What Matters and What is Nonsense

I also feel that good powercords and interconnects and speaker cable are more of a component in ones system. 

Phomchick,

RE DSD recordings and dynamic range:

You are correct, sir! Check out the dynamic range in the vinyl. Whoa!

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Michael+tilson+Thomas&album=

I am in general agreement with the OP.

Though I think the section about the importance of the recording methods could essentially have gone without saying. I don’t know any audiophiles - "tweakers" or not - who don’t realize the role the recording/mastering etc methods are to the sound of any track.

It’s in the playback system that there is lots of confusion and disagreement.

I myself put the emphasis on the biggest bang for the buck: speakers, modifying room acoustics, and speaker positioning. To that end my cabling is simply "competently manufactured cables, chosen for the task." For instance I have a long run of belden (10 awg, probably over-kill) speaker cables that go under my floors from my source room to my speaker room. (Which must be a frightening to those who believe they need cable risers even in the few feet from their speaker to amps. Imagine the audiophile house of horrors to which I’m exposing my cables!). I use stock power cords, and a mishmash of interconnects. Still using an old Benchmark DAC1 - not even usb!

For me the importance of putting money into good speakers, and paying attention to acoustics, is re-enforced every time I listen to another system employing expensive cables, DACs, etc. For instance I have been auditioning many different speakers for the last couple years or so.
Inevitably the speakers - usually ones well lauded and essentially competing around the same price range as my own - are hooked up to fire-hose cables (or Nordost or whatever), super expensive AC cables, conditioners, expensive CD transports or servers, etc, etc.

And pretty much every time I come home, play the same tracks on my system, it sounds at least as good or better - I hear every reverb trail, every this and that, all presented smoothly, with finess and dynamics.
The tens of thousands in additional expense for cabling and accessories sure don’t seem to show up as any advantage in the store auditions - certainly not enough to overcome good speakers and acoustics.
(That’s also true when I listen to some pal’s systems with crazy expensive Nordost cabling).

So I’m really happy not to have been convinced that I need to have spent time, thought, and MUCH more money on cables and tweaks.
(I’ve seen some people around here actually recommend spending something like 30 percent of your budget on cables!).

None of that is to proclaim that none of the expensive accessories can make a sonic difference; it’s only to say where I find my own money is best spent.

That said: I have in my own experience seen the effects of amplifiers on a system. I prefer certain tube amplification over SS in my systems. Even though we may be talking objectively subtle differences, they seem to play a large role subjectively. I find myself much more drawn to sitting down in front of my system when using certain tube amplification.

Further, at one point I re-did my 2 channel room to do home theater duty as well. This meant switching the usual speaker/listening sofa position 180 degrees. Talk about a rude reminder of the effect of room acoustics!   Once I did that, the change in acoustics made my speakers sound like crap! Sucked out, dry, brittle, you name it. I was utterly despondent as I didn’t even want to listen to anything any more. But I had been temporarily using an old Harmon Kardon SS amp (because my CJ amps weren’t working). A good amp and I’d always enjoyed my smaller systems using it - in fact it had been powering my speakers and things sounded fine before I switched the room around. So it wasn’t the problem, it was the acoustics.

The HK amp went on the blink and I had to borrow another. My pal had an old Eico HF-81 14W side tube amp lying around and lent it to me. I knew nothing about that amp, just wanted sound coming out of my speakers. When I started playing music I was gobsmacked by the sound - big, rich, full, organic. There was that sound I’d been longing for and was used to in my previous set up! My butt was suddenly stuck in the chair listening. That’s all it took to show me I could still get in to two channel audio. Afterward I commissioned an acoustician when remodelling the room and now my 2 channel sounds better than ever.

So I’m certainly an audiophile who can obsess over little things. I’m super sensitive to alterations of tone in my system. But I reap so much more in dialling acoustics and speaker positioning than anything I’ve heard from a cable or conditioner of any type (or other tweaks - and I have had access to many tweaks and high end cables etc).