As far as engineering goes, I don't think that they could drive a railroad train.
And what qualifies you to make this claim? How many high end audio products have you designed, built and brought successfully to market? If the answer is none, then I don't think this is a train you are qualified to drive either.
I've met a lot of people in the high end over the years and Caelin at Shunyata is very committed to product research and development. For what it's worth, I've been there to listen to his reference system and it is one of the most musical I've ever heard. I'd put his system squarely in the top ten best that I've had the pleasure to experience, with maniacal attention to detail.
First, you all bitch because even though you can hear differences between power cords, you need some science to "prove" it to you. Now that there is at least what I think is a reasonable effort in that direction, of course it's all pooh poohed by people like you, who claim to know better.
Personally, while I think power cords and cable are the icing on the cake in a good system, I still think it's the last thing you should ever spend serious money on until you've done everything else.
No one is putting a gun to your head to buy any of this stuff, and there are enough dealers that will offer home trial and/or your money back if you don't hear it/don't like it. So where is the harm in any of this?
But it's the same argument (and it's boring), you either don't have a resolving room/system/software, can't hear it or can't afford it, so your judgement is that it's bad or it doesn't exist.
A few years ago I handed the keys to my Mercedes E420 to a buddy of mine that drives a Camry and he said there was no difference. It's the same thing, but in his world, there was no difference because a car was merely something to go from A to B in. On the other hand, my 70 year old mother in law, just went from driving a Benz to a Camry because my father in law is on a frugal kick and she said to me at dinner the other day, "I hate that car, the Mercedes was much better."
Typically, if you are driven by performance (with anything) you tend to seek out more performance until you run out of time, patience, money or the ability to experience a meaningful difference, if you are pursuing something from an enthusiast perspective.
Whether it's a hifi or a fly fishing rod, the more time you spend with it, the more you get used to the performance available and if obsessed enough, try to get more. If you don't that's ok too. I think most people on this forum and hifi enthusiasts in general upgrade their systems until a point where it all feels "good enough". However, good enough for one person, may not be for another. That's where all the cable, etc comes in.
If you've taken your room, setup, etc as far as it can go, you can wring some extra performance by upgrading to premium cable. How much you want to invest and whether that difference is worth it to you is your choice alone.
If you don't want to spend money on premium wire for your system, so be it.
