Things you can do for free that improve sound quality

[richidoo]

dflee was looking for system improvements that are low cost. It's a great idea for a thread!


"Things you can do for free that improve sound quality"


I'll start:

Connect speaker cable to biwirable speaker diagonally, + on bass, - on treble. Leave jumpers normal.

Choose vinyl, if available

Improve speaker placement for smoother bass response at listening position, like WASP, Master Set, Iron Chef, etc.

Take care of yourself. Music sounds better when you are happy! Protein, sleep, minerals, exercise, help others

Remove any unused, idle speakers from the room

Reduce noises in the room like fireplace rattles, HVAC vents

Tighten your recepticle screws and wirenuts all the way back to your service panel

Listen with a friend



What are your favorite free or really cheap tweaks?

[mdconnelly]

Here's a few: 

-- avoid using laptop chargers, iPhone chargers, or anything that has a switched mode power supply on the same circuit as any of your gear

-- if you have dimmer switches, turn those lights off if you can (I find this is true even when they're not on the same circuit)

-- in fact, turn all the lights off, turn up the music, close your eyes and just listen

[ejk]

Clean your ears

[sleepyguy24]

Hmmm.

I would say clean the prongs of your power cords with a good chamois type cloth or if you want to spend a little bit of money buy some contact cleaners and clean those power cord blades, fuses ends or even RCA jacks etc. Use a steel brush on tube pins.

Another thing I would say is ,if applicable/possible, plug your spade terminated wires into your speaker terminals or amp jacks from the top. This way your speaker wire already starts more off the ground than if it was connected from the bottom. I attached a pic of my dusty KEFs.

Cable routing. No one likes looking at a snake pit and from what I recall people telling me a cable snake pit is just an invitation to add more noise to your system.

Rich's initial post I give a major too. Especially the health one. I swear after being more healthy and dropping some pounds when I listened to my office system it sounded even sweeter.

[etcarroll]

"Remove any unused, idle speakers from the room"

Why?

[jimbones]

They vibrate in sympathy with your main speakers and muddy the sound

[tmazz]

Clean your ears

Oh no, back to the imfamous ear wax thread again. 

For those of your who were not around for that one, here is a link:

http://www.audionervosa.com/index.php?topic=1932.0

[Emil]

They vibrate in sympathy with your main speakers and muddy the sound

Exactly.

Linn dealers made a big issue of this when auditioning their speakers even  to the point of removing all telephones from the room. Dint want the speaker in the ear piece vibrating in sympathy don't ya now

[Werd]

They vibrate in sympathy with your main speakers and muddy the sound

I had a pair of Warfedale floorstanders that acted as good bass stops. Too much clutter though.

[etcarroll]

Well I have my home theater setup in same room, 7 more speakers and a big SVS box sub. Oh well.

I just took the 2 10" subs I had been trying to incorporate into my 2 channel system out of the room for now.

They vibrate in sympathy with your main speakers and muddy the sound

[tmazz]

I tink a lot of the stuff that Linn was doing was hype more than anything else. I can understand the problem if you were to go into a big electronics store like Circuit City used to be and there were literally 20 or 30 pairs of speakers in this big showroom. That could genterate a problem of sympatheitic virations (not to mention horrible speaker placement, usually crappy speaker cable, plus chaeper switchers), but one or two pairs, probably not that much.

I think the biggest advantage of what the Linn dealers did was that the one pair of speakers in the room was always placed in the sweet spot for that speaker. And with as much time as most of us have spent fine tuning speaker placement  1/4" at a time, I don't think it is a strech to say that placig one pair of speaker in an optimal spot wiill give you a better demo tha having the speakers placed in less than optimum postitions because of the need to have other speakers in the room.

[jimbones]

I tink a lot of the stuff that Linn was doing was hype more than anything else. I can understand the problem if you were to go into a big electronics store like Circuit City used to be and there were literally 20 or 30 pairs of speakers in this big showroom. That could genterate a problem of sympatheitic virations (not to mention horrible speaker placement, usually crappy speaker cable, plus chaeper switchers), but one or two pairs, probably not that much.

I think the biggest advantage of what the Linn dealers did was that the one pair of speakers in the room was always placed in the sweet spot for that speaker. And with as much time as most of us have spent fine tuning speaker placement  1/4" at a time, I don't think it is a strech to say that placig one pair of speaker in an optimal spot wiill give you a better demo tha having the speakers placed in less than optimum postitions because of the need to have other speakers in the room.

Agree, but that was the tag line that they were saying is that it degrades sound. How much? Damned if i know. But if you think about the whole Linn thing it is a great marketing gimmick. Clear out all your competitors leaving your product the sole product on the dealers floor. kind of like how soft drink companies crowd out the competition for shelf space.

[richidoo]

Gene, you could turn on the HT receiver for the unused speakers, that will keep them from moving much because the amp is actively playing "nothing" into them, which kinda locks them in place via back EMF. The amps will electrically damp stray movement to some degree, but maybe not 100%. See if you notice any difference on/off.

[etcarroll]

Interesting thought Rich, I'll try it this weekend.

Gene, you could turn on the HT receiver for the unused speakers, that will keep them from moving much because the amp is actively playing "nothing" into them, which kinda locks them in place via back EMF. The amps will electrically damp stray movement to some degree, but maybe not 100%. See if you notice any difference on/off.

[tmazz]

Interesting thought Rich, I'll try it this weekend.

Gene, you could turn on the HT receiver for the unused speakers, that will keep them from moving much because the amp is actively playing "nothing" into them, which kinda locks them in place via back EMF. The amps will electrically damp stray movement to some degree, but maybe not 100%. See if you notice any difference on/off.

Interesting concept. I would be interested in hearing about how this works out as well.

Gene, you are hitting the big time, I see you just passed the 2k post milestone.