Another rant From your local on & On member .on the futility of perfectly optimizing system components with cabling .
Yet the reason to at least try.
The only note Id add here is about the trying aspect of cabling. Power cords or Ics . Or for that matter, speaker cables, in order to optimize a system . Not to patch over glaring issues.
The prime issue with cabling, once one actually tries decent cabling and realizes they do affect the sound, is the sheer combinations of brands and models available to be tried!
Its more than daunting! Its mind boggling!
No one can or could ever infuse, examine, accept or reject all the possible itterations, and their subsequent possible combinations even with a integrated amp and a single source!... let alone a system comprised of all separates with multiple sources!!
Anyone who has do let me know. Please.
No one can or will I assure you.
A couple three years ago, I went thru trying out at the onset, just 6 or 7 brands and/or models within those brands, and wound up auditioning about ten in all. It tooke me about 7 months or better as some were brand new and required run in.
Listening to the same dozen or so CDs for the better part of a year is towards the end, sublime torture. One must consider or try merely one at a time too, if actual changes or improvements are to be recognized.
Looking back as I approached the end of the trials, I felt I could conceive of possible previous combinations for future applications, which then were untried as solutions So that would have been just guess work. True enough, some inkling of their own voice was achieved as I did use more than one system very often to glean results of the wires from, though the combined effect of brand X + brand Y in truth, remained a mystery, in spite of the educated hypothesiss I could then surmise..
A systematic approach is required IMHO for integrating either components or cabling into an audio rig. Pick an end to start at and go from there..
Same + same throughout is easiest. Same brand + different models comes in second place for optimizing as its more difficult, but Id think better chances for gain would be had that way. More pertinent results too, as each device is being considered at greater lengths.
Thereafter comes the various brands and various models in those brands for optimizing each and every individual device. Naturally that means both the IC and PC attached to it!
This latter method appeals to my more masochistic tendencies. This route is the most arduous and time consuming, and yes its pure guess work at times, until the proper brand/model is attained . And that end may or may not ever come to pass . As again theres too freakin many wires out there to contend with!!!!
Yet even then, the end result derived at with as much objectivity as is possible, remains a subjective and imperfect product.
If you could run through them all, by that time, therred be further iterations of what youve already tried out awaiting their own turns in your array!!
So my best guesstimation of how folks do what they do with power cords, conds, and cabling, is that they push along to the limits of their paitience and then settle, or compromise. On something, somewhere. Or they give up completely and toss in for another component instead. Some wont do that much. Others will throw pennies at their pricey collection and expect premium effects.
Or, as was said, by pasting over some irritating sonic deficit, or attenuating some other minor issue. Without such compromises Id have blind squirrels juggling butcher knives in my brain all the time as that pit has no bottom. Then and there, the fun is entirely evicted from the past time. And severe disappointment moves right on in.
So I, and dare say, we must compromise. Somewhere, on something, to some extent. How much though, and in which area (s) seems the real questions each audio nut answers routinely.
BTW The shortest road of all is to simply never try a particular aspect of audio as it might interfere with preconceived ideals, training, knowledge, and or simply makes no sense at the time to the rig builder..
Of course, to never strive .to gain personal experience and continually debunk or condescend such a prospect, is how ignorance really thrives, and prejudices rise up.
I feel theres tons of very good to great gear out there for sure. Spending time eeking out its highest potential performance level takes time and care with wires, isolation, and possibly addressing the incoming power line faults and artifacts. IMHO thats as valuable as is the synergy between components, and the matching criterium some devices have as prerequisites. Dont do these things, and the truth of them remains an unknown, and the best your gear can hand you is never going to be yours.