Quick answer- leave it alone. Shindo or Auditorium 23 cables only- Switchcraft plugs, at a minimum a must. Stock tubes. Hardwood boards were never recommended by anyone on the Shindo team. What you place your Shindo on has as much of an impact as the cables. Hardwood, in my experience, doesn't sound good. It has a strong character that once again EQ's the sound. Maple is bright, Walnut is warm etc. Most of the dealers, Mr. Aschenbrenner, myself all use Lignolab, some use Box Furniture. These are constructed of various types of plywood.
Speakers- high efficiency, high impedance. The lower the impedance, the lower the reflected impedance of the output transformer on the output tubes, the harder the tubes work, the shorter they live. Not to mention completely changing the voicing of the amp.
"Personally I have tried several high end power cords and not had any improvement (tonal change yes but not a quality uplift)"
Exactly. If it gets better, you have probably corrected for something else- room acoustics, speakers, racks etc
Speak with your dealer, I spend a lot of time giving them information. They spend a lot of time learning and doing the experiments for you.
Jonathan
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