McIntosh 501's, Mcintosh 7000

I had problems with my Monster HTS 5000 and McIntosh gear. It sounded horrible connected to the Monster. Try plugging your equipment directly into the outlet and see if that helps. I've since upgrade to a Richard Gray 1200 that works in parallel versus inline. This allows unrestricted amperage to your equipment. I personally plug my amps/subs directly to the outlet and connect the more sensitive gear like preamps and source units to the 1200. How big is the circuit that your plugging into? I'd recommend a separate 20 amp for the 501s and a separate 15 or 20 amp for the rest of the system. You may want to purchase a Kill a Watt meter to see how much current you are actually pulling. My JL F113 sub during the Omaha beach scene in Saving Private Ryan maxed out the meter at 20 amps! Good luck and don't give up yet.

Going from Nordost to Speltz cable seems like a switch destined to rob your system of some detail. The Speltz are great for the money, but they're not going to give you all the detail your amps are capable of. I got rid of mine in favor of LAT Int SS1000 and the difference was not subtle. Still running Nordost ICs too.

The amps and pre are broken in, speakers are maggie 3.6's. I changed the ic's the same time I changed the amps/pre.

Any difference when you plug it straight into the wall?