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

@inna

the approach I listed above is EXACTLY the process I’ve used since I found out wires do matter. naturally, I keep this all within reason and within available means, of course.

the colorful asides were some what exaggerated, but only slightly. any way you slice it, listening to the exact same tunes, and taking notes all the while,  over and over again,  wears on a person. 

extend this effort over the expanse of months and it gets to be a real chore and soon is only pursued by the most compulsive and obsessive sorts. 

once very good which usually gets escalated to ‘great’ once satisfaction sets in, is attained, the process ends.

without direct or immediate comparisons a subjective account,  over time,  tends to get inflated if there is an element of satisfactory performance routinely being demonstrated.

how many in this past time have said they love the sound  of their rig, yet have done nothing, or haven’t mentioned they have,  with room acoustical treatments. or have not addressed the bass bumps inherent in every room?  

the one item I did not express is ‘retrying’ a previous contender cord or IC after it was discarded as the latest asemblage is then in place. perhaps now, it could be the Rosetta stone that brings everything together revealing still better performance. 

I try to not  be too pedantic with my  verbage at times.

as for a purely analog sourced arrangement, the same process applies. get a base line somehow, and usually that starts with PCs. then ICs. However I get the impression with tTs some factors not overtly apparent if at all elsewhere, reside in that arena. cartridgesalignment. tracking. tone arms. . MM/MC. isolation. Phono pre matching, etc.

then of course there’s the record selection process too. which version? re-issued? which pressing? its quite involved IMO.

TT lovers have their work cut out for them.

BTW, immense satisfaction, and that’s what this is all about, can be had outside the vinyl world when things are addressed  appropriately.

 

@inna 
Seriously I suggest you have a go at building your own power cords if that is the cabling you wish to start at.
There are lots of threads on this subject and LOTS of information on the web as to how best to approach it.

Now there maybe some really expensive boutique power cords that best my home made items but as I am in for about $80 max on each power cord I cannot say as I am too interested in exploring that avenue.

And truthfully my home made cords were a decent improvement on the mix of Nordost and Wireworld ones I was using so I sold all of those then moved onto speaker cables.

inna,

If your system’s not broken, why are you continuing to try and fix it?

And how are you going to know when it’s fixed and you’re done?

Listening to good music via a high fidelity home audio system is meant to be a very emotionally satisfying experience that is relaxing, soothing and rejuvenates your mental and emotional health.

Being obsessive and compulsive about the performance of one’s high fidelity home audio system is actually medically recognized as a disease.
Constantly being concerned with fine tuning one’s audio system performance with alternate cables and cords for marginal sonic improvements is the epitome of obsessive and compulsive and is definitely not relaxing, soothing and rejuvenating to your mental and emotional well being.

Why make perfect the enemy of the very good?

Remember, music soothes the savage beast, not fine tuning.

Are you hearing me? You are a friggin’ savage beast, not a quivering blob of audio insecurities curled up in a fetal position crying in the corner for his fine tuning mommy!

You are a savage beast, soldier! Break free of your audio cable and cord chains and get yourself musically soothed!

There is no joy in OCD so set yourself FREE. See?

Just my 2 cents,
Tim

Last year I stated upgrading my Magnepan 3.6 to 20.7s. I like the 3.6 sound a lot. just mainly wanted the greater clarity from the different designed midrange in the 20.7s. After I bought some slightly better powercords. The powercords made me want more.. Since they did improve the sound. In between my dealer loaned me a digital player, which I bought one of those too.
Back to the power.. Some Furutech AC duplex were on sale and I decided to try a few. When those made a noticeable difference to the good. I bought a few more. Then a few more. and then few more.. adding the duplex even inside the two power conditioners I use. And then even better power cords on sale.. So I bought those.. Finally some AC noise remover gizmos on sale. I bought two, yeah they do good stuff, so bought five more. (borrowing a noise sniffer from my dealer also helped me to place the noise removal devices)
So some of the upgrading was buying stuff I thought about, but since ’on sale’ time to do it instead of waffling maybe later.. (rare on sale meant buy now). My main interest was clarity.. Better seeing into the music. Like vocals, on Rock became clearer, Startling realistic midbass...
Anyway, during, in between, and after buying all that stuff, I was adjusting.. Swapping powercords here or there to adjust the tone.. Even the fact I had dual pairs of duplex for the amp.. One Furutech GTX-D Gold, the other a Furutech GTX-D NCF Rhodium.. and swapping the powercord plug from one to the other changed the tone slightly overall (curiously while breaking in, I liked the Gold better, then the Rhodium, then back to the Gold.. but once the Rhodium finally was really broken in, it is the one I use all the time now).
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. The last things I had been moving were a few powercords. Two were DH Lab $8ft wire with Furutech ’28’ plugs, two Pangea AC9SE mk2 Signature, and two Pangea AC14XL. For amp, one preamp, and the Furman conditioner power cords back and forth to find just the right best sound. Ending up with the AC14XL on the amp, The DH on the Furman and preamp, And the AC9SE Sig to the Rudistor RPX-33 headamp. trying stuff all over, and not just where some guru theory sez’ it should go. So in particular a heavy amp cord on the little headamp? and a smaller 14 gauge on the main amp... SOUND not theory placement.
(Just to note I had previously bought way better IC a few years back, jumping up to Kimber KS1016 and KS1116 series IC which I felt would be good through any future upgrades..)
I hope this answers inna’s question a bit.

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.