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I have tried the tweak mentioned in a recent issue of TAS and was pleasantly surprised by the results. In the article they wrote that only the silver colored zinc plated BBs worked, not the copper plated BBs. I did not test this. But if true, this would argue against the benefits being conferred by simple mass loading. I did measure the resistance of a BB to see whether or not it had some type of insulating coating. It did not. Transformer cores use insulated laminations to prevent the formation of electrical eddy currents. So why the silver colored BBs would work and not the copper plated ones I haven't a clue. Any thoughts out there? As for the skeptics, BBs and little boxes are cheap. Give it a shot before you rag on it.
Follow Ups:
Say take some automotive delelctric grease and add a thin coating to the BBs and see what it does to the tweak.
Personally I would hazard a guess it would be an improvement.
If copper plated are worse, then making the BBs even less interactive electrically should help...
This is just like coating your delectric crystals with something.. Keep them separate, yet in close contact..
Edits: 12/29/14
why not a bag of paint finished nuts? the paint finish should provide enough insulation to do what you are after. Best regards Moray James.
moray james
Sure. Give it a shot and report back. Or maybe the nuts will act like little toroidal cores and screw things up. It's kind of useless to sit here and speculate about how this works. It seems to me this should be treated empirically. Go listen. Does it sound better or worse or no change. If better accept this as a gift from the audio gods and move on.
Thanks JKT
~D
Wherever you go there you are.
JKT would you give us a better explanation of the "TAS tweek"?
like the size of the boxes, are they cardboard or wood, how many BB's in each box, and dose the box have/need a lid? I ask all this because i want to try this for my myself.Thank You for your time and help.
~D
Wherever you go there you are.
Edits: 12/30/14
I went to my local Walmart and found the BBs and boxes in the sporting goods dept. The BBs are sold in large quantity (10,000 I think) for ~$10. The boxes are plastic tackle boxes sold with the fishing stuff. Size is 6.5"x3.5"x1" (the label says Plano original stowaway). Don't think the box is that critical (the box does have dividers, that may or may not be necessary. Eddy currents?). One large container of BBs will 1&1/2 of the above boxes. So buy 2 packages of BBs and three boxes. Repeat if you like the results.
Boeing made (still do for all I know) a dielectric grease to prevent arching in the ignition system of WWII bombers. It was (is?) silicon based like the automotive ones. Funny thing, by accident it was discovered that this "dielectric" grease lowed contact resistance (jacks, plugs, etc.) Go figure.
Oh I get it since they're BB's give them a "shot". Actually this forum helped me learn always give something a shot and judge the result myself. As important, especially here, is NOT to be concerned if others disagree.
E
T
JKT-
what effect(s) are you attempting to accomplish by doing this mod? Which piece of gear does it affect the most?
I would characterize this as a tweak and not a mod. I wasn't attempting anything. I read in TAS that this would improve the sound of my stereo. My acid test for this is speech intelligibility of song lyrics. Placing two boxes over the power supply of my phono pre passed this test. Two more over the line stage PS improved on this result. Finally two more over the input/outputs of the phono pre led to better resolution of transient leading edges (friend would remove and replace the boxes). That is were things stand since that is all the boxes of BBs that I have and I don't feel like fighting the crowds at this time of the year at Walmart to buy more BBs and boxes.
I have no idea what you are up to but consider that zinc is diamagnetic, meaning it slightly repels a magnet.
Whereas a bag of copper is non magnetic, assuming it is in fact a bag of copper.
The BBs are steel. The zinc and copper are only a thin plating. I think the magnetic properties of the steel will swamp any effect do to a very thin layer of plating.
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