Lowering the noise floor

I think I understand what you’re saying with the magnetic type noise (mu metal, yes??) and also the minimized player. It’s the "...all RFI/EMI type produced or carried by the house AC, cables, fuses, power cords..." part that’s confusing me...not sure what method of noise removal here you are referring to??

I'm not sure what Geoff is referring to either, but I'd like learn. Are you off the grid, Geoff? ( sounds like you did something more than that though). That's something I'd be interested in doing and believe it would greatly lower the noise floor. Adding the battery powered Concert Fidelity DAC to my system greatly lowered the noise floor and as the OP pointed out, that allows the music to really come forth. I'd be very interested in pursuing off the grid solutions for my entire system but don't know much about doing so. Would love to hear people's experiences here. 

I've never actually tried that, but it may be 'somewhat' worthwhile to at least look at I think. There is less noise with batteries, but from what I've gathered it never totally goes away. But, you could expect rather good results with all except most amplifiers...just not enough playing time or dynamic oomph to satisfy according to what I've seen, so going **completely** off the grid would be rather complicated and expensive, possibly to the point of being impracticable. But, with the lower wattage devices, perhaps very likely it's feasible.

Also, homes with solar power apparently often have noise problems from the cheaply made solar panel supporting electronics. Solutions have been found there too, but again, get rather pricey and specialized.

Bingo! I’m off the grid! I use a portable battery powered player, a Walkman. I use Grado RS 60 headphones. By getting off the grid I avoid all the ills associated with the grid, and all the ills associated with cables, fuses, and the other stuff I already mentioned. Trust me, it’s audible, even on my modest system. I mean, I still can tweak it, right. I use only treated batteries and everything has been quasi cryod at a minimum and everything is mechanically isolated. And some other, you know, stuff. 😬 No more grid, no more noise, no more distortion. No more teacher’s dirty looks. Since technically SNR is the power of the signal over the sum of the Noise + Distortion powers, eliminating ANY type of Noise or Distortion would be a good thing, right? Just on the level of Signal to Noise Ratio. Including induced magnetic fields’ distortion and the distortion of wires, fuses or cables that are in the wrong direction, etc.

Thanks for the explanation.

"...eliminating ANY type of Noise or Distortion would be a good thing, right?" 

Most certainly sir.