imo ... what @ghdprentice talks about in his initial response! to the thread about noise floor and high frequency hash is particularly relevant.
I've learned from paying attention to guys like him, who have culled end all be all systems, aka: to die for, Ha ha ha ... that if those traits are what you really want your (read: my) system to reflect then there are certain steps.
The personal secret, for my particular system, was or shall I say has been that once I acquired the necessary components ... and what @ghdprentice says about how, in this world that we live in, you pretty much get what you pay for ... truth.
But once I had the right combination of components, which I consider to be Step 1, then ... the best cables you can afford OR justify spending way the f**k too much money on, ha ha ha, but also very true.
The final step is clean power ... whatever that means, given your own personal deficit, there. In my case, I live on the top floor of a high rise in an urban environment so you can imagine how trashy my signal is, coming out of the wall.
When I added my PS Audio P15, which is definitely not cheep but at the exact same time worth every single penny ... and mine came to me brand freakin new which carried a pretty price tag with it. Literally worth every single penny.
I'm not even exaggerating ... it quite literally brought everything into focus. My system, obviously, already sounded really good ... but when I added the P15 it was like it peeled away layer upon layer and refined everything in a way that was very extremely subtle but also totally striking in effect.
The reason I know I have good synergy in my particular system is because I learned quite recently that I'm able to hook up the exact same components to my other pair of super amazing bookshelf speakers and be completely blown away by how the reveal the exact same qualities in damn near all of my favorite recordings of various types of music. That's kind of like a double blind study, right? : )
I tend to kind of look at my system like a woman, Lol ... I'm sure a lot of you other guys've learned to enjoy your favorite toys kind of in the same vein. Tell me true, what woman will please you the way your system pleases you over and over and over again, literally every single day and never give you any kind of grief?
In my experience, Italian motorcycles are the same way. : )
But seriously, once you have the synergy of your kick ass components in place the signal needs to be able to be transmitted accurately as possible so that it can truly reveal (the effect) your components are capable of conveying ... and you can listen to the naysayers about the clean power thing if you want to, but you're always gonna be chasing the dream if it's a low noise floor and nada high frequency hash.
Have been listening to Van Morrison, Into the Music while I write this. Chills me right out. That's the effect I'm after, personally.