I appreciate you laying your your specific reasons for defending him. In response to your reasons, I would make the following comments:
Yes, the cable has low resistance and did show less AC noise - but there are four important follow-up points to this:
- Amir already explicitly notes this in his review and video on the power cord
- We only know that the cord has these qualities because @amirm measured it! Danny refuses to share measurements of it, claims it's not possible to measure what it does, and strongly implies that he has never even measured it himself
- The cord did not "reduce" AC noise - Amir repeatedly emphasizes that a power cord with no other components inside simply does not, cannot, filter AC. What Amir found was that when he created an artificial situation, taking a large power transformer and putting it right next to each AC cord at just the right angle or orientation to make the cord pick up EMI from the transformer, the GR AC AC cord picked up less noise than the generic one. But in a normal condition, the GR cord will simply pass the AC signal, with all its noise and junk, through to the audio component, just like the generic one will. The GR cord only makes a difference with airborne interference external to the AC feed.
- As Amir notes, the low resistance and lower AC noice are irrelevant - they have no impact on audio reproduction because we're talking about a power cord, not an interconnect - and because the measurements of audio equipment output are totally unchanged with this cord vs a generic AC cord.
As for the quality of Amir's amp and setup, the entire argument Danny and others who take a similar approach make is that if you can't hear a difference with their AC cord, it's because your system isn't good enough - so using a state of the art amp should
reveal the AC cord's benefits to the max. Therefore using a state of the art amp provides the
best case scenario for Danny's AC cord.
"The guy did good mods for speakers" - do we know that?
You are absolutely right that people routinely pay more than they need to for a given level of performance. But here at ASR, if someone pays $1400 for a good DAC that performs the same as a $200 DAC, then that's the fact that we acknowledge: both DACs perform the same, but one is a lot more expensive. Whether you think that's a waste of money or a valid purchase because of looks, built quality, where it's made, or something else, we can all agree that they perform the same. But that's not the issue here. Danny's not saying his $350 AC cord performs the same as generic cords but is built to be much sturdier. He's saying it audibly improves the sound coming out of your system, "lifting veils," improving the soundstage, and so on. An AC cord can't do that. So people can buy whatever they want, including his cable - but that's not what we're talking about here.
Amir just reviewed an NAD amplifier that costs $3700 and gave it his highest rating. You can get audibly indistinguishable performance, and the same power levels, for about 1/3 that price, but he still gave it his highest rating. Conversely, Amir has reviewed inexpensive gear and given it his lowest rating because it performs poorly. So it's not about cost. It's about what the gear does. If you want to spend extra money because of how an item looks or feels, or its fit and finish, or the quality of its display and remote control, go for it. But if you are spending extra money because you think the item improves the sound of your system, and the measurements show it doesn't (and can't), then here at ASR, folks are going to point out that fact.