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Thanks for the suggestions. I have read about the reliability problems with the PPP, and would not buy one used. I believe the warranty is non transferable. I would the PPP or P5 B-stock to save some money. The P5 B-Stock pushes the limits of what I may be able to spend. I was thinking $1200 or so, but the P5 would be more like $2000. The BPT seems interesting. The Signature Plus is way more and has balanced isolation transformers; I have no idea what those are. The Audience AR6-TS is without second thought too much money. The Dmitri is more than I need and more than I can spend, but Running Springs does have some gear more suited for my needs and budget.
I have never believed in fancy power cables, and I still don't. If the power goes through your house on cheap wire, I don't see how the last few feet make any difference. It makes absolutely no sense to me. I would never argue with what someone else thinks they hear, so I don't want to start a debate on that. If however, the power is squeaky clean from some sort of conditioner, I can see the theoretical advantage to good cable. In that case they are used to maintain the enhanced quality.
The BPT 3.5 Ultra is within your budget, BPT sells those for $1699 on Audiogon (though you don't get the 30 day return window if you buy at that price). Balanced transformers are the oldest (but still one of the most effective) types of power conditioning. Normal unbalanced AC has 120V on the hot line, and 0V on the neutral. That's how it should be, but there's often a lot of noise riding on the neutral line. Balanced power splits that up into 60V/60V on both lines, which provides significantly reduced line noise. The balanced units from Equi=Tech, Furman, etc all work that way, but the BPT units can be further upgraded with noise reducing caps, bybee filters, etc. That's basically the difference between the 3.5 Ultra and the SP, in the latter most of the available upgrades are standard.
Used Audience AR6-Ts are commonly available for around $2500. You can find standard AR6s for around $1200 and AR12s for around $1800. They definitely aren't as good as the Teflon cap versions, but they can be upgraded by the factory at any time. You may also want to consider a Hydra V-ray, which are fairly common at around $1500 or so. Running Springs are really only worth it as used buys. They aren't as common as the Audience or Shunyata conditioners but they do appear occasionally. A used Jaco would probably be the best bet in your price range. The Haley just isn't that good, and it's really overpriced at $1900 for a new one.
As for power cords, all I can say is try one and see what happens. I found the differences between cords (especially when used with the PPP) to be considerable. I tried it with a number of cords - the original PS Audio Statement which was dull, had a limited treble and a kind of unfocused sound overall, a Wireworld Electra which seemed to do nothing and was the worst cord overall, a Siltech SPX-30 which had a polite, refined sound, but was somewhat limited in bass response and dynamics, a Custom Power Cord Co. HCF which had a kind of odd, slightly hollow sound in the midrange, and an Electraglide Epiphany X which lacked a bit of the refinement of the Siltech, but more than made up for it with awesome dynamics and the best soundstage of any of the cords I tried with the PPP. Wiring the rest of the system with Epiphany X further improved the system, although not to the same degree as connecting the PPP to the wall with the Epiphany as opposed to a stock cord.
I've since moved on to Kubala-Sosna cords which are way better than any of those, though of course also considerably more expensive.
