What most important in the sound of your cables?

Interesting Calvinj. I have not heard any of the High Fidelity power cords, only the CT-1 interconnects which I own. IMHO, these interconnects strengths are organic, natural, full-bodied sound. I would not say that they are fast sounding cables at all though. They present too much musical weight to be considered fast cables. In my experiences, cables that offer great speed and resolution, Nordost, Stealth, Tara Labs, etc., do not offer the power and musical weight of cables like High Fidelity and Purist Audio.

Power cords I'm currently using include Nordost Valhalla, Elrod EPS-2/3S, and RSA HZ Crown Jewel. Of these, the Valhalla offers the most speed and resolution by far. The Elrod's are more musical and weighty, and the HZ CJ lies in between the two, though a bit closer to the Elrod's. I've been running the CT-1 between preamp and amp, while using KCI Silkworm+ and Silkworm+ SE between sources and preamp.

Clarity (no smearing, no muffled sound) without adding any strange artifacts to the sound, along with maintaining correct timbre and tone.

I found all inexpensive ICs and SCs to not be as clear and open as I'd prefer. And all expensive (for me, up to $2k) ones to excel in one area (clarity, or floating soundstage, etc.), but falter in another (bloated, strange harmonics, unnatural timbre, etc.), to the point of my not being able to overlook the faults.

It was a nightmare process for me, but I finally did stumble upon ICs and SCs which satisfied my requirements.

The Tempo Electric silver speaker cables that I arrived up have bettered all others used. They give me speed, resolution, detail, fullness, weight and what seems to be a natural warmth as opposed to one that tends to dull the sound to achieve the same result. With these cables one can get practically all the above attributes without sacrificing any particular aspect.

The same goes for my Darwin Silver ICs. When properly executed and with enough time for things to settle in, one need not spend too much to get great results.

It's all in the sum of the parts. All parts.

Also, one must not forget to twiddle and tweak the speakers footings (spikes, cones, discs, wood and/or tile bases) as I've discovered just how much the base can add or detract to the sound, enhancing or detracting from what the cables bring to the table.

All the best,
Nonoise

I have a stock power cord on my ear.

I've heard of audio jewelry, but even this is a bit ridiculous. 8-)

Simply to be unobtrusive - add and detract nothing.