I have MERLIN cables on My DVD player,AMP and Plasma and there IMHO definatly a slight improvement to overall proformance but this improvement was not as big as to when I replaced the Mains cables all the way back to the RCD Power board but naturally this is not a cheep option, but depending upon when your home was constucted may have a vast improvement on all electrical equipment within your home.
There is a viaible alternative to these expensive £200 a metre power cables which IMHO give just as good a result. I have just help My Brother set up his system and I found a Guy who makes His own power cables at a fraction of some of the prices mentioned in this thread, andwhen I used them instead of My Merlin cables just too see what they were like, the results were equally as good as the Merlin's. (If you want Prof, I can send you his info over XBOX LIVE)
I am a strong beliver in using quality cables, but £200 for just over a metre of power cable is madness and definatly carrys a nice litttle profit for the makers!