Lowering the noise floor

jc4659, exactly.
I think that in many or most cases power cords should be upgraded before interconnects, eventually both, of course. I did it myself, the cost was high, but it was worth it. Besides other things, noise level dropped big, distortion too, and both weren't too bad before the changes.

Power cords, power conditioning, and the Gutwire grounding cable do wonders in my system.

I have one word. Cryogenics. Cryo everything! Eveything in the signal path and everything not in the signal path. ❄️

I have spent more than $10k on treating both my home and system to reduce all types of contributors to the "noise floor": shot noise, EMF/RFI (from land, sea or air), EMR, grounding issues and so on (all Alan Maher Designs). My system only cost me $6.5k, but that $10k was spent gradually over the last 8 yrs, starting off very slowly and only progressing in price as confidence increased accordingly. But, for me, it just goes to show how important the role of this kind of problem does in fact play in music reproduction. I kept pursuing these solutions because I kept finding the ones I that I was using were working...if they didn't I would've given up on all that long ago. Everything improves. The modest $6.5k system I have is certainly modest no longer.

I could have spent that $10k on better gear, but it actually, I think, would've been a mistake, really. Sure, I could have had the inherent *potential* for better sound, but I would still be dealing with all the usual suspects that everyone else seems to be dealing with: EQ that doesn't really work well enough to truly solve problems, digititis, ss sound, "harsh" or "bright" recordings, best listening only at 4 a.m., upgraditis, insufficient timbre, tonal color, presence or sound staging, dependency on things like $$$ cables, critical speaker positioning, room peaks and nulls/room treatments...it even tamed how noisy that fridge is...all of that and much more has been either greatly reduced or eliminated. And that doesn't even take into account the transformational gains in both sound quality and presentation, all the way around.

Finding a way through this particular issue, for me, has proven to be the single biggest factor in finding that actual point at which I'm truly done with changing system hierarchy - exit strategy without compromise. I believe something like that might be the missing link for a lot of people. I suspect for most people that if they fail to investigate this aspect of music reproduction in their room space, they may be subject to the need to continually upgrade - and in vain perhaps because they might have reached their goals with less expensive gear, as I did - not by settling or compromising, but by finally solving all the right problems that were the ones that were actually standing in the way all along - and that would have continued to even after upgrading.

I think it's just possible we don't Rilly need the 'latest and greatest brand X', we just may need to focus more on what the longstanding audio problems actually are and how they can be fixed and what it might take to do that. Not for everybody for sure, but I can say that it was well more than worth it for me. No going back here. 

Cheers,
John

Once again a lot of voodoo science, and some suggestions that may have to do with sound quality but not necessarily with noise levels.
If you want lower noise levels (i.e. greater S/N) to increase dynamic range and detail resolution there are a few things you can do:
1 lower background noise (see my post above). In real life this is probably the most effective option because it is backgroud noise that masks the usually pretty good S/N performance of modern electronics. There is no point in listening to low noise gear if you are living next to an interstate with the windows wide open.
2 If you still think you can benefit from lower noise levels, look at the parts of the chain that have the worst S/N: FM radio, Phono inputs and rca interconnects, in that order.
FM radio is terrible with typically perhaps some 70 dB S/N, and there is nothing really you can do to get it close to the quality that can now be achieved by e.g. internet radio.
Vinyl and the necessary phono inputs are much worse than digital sources and line level inputs. Go digital and you have a far better S/N ratio. On most amplifiers the difference in S/N between phono (80 dB if you are lucky) and line level inputs is at least some 10 dB, which is not surprising given the amplification that is required, combined with the massive RIAA equalization.
Using balanced vs rca interconnects usually improves S/N by some 5 dB or more. Since these are typically used between a DAC/preamplifier and a power amplifier, we are already dealing with noise levels better than some 95 dB which is so good that the improvement may not necessarily be audible. But if you want the best, this is the way forward.