A cable note worth mentioning (again?) regards binding posts. Going back to the 2002 CS1.6, Thiel used gold plated brass binding posts with a big knurled knob. I could speculate about how that came to be, but I won't. I will say you can achieve considerable sonic improvement by removing the knob and using banana plugs.
The slightly opaque, clacky quality, especially noticeable on the high end will vanish. Easy, inexpensive, worthwhile.
A complication is the center hole being slightly undersized so all males plugs do not fit. I re-bore with a 4mm / 5/32" drill. I use the WBT-style angled, stackable, expanding male ends, and make contact in DeOxIT contact grease.
Much is often made of the large surface, high pressure connection of spades. My exploration led to examining field propagation along the wire run and its scrambling at a bulky binding post. A low bulk, straight connection does everything right, and an expanding plug makes good contact. Try it.
