[martheen]

https://www.tomshardware.com/speakers/in-a-blind-test-audiop...

A better headphone/speaker in ideal room might be able to deliver better reproduction, but beyond that with lossless digital source and spec-conformant player, the result should be equal. Any fancy cabling, power supply, shielding (beyond what's required by the spec) shouldn't affect the result in anyway noticeable by the ear.

[soulofmischief]

In my old apartment, the power was so dirty that anytime one of my neighbors turned on a stove or hair dryer or anything with high induction, it would manifest as noise amd popping in my audio system.

This would occur to some degree even on my electronics that were running on a DC battery separate from the home's circuit. Less intense fluctuations still showed up in spectrograms when recording music.