Tweakdom

[rollo]

   Just what it says. What tweeks would you classify as affective in your experience. Unusual and mainstream. All count . Don't be shy or feel intimidated with your findings.
     Maybe we can learn a thing or two. FIRE AWAY !


charles

[sleepyguy24]

These are probably ones that a lot of you know of or have seen through the years but they worked for me.

Edsensound Big Fat Bastard solid brass isolation feet underneath my KEF 104/2 speakers. All of this was then put on  top of a KJ Studios Maple plinth which also have carpet spikes. on the bottom. This combo really helped with floor vibrations. This was my take on years worth of Mapleshade catalogs and looking at their tweaks.

This came from the Audiogon archives.

2 computer wrist pads underneath my turntable to help with isolation.

These were derived from Elizabeth and Unclestu from Audio Asylum.

A 10 AWG speaker wire with the insulation stripped off at the opposite end. With the bare wire exposed snap on ferrite cores were attached to the wire. this was then plugged into the negative terminals of both my speakers and amps.

A 6 volt battery with a 1000uf or 5000uf capacitor across both the positive and negative battery terminal springs and then a speaker wire going from the negative battery terminal to the negative speaker post.

I think all these changes helped me with dealing with glare in my main system.

another tweak I'm going to try is pieces of Dynamat on the windows in my listening room.

[_Scotty_]

If you are still spinning silver discs, I recommend finding a set of Darumas or using the Aurios line of vibration isolation products.
 It has been my experience that this type of vibration isolation
yields the greatest improvement in imaging with CD players and transports. It also seems that the application of some weight on top of the chassis,usually between 3 and 5lbs. makes a worthwhile improvement. I have had good results using No.8 1/2 lead shot or pure silica sand loaded in double ziplock freezer bags. In one case 12lbs. of silica sand was the best thing to use.
Scotty

[BobM]

Footers - one size doesn't fit all, so exp[eriment with pointy ones, squishy ones, rolling ones, etc. undereach component.

Mass - nothing exceeds like mass loading, both on top of a component to reduce cabinet vibrations, and in your stands, especially for a mechanical device like a turntable

Speaker Placement - damn, this is the cheapest but not the easiest thing to get right, but it is uber essential to getting good sound, especially if you enjoy imaging and soundstaging

Room Treatments - another essential IMO, but not necessarily cheap and not necessarily easy to do. Over use can be just as bad as no use, so tread carefully.

Clean your ears - those over 50 know that ear wax is a reality, so periodic head maintenance is required

Beverages - a little can go a long way to relaxing you and helping engender those good vibrations that make us smile when listening to music

[StereoNut]

...Beverages - a little can go a long way to relaxing you and helping engender those good vibrations that make us smile when listening to music

Pete's ears perked up all the way from Vegas with that tweek suggestion!

 

[sleepyguy24]

...Beverages - a little can go a long way to relaxing you and helping engender those good vibrations that make us smile when listening to music

Pete's ears perked up all the way from Vegas with that tweek suggestion!

 

Good stuff.

I wish that were always true. One evening I had a glass of wine too many with dinner and when I listened to my system at the time I still experienced harsh treble, glare and what others have described to me as etching.

Oftentimes too many beverages leads me to buying more gear.

[rollo]

    Good start guys. How about crawling around your room to hear the loudest bass, then putting your sub there. Multiple subs as per Scotty was a major improvement in my system.
      Turing the lights off cancelling one sense makes for a comfortable listen.
       Compressed wool for vibration of trannies and circuit boards.




charles
     

[JLM]

As more of a minimalist, I don't do tweaks.  Have tried them at an audio friend's suggestions, but never heard differences in feet/weights/lifts.  I have heard improvements with upgraded power cords and between $1,000 speaker cables, but that just drives me nuts (with no scientific basis how/when do you stop experimenting?).  And in my opinion power conditioning is strictly a local phenomenon (and has never really made an improvement in my homes).

In my book adding subs, using room treatments, swapping cabling, or have a properly sized/proportioned room are not tweaks.  My best advice is to have a system that doesn't need tweaks.  For instance my single driver speakers (8 inch cone, no whizzer) beam and I use a near field set up, so the room is less of a factor and no crossover tweaks even possible.  Same speakers are transmission line loaded and they're located well away from walls in a designed/dedicated room, so their bass roll off matches room gain, so minimal EQ needed.  Bottom line, my room treatments have almost no effect.

Too old school to try the "goofier" stuff. 

[rollo]

JLM, cool another opinion or take is what this is all about. Being able to have an adult conversation about tweaks is educating and a pleasure compared to other forums.
    Not all agree on results which makes it personal and subjective. Fine and dandy.
    Measurements are key for a starting point. At the end of the day though it is the sonic result of such that the beholder perfers.
    You hear no difference others do so is one right and the other wrong. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Just different strokes for different folks. Your both right. Cool.



charles
   
   
   
     

[mdconnelly]

Having used some of Alan Maher's power-related products for awhile now, I would consider them effective tweaks.  But, his 'marketing' hype can be over-the-top and often invokes a skeptical response (and yes, he has used the word 'Quantum' on more than one occasion .

[DaveC]

Mass - nothing exceeds like mass loading, both on top of a component to reduce cabinet vibrations, and in your stands, especially for a mechanical device like a turntable

I heard a significant difference when a pair of Omega 8" Maxhemps had a large brick placed on top of the cabinet. I use some old brass plumb bobs from harbor freight to weight components and as footers for my speaker stands and amp.

[JLM]

Perhaps some of the difficulty here is in defining what a tweak is and isn't.

Some tweaks are built-in in some products, like mass in speaker cabinets versus lead shot or sand fill.  Does that make the "backer board" in my 90 pound speaker cabinets (intended to minimize cabinet self-noise) a tweak?

Is tube/chip rolling considered a tweak?

Does a nearfield set up (that eliminates many room effects) qualify as a tweak?  How about repositioning speakers?

Is there such a thing as a "pre-tweak"?  When I built my current audio room I installed hospital grade cryo'd electrical receptacles with "special grounding" and each wired to dedicated circuits.

And I must confess, as a fan of the minimal/pure approach I do use DEQ.  Don't know if that should be thought of as a tweak.  But I consider it essential as it replaced baffle step circuit as recommended by the vendor.

I also had Bud Purvine EnABL (add surface treatments) to my drivers.  I suppose that is a tweak.  But it made a significant improvement.

So in hindsight I guess that I do tweak, but not in the ways most do.

[BobM]

I think we can be liberal with the definition, such as ... " what can you do yourself to a manufacturer delivered product  to improve the sound of your system?"

[rollo]

I think we can be liberal with the definition, such as ... " what can you do yourself to a manufacturer delivered product  to improve the sound of your system?"

Agreed. Good input so far.


charles

[mgalusha]

I do have little wood stands under some of the cables. Not sure if it sounds any better but one thing is sure, living in a dry climate I've had horrific static discharge into the cables from the carpet and that surely doesn't sound good, keeping the cables off the floor has, so far, prevented that from recurring.

I've tried various isolation gadgets over the years, some help, some make it worse. I had a friend demo the difference of having his phono stage on Marigo Mystery feet. It was repeatable and significant. I got a set on loan from a dealer after much grumbling about the cost and tried them under my tube preamp. Well they made a huge difference, for the worse, basically sucked the life out of it. Thankfully the dealer had lent them to me at no cost.

The best tweak I've done, and it's not really a tweak, is accurate speaker positioning. I treated myself to a Leica D2 laser measuring tool year and being able to get all distances exactly the same makes more improvement that I thought possible. I've always measured using a good tape and what I thought was good technique but the inevitable sag and interpretation of tape markings leads to errors you don't realize until they are gone. I visited a couple of friends not long after, both have good sounding systems but after careful adjustment of distances, both were significantly improved in terms of coherency, focus and overall clarity. The arrival times from each speaker really do need to be the same.

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