sound less robust, physically smaller and on the colour palette, paler.

Goldmund's $1'699 ask for the Job 225 made Daniel's sticker harder to swallow. Still, there was no arguing. Against our resident cord, his delivered more oomph, scale and presence. Truth told, I found no fault with any of it. Perversely then given how I just mentioned the Job 225, these effects were pretty much a perfect stand-in for what upgrading to a more powerful amp from the same maker does. It won't shift things sideways into a different flavour. It intensifies the existing flavour. Not that it stopped me from thinking how a lot more engineering and materials go into a power amp than power cord. From a sheer effects perspective, this cord swap simply behaved like an amp upgrade. It was a Johnny Cash finger at the haters. My blue-collar guy winced.