What is your approach to system fine tuning with cables and cords ?

Elizabeth, I am glad that you get the message.
I will add only this, just in case that I might be right, at least to a degree. Speakers, any speakers, should sing not scream.

Elizabeth stated:
 "One reason it was easy to for me to hear differences.. My drive for clarity brought the sound to the edge of lean over and over.. keeping it warm enough with the clarity uppermost was the challenge. So the sound has been on this edge for years.. Finding ways to make it warm up a bit and still keep the clarity. So I am really used to hearing this and able to make adjustments to bring it back to warm enough to make me happy, while still having amazing clarity."
    
    Hello Elizabeth,
     I think I understand your desire to balance clarity/leanness and warmth in your system's overall sound quality.  You enjoy the clarity because it not only enables you to hear fine details in the music but it also allows you to discern whether or not alternate power cords and Ics, Furutech duplexes,  AC noise removal gizmos and other smaller changes are actually creating marginal improvements in your system's performance.
     However,  you find yourself constantly guarding against your system's overall sound becoming too lean because you also enjoy a warm quality to be present in your system.  
     This all makes sense to me and seems familiar because I have the same inclinations in my preferred overall system sound.  
     I previously thought I achieved this by pairing a VTL 2.5 preamp with NOS Mullard tubes and various decent quality class AB ss amps (McCormack, Aragon, etc.) to drive my older pair of Magnepan 2.7QR speakers.
     A few years ago, however, I swapped out my good quality class AB  stereo amp for a pair of good quality class D mono blocks.  These new amps were a revelation to me in terms of clarity.  In retrospect, I thought my former amps provided clarity but these new amps caused me to redefine what system clarity, neutrality, transparency and detail actually was.
     I thought improved pcs, ics, speaker cables, isolation platforms and dedicated AC lines resulted in better overall performance of my system but now think it may have just been a placebo effect.  With the class D monos in my system, all of these types of small changes,comparisons and marginal improvements are clearly audible and obvious. 
     Anyway, back to the subject.  Just like you, I also enjoy some warmth in my system sound.  But, after some experimentation, I believe I've achieved this warmth in an alternative approach that you may find interesting, counterintuitive and informative.
     As an experiment, I reconfigured my system with optimum clarity as the goal.  I replaced my tube preamp with a good quality very neutral ss unit and setup a hi-res computer audio system as a source with a 2 TB NAS.  I ripped my entire cd collection to the NAS's hard drive and also downloaded numerous hi-res 24bit/96Khz FLAC music files recorded direct to digital from Sound Liaison.com in Europe. 
     The results to my system's overall sound was amazing and counterintuitive.  The sound was very detailed and transparent with the quality of the recording and mastering clearly varying depending on the cd file played but the hi-res direct to digital 24/96 FLAC files were significantly and consistently superior in recording and mastering quality with resultant improved detail, sound staging and especially improved dynamics that sounded more realistic like the dynamics present on live music.
     But the truly amazing discovery was that I still perceived the bloom and warmth on both cd and hi-res files.  Yes, it varied in intensity by file and music played but my main point is that it wasn't missing and too lean.
     So, I've come to the conclusion that we should probably add the music played as another method of imparting bloom and warmth to a system's overall sound.
Tim

We can go in all directions. One of them is how you musically match cartridge and speakers. After all, it is the beginning and the end of the signal. Tuning and fine tuning the listening room is a big subject, of course.

@noble1001

good is always the enemy of the best, as I understand it.

despite what or where one feels the need to experiment with what they deem already quite good, or very nice, it just seems purdent to develop a methodology for direction, a base line from which to eveolve, and a destination that can be reached within the confines of the gear on hand.



@Elizabeth
FYI... perhaps some plants on that window sill could aid in defraction. ficus and spider plants go a long ways to diffusing sound or ameliorating reflections.

Elizabeth's path included a speaker upgrade and some efforts comparing outlets and powewr cords. among other things.


Inna says begin with the cartridge. fine. start there.


it seems prudent to say 'attack that which is blatantly wrong first.

thereafter, a consideration is that once any part of the whole is altered, it becomes the fulcrum all else is hinged to. once an accepatable level of higher performance is extracted, it must be revisited. IMHO.

EXP has shown me trying out PCs on the source, and powewr train, with power amp (s) being flung into the fire first is my baseline I'll let all else balance on.

I would not think to begin shuffeling wires, footers, platforms, etc., unless I felt the outfit was under achieving.

IOW, a 5K to 10K retail priced rig is only gonna yield so much regardless the tweaks, though these tweaks may very well satisfy its owner.

with a rig running 30K to 40K MSRP it might need some experimentation to bring out its best, and that might mean replacing one or more of the electronics for better synergy, and not merely fiddling with wires and the aforementioned bits.

the crucible is always gonna be the ear and mind set of the beholder as to thier perception of what needs to be chased, and for how long.

how many here are component junkies? wire mavens? acoustical treatment obsessive? Power conditioner experts? or rife for taming bass?

the gear itself is IMHO the main limiting factor.

in short, there is no etched in stone tablets plan for attacking and extracting the best from one's system in reality.

just get in where you fit in, or not at all if for you, good is good enough. there is no law against it.