Dream system - but no aftermarket power cords


Hi,
after tweaking many other aspects of my system, I have had to deal with substantial noise from my Piega C10Ltd speakers recently.
This has led me to order a Synergistic Research Tesla PowerCell 10SE which should arrive later this week.

So, after getting into the "power" game and reading up on some PC reviews, I am still lost with regards to the baseline strategy to upgrade the stock cables on all components.
Here's my current setup for my 2 channel speaker system:
[Squeezebox Transporter] - [McIntosh MDA 1000] - [Piega P1 Mk ii active subwoofer (RCA loop-through and cut-off at 75Hz)] - [Marantz MA9-S2 mono amps (2x)] - [Piega C10Ltd]
All active components will be powered through the PowerCell.

So here are my preliminary thoughts, please feel free to comment:

1. Order of upgrades
1.1 Frequently, it's recommended to "upgrade the transport" first. In my case, would that be the Transporter (I guess? Or upgrade last because it's only feeding the DAC?) or the MDA-1000 (which is serving double duty as DAC and preamp, so could I double the impact from a better PC??)
1.2 The Marantz amps with their massive capacitors ought to be the least power sensitive piece of gear (??? not sure about that), so it would make sense to upgrade them last?

Of course the whole question about order of upgrades is related to
2. good-better-best strategy
2.1 what's considered a solid baseline for a highend system like mine, I don't have the money for (new) Valhalla everywhere (I need 5 PCs total)?
2.2 back to order of upgrades: looking at the individual pieces of equipment specifically, where do I get to the 95% point of diminishing returns? e.g. Synergistic apparently recommend Tesla T2 on sources and T3 on (pre)amps, is there a reasonable "segmentation" strategy?
2.3 how high should I value system synergies, specifically considering the fact that I will use a PowerCell; in other words, are there unwanted side effects from other cords (e.g. LossLess) trying to filter out stuff that the PowerCell has already taken care off and leading to a "lifeless" sound?

3. Looking at the list of components above, any recommendation about what you have found to work well with any one of the components listed above would be appreciated (e.g. Jerry Seigel recommended PS Audio PW 10 for the Marantz amps, I am reluctant to go there based on my general preference to avoid too much shielding)

Any help/suggestions much appreciated (I promise to report back my findings after trying out some of your recommendations in return!)
Thanks!
Jofte
jofte
After 6 or 8 months of trying all sorts of power cord configurations, brands, price ranges and everything else...I have settled comfortably on 2 cables. One is the Acoustic Revive Power Reference and the 2nd is the MIT Oracle Z3. The other thing I have learned in this process is that things seem to sound more cohesive, just more correct, when using all the same pc's, or at least close. My next step is to narrow this pair down to 1. Either way, I think very highly of both of these cables and really for a lot of the same reasons. So many of the cords I have had color things in one way or another. They all do good things too but not many seemed capable of remaining neutral while doing them. these 2 cables do and do very nicely.
Jofte, the AC12's on ebay are fakes. I have been checking this out the last couple of days. The real AC12's have a long barrel and the fakes have a shorter barrel like the AC10. I bought one from a member here before realizing that there are fakes out there and what the differences were. The ad was removed immediatley after payment which makes me a little nervous.
Re: AC-12s on Ebay, bought 3, received them after 3 days (perfect shipping), they definitely look like the real deal (no obvious signs of forgery) and sound good?
Also in the running now are 2 Cardas Golden Reference, Synergistic Research Hologram A and D (one each) coming tomorrow. Will report findings on all cables after burn in.
Just installed the Synergistic Research Hologram A (MDA1000) and D (Transporter): Wow, residual noise is almost gone. Makes me want to consider putting the AC-12 up for sale again and going SR all the way (sub + 2 mono amps currently on AC-12) -- will keep current setting for a couple months + start tweaking the "backend" (replace socket, investigate dedicated line.
Run two dedicated lines from a 20 amp breaker and use 10 guage wire.
One line to power up just your amps, and I would suggest you try them straight and leave the power conditioner for the other line and all the other stuff.

The manufacturer of my amps suggests using your best power cords on the amps, and I agree.

I eventually upgraded all my power cords to the same level as my amps and haven't regreted it.

Power conditioning and power cords can only do so much,but combined with dedicated lines and isolating some components from others really does improve things.