Cheap tweaks...What would YOU reccomend?

Outlets...upgrade your outlets? Nitty gritty, if you're outlet is part of a branched circuit instead of a dedicated circuit you'll need to consider something before changing them out with hospital grade or the one's you find for sale on the audiphile sites.
What else is on that branched circuit? Turn your breaker off and figure out what else is on there. Fridge, flourescent fixtures, anything has a motor? There is no need to upgrade those outlets then, all you're going to do is allow that noise on that branched circuit to become moreso...just a little food for thought. Power conditioner would be your best bet at that stage.
Do you live where brown outs are frequent? You know, that area where your electric fluctuates for just a brief second, then get a UPS.

I checked out Rick Schultz of EVS audio's web site after reading about him here on Audiogon. He makes something called a ground enhancer, their $30 a pair with a money back guarantee. I got a pair yesterday, they just hook onto the neg. speaker connection on each speaker. Very easy to take on & off to compare, they work as advertised!!! They improve everything.
When my wife came home I had her sit & listen to a Dianna Krall track then I removed them & replayed the track, she said the vocal was more open sounding the 1st time & she had no idea what I had done.
After a few hours there was even more improvement.
Well worth the 30 bucks!!!
http://www.tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/EVS_Ground_Enhancers.html

Billgaw, there are several manufacturers of such devices. I have tried those by Exemplar and found they had a very nice improvement. When I got Rick Schultz's High Fidelity series of cables, I accidentally noted that without the Loops, the sound was better.

This is but one of several instances where I noted tweaks that worked with other cabling did not work with HFC's "magnetic conduction." I wonder if these use "magnetic conduction."

Opps, I've learned it is not the Rick Schultz of High Fidelity Cables.

Romex Power Cord - 8 feet long

Since there are a few post in Agon that mention this I thought I'd give it a try.

Had some 12 gauge cable lying around - the 4 conductor stuff used for two-way light switching.

Stripped off the sheathing and removed the bare earth wire leaving me with three insulated conductors - I used the red for earth

Figured I'd better braid them to keep noise/hum to a minimum.

Soldered Spade terminals on the ends so the mains connectors had lots of surface area to bind to.

Attached some gold/copper mains conectors like these
Mains Connector

All parts cost about $35 and a couple of hours of my time

Results...
> Not quite as quiet as my Furutech, but required full volume to hear anything
> More dynamic and spacious than my Furutech 15 gauge
> Almost as good as my Furutech 10 gauge

Hard to believe? well it brings power to your outlet doesn't it?

RE: the trivial noise issue
- first I had to crank the volume to full and put my ear to the speaker in order to hear it
- I believe this is due to my less than stellar braiding
- get the conductors the same length and tighten the braid and the issue probably goes away

I didn't expect it to be quite this good - should be even better once burned-in

For the 8ft braided length I used approx. 9.5 ft of Romex

Only issue is it's bit springy - but it does support itself - no sagging at the outlet :-)

Wanna try a new power cord, but the cost is putting you off? Try this tweak - something to do on those cold winter nights :-)