Shorting plugs....

Thats one school of thought, its impractical and many times next to impossible and inconveient but its a thought.

More than a thought. More even than a feeling. I do this in my system, because the improvement is material.

Concur with Chadlinz, it's an impractical "solution" and just because "the improvement is material" *in your system* does not mean that it will be in anyone else's system.

Also, when you indicate that you turned off components, what does that mean, did you unplug the components, turn off power at the wall or simply press the power off switch on the components?

Interesting responses. Given the lengths to which audiophiles routinely go to try to improve their systems, it's odd to hear the epithet "impractical," which suggests an unwillingness even to try it and see how it works. Of course there is no guarantee that it will work in your system, but anecdotally it has worked in a number of systems.

The idea is not to turn anything off, but rather to unplug from the preamp the interconnects running from those source components that are not currently in use. Ie, at any one time, there would be only one source component with an interconnect plugged into the preamp, though the other source components could/would be plugged into the electricity and turned on.

So, if you are playing a cd, the interconnects from your other components would be unplugged from the preamp.

In fact, my preamp has only one source input, making the issue of shorting plugs irrelevant.

It's interesting the lengths you are going to to avoid the question. Your statement was that simply turning off components did not yield the "material" improvements that unplugging them from the preamp does.

Again, what do you mean precisely when you refer to turning off a component?