Actually, you'd have to pry my Black Sand PCs from my cold dead hands before I'd let them go. They have made that much of a difference in my system. I am most curious about comparing the Mongoose PC on my Running Springs Jaco. One of these days I will pop for a BS Statement 20a PC but just can't afford it at this point (and you never see those pop up used).
I thought the same thing before I tried Paul's cords. I was using the BS Statement One pc's on my amps and Silver Ref every place else.
Don't get me wrong, John's power cords are excellent and did a great job in my system.
However, when I started putting Paul's cords into play (starting with the regular cords first and eventually moving up to the conditioner cords), they just seemed to do a better job letting me connect with the music (especially the conditioner cords).
How did they let me connect in a better way? Well they lowered the noise floor, which allows for more detail and presence. It was easier to pick up cues from the recordings and the increase in mid-range clarity and presence gave the recordings a more of "I am there" feeling. I also thought that the hi's were slightly less grainy and a tad more natural sounding than the Statement One's and even more so when compared to the Ref V's. The bass is slightly fuller with Paul's cords and I find that very pleasing. Of course, others might not and I could easily see somebody preferring the Statement One's in this area.
Overall, I thought the improvements by going with Paul's rhodium 15 amp conditioner cords on my amps and copper 3 amp conditioner cords for my Modwright TP and Plinius M8 was worth making the change. I also use a non-conditioner 20 amp copper cord on my FurmanSound Ref IT-20 power conditioner. As I didn't have a BS 20 amp cord (or any good 20 amp cord for that matter), the improvement over the stock cord was very substantial. I also have used a 15 amp copper cord on a RSA Haley and felt that it helped improve things in the manner I described above.
As always, the best way to figure out what is the best PC for your system is try them out. Given how happy I was with John and his Black Sand products, I was skeptical that anything would improve on them for a sane amount of money...to my ears, the Kaplan cords (both regular and conditioner cords) did it.
George