What is your approach to system fine tuning with cables and cords ?


Everything already sounds quite good, no obvious weak links. 
inna
Elizabeth, that's certainly tuning, though not what I would call fine tuning. First, you pursue clarity more than anything and this might make it one track tuning. I think, all elements of sonic presentation should be equally addressed, starting with lowest distortion possible and quietest background. Then, you give preference to high frequencies, when in fact one should not differentiate, not to mention that as you know most of the music is in the midrange.
Also, the power cords you were experimenting with are entry level and your speaker cables are about the same or even lower. That's not good enough, you don't hear what your speakers are capable of, in certain areas probably not even close. In other words, it's premature for fine tuning, the system is not ready for that yet.
I guess I do want what I like, not what someone ELSE likes, is the difference. True I do concentrate on a few aspects, making them as perfect as I can.. Many other aspects follow along anyway, particularly a quiet black background. So I really do not need to address them. Some areas I care little about are super dynamics, and bass, also even frequency response, whatever it is is good enough IMO. In fact I despise gut massage bass. and would never have it. Just my choice of speakers, Magnepan clearly no bass driver attack whacks needed in my system.. Actually to the point i have deliberately reduced the bass via power conditioning and wires, from what can be had in a pair of 20.7s... Back down to about what was in the 3.6 I had before. though with a bit more midbass bloom and finess .
I can see your point about modifying the system. but realize the mods go all ways..To do what YOU WANT, not what some guru orders you to have.. ’or else’. All these things are subtle, so a non audiophile would never in a million years notice anything different. So for folks who love gut massage bass, from my modifying, I could tell them want to do to add to it! s well as reduce it.Clarity is what I have chased because I love it. I enjoy it. And the enjoyment is the key If I were somehow required to have only what some other person wanted. I probably would has settled for a cheap all in one system and saved $50,000. Some folks chase a standard dream. perfect sound true to the origin. Some understand THEMSELVES better, and chase what they really want. If in some audiophiles eye that makes me a fail, not my problem.
Ha , I just love these people who judge sound by the name of the equipment used . A long time , experienced diyer could put together a system with no badges of names on anything and some guys would assume it is not to their standards , Small minded . Come out of the cave man !
Elizabeth, I am glad that you get the message.
I will add only this, just in case that I might be right, at least to a degree. Speakers, any speakers, should sing not scream.
Elizabeth stated:
 "One reason it was easy to for me to hear differences.. My drive for clarity brought the sound to the edge of lean over and over.. keeping it warm enough with the clarity uppermost was the challenge. So the sound has been on this edge for years.. Finding ways to make it warm up a bit and still keep the clarity. So I am really used to hearing this and able to make adjustments to bring it back to warm enough to make me happy, while still having amazing clarity."
    
    Hello Elizabeth,
     I think I understand your desire to balance clarity/leanness and warmth in your system's overall sound quality.  You enjoy the clarity because it not only enables you to hear fine details in the music but it also allows you to discern whether or not alternate power cords and Ics, Furutech duplexes,  AC noise removal gizmos and other smaller changes are actually creating marginal improvements in your system's performance.
     However,  you find yourself constantly guarding against your system's overall sound becoming too lean because you also enjoy a warm quality to be present in your system.  
     This all makes sense to me and seems familiar because I have the same inclinations in my preferred overall system sound.  
     I previously thought I achieved this by pairing a VTL 2.5 preamp with NOS Mullard tubes and various decent quality class AB ss amps (McCormack, Aragon, etc.) to drive my older pair of Magnepan 2.7QR speakers.
     A few years ago, however, I swapped out my good quality class AB  stereo amp for a pair of good quality class D mono blocks.  These new amps were a revelation to me in terms of clarity.  In retrospect, I thought my former amps provided clarity but these new amps caused me to redefine what system clarity, neutrality, transparency and detail actually was.
     I thought improved pcs, ics, speaker cables, isolation platforms and dedicated AC lines resulted in better overall performance of my system but now think it may have just been a placebo effect.  With the class D monos in my system, all of these types of small changes,comparisons and marginal improvements are clearly audible and obvious. 
     Anyway, back to the subject.  Just like you, I also enjoy some warmth in my system sound.  But, after some experimentation, I believe I've achieved this warmth in an alternative approach that you may find interesting, counterintuitive and informative.
     As an experiment, I reconfigured my system with optimum clarity as the goal.  I replaced my tube preamp with a good quality very neutral ss unit and setup a hi-res computer audio system as a source with a 2 TB NAS.  I ripped my entire cd collection to the NAS's hard drive and also downloaded numerous hi-res 24bit/96Khz FLAC music files recorded direct to digital from Sound Liaison.com in Europe. 
     The results to my system's overall sound was amazing and counterintuitive.  The sound was very detailed and transparent with the quality of the recording and mastering clearly varying depending on the cd file played but the hi-res direct to digital 24/96 FLAC files were significantly and consistently superior in recording and mastering quality with resultant improved detail, sound staging and especially improved dynamics that sounded more realistic like the dynamics present on live music.
     But the truly amazing discovery was that I still perceived the bloom and warmth on both cd and hi-res files.  Yes, it varied in intensity by file and music played but my main point is that it wasn't missing and too lean.
     So, I've come to the conclusion that we should probably add the music played as another method of imparting bloom and warmth to a system's overall sound.
Tim