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84.28.24.179
we tweak a lot but what is an abolute must that every one must do or try ?
to start with.
And what is the biggest sound improve ment tweak you ever had?
please post them up here
Follow Ups:
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Other tweaks suggested here suppost to bring night/day results is bunk per my experience. I doubt many here have the resolution of my system either. But, that does not mean others systems are not cool. I like it all.
THE single first order tweak.
Warmest
Timbo in Oz
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm
Crimping RCA center pins to an ovoid shape for better contact in the sleeve.
The biggest tweak is moving your speakers/system to a different location in the room or a different room entirely. I think the room makes the single biggest difference in the sound of a typical system. In the last two years, I've moved my system into two homes, each with different floring and recently into a different room in the house. Since moving into a different room, the difference in sound has FAR surpassed most other tweaks I've tried.
I view most tweaks as micro-tuning to an existing system. Moving your system into a new (better) room or location is a macro improvement. IMO
Two subwoofers powered by at least 200 watts each.Or 40 ounces of malt liquor, taken internally.
Edits: 06/12/09
Overall the best "tweak" is proper component matching and set-up (and, yes, one of those components is cables - and another is the room). System synergy is the goal.
Aside from changing components, I have had a couple of memorable tweaks, but as I said it is dependent on your system.
The overall winner is a dedicated line. In my last house it made a significant difference, but not so much in my current house.
I achieved noticeable improvement with my KEF C25 speakers by placing them upside down and putting felt on the baffle around the tweeters. They sound much better that way. Many bookshelf speakers seem to sound better upside down and metal domes with hard plastic plates can use a little softening and smear reduction.
Currently I have taken to damping my components so the cases are dead when rapped and the amp fins don't ring when plucked. I think my old amp, especially, sounded better after I put damping tac on the fins and case.
--
Mucking around the low-end since 1986.
Accept no substitutes!
.....sT
This one is situational. If your audio system is in a location with a significant amount of EMI/RFI (near a wireless router or computer, particularly if you are in an apartment/condo/townhouse setup where one or more of your neighbors have them), this is hands-down the best tweak you will find (especially when you consider this is addressing an actual electronic issue, rather than relying on some hocus-pocus with mats, foam devices, rocks, magical paper, etc.).By the way, there are tons of posts on here about how to make these for yourself (if you are comfortable finding electronic components and using a soldering iron). And there are other companies with similar devices (but usually much more expensive...cough...Walker Audio), but the ones for sale at econotweaks.com are being sold at a very reasonable price and are well-made, in my opinion.
Edits: 06/01/09
This tweak is free and absolutely fundamental to obtaining good sound in my system: Measuring the AC leakage voltage on the chassis of my equipment and changing the polarity of the primaries on the power transformers for lowest voltage.Search the asylum for methodology.
Rob.
Vibration control has been the most effective tweak I've encountered: heavy brass footers or Aurios between components and a maple platform, and Mapleshade's custom base for Gallo Ref. 3 speakers. A contact enhancer like Walker Audio's SST applied throughout a system also has a big impact. So does replacing the output caps in a preamp with teflon V-caps. In most rooms, having an appropriate room treatment at the point of first refection makes a big difference. None of these upgrades qualify as "cheap," however. Good record cleaning products are a must tweak if you're into vinyl, and the Audio Intelligent products are the best I've tried. Power conditioning and good power cords are effective but they've graduated from the status of tweaks and now are considered components. If there's a lot of RFI/EMI in your listening space, Econotweaks new "Detail Enhancers" that attach to your speakers and amps clean it up and make a big improvement at a small cost.
and then really good IC's (not really expensive just really good quality parts, wire, design and assembly).
"E pur si muove...And yet it moves"
Switching to a high quality stepped attenuator made the biggest difference in my system. It lifted the 'veil'.
I started with the dact ct-2 and then built a pair of my own using the cheap blue switches off ebay and vishay CMP resitors. These turned out to be much better than the dact and the switches are holding up well so far.
For not a lot of money Oyaide outlets were an amazing improvement. OK... a hundred + bucks for a duplex outlet is a lot of money but the end result was well worth it.
Symposium roller blocks with symposium platform under my CDP was big.
Acoustic System Resonators were a huge improvement although an expensive one.
...and would put the Oyaide WPC-Z wallplate CF cover as an essential piece of the Oyaide family of outlet products.
2nd is effective room acoustic treatments such as those offered by ASC products.
3rd would be both macro and micro acoustical/mechanical vibration transducers.
4th would be cryo'd ceramic fuses to replace the stock fuses in components.
~
(nt)
It gets installed on the CD tray which is positioned BENEATH the CD. I assume CD mats are either somehow dealing with light at the level ABOVE the CD or damping the CD itself. The effect of Codename Turquoise is considerably more pronounced than any CD mat I've tried to date.
Geoff Kait said the check's in the mail.
It is difficult to single out an individual tweak as THE most effective---in my experience, most tweaks have affected the sound, some very effectively for the worse; however, pushed to name only one that has fixed itself in my memory as rendering a stunning improvement: removing my speaker crossovers (Apogee Duetta Signatures) from the frame of the speakers and mounting them on external 2 1/2" thick maple planks isolated from the speaker frames. Later, I upgraded all components in the crossovers, and this was also an effective tweak, but the removal of the crossovers from the frames made a much more significant improvement in the sound.
Hence, my most effective tweak would go under the catergory vibration management.
Very close to this tweak are several tweaks to AC power filtering and cleaning: Alan Maher's PEs and Hammond chokes have made significant differences.
Others that come to mind: Shakti's Hallographs, Marigo's tuning dots, Machina Dymanica's Codename Turquoise and Clever Little Clock, Herbie's Big Fat Dots, Acoustic Revive's Schumann Resonantor and crystals, Enviromental Potential's EP-2050 surge protector (amazing how this gadget improved the sound---thinking about it now, I would rank this very high on the list, maybe second after the crossovers, and Maher's PEs and Hammond choke tweaks third), Millenium CD mat and various CD treatments---eg, negative ion generator, nespa finalizer, topical treatments.
the best tweaks I tried were quite costly. best tweak ever: replacing the 3,3 uF Mondorf silver gold caps with teflon v-caps in my Omega Duos tweeter xo.
next was putting my all my components incl. power strip on platforms from SRA and finally put harmonix RF 999 speaker bases underneath my speakers.
regards
Duomike
HI,
I'm amazed that no one has mentioned "spikes" or Tip Toes. Best ever for certain types of vibration control and not expensive.
Next, I would list Last Record Preservative used in conjunction with Stylast.
A great tone arm. Unfortunately, not cheap. This is an item where most people cut corners. It's a bad place to do that.
Finally, Caig Deoxit.
Sparky
Sparky - try Lyra SPT on your stylus. The benefit it has on reducing surface noise and improving dynamics is uncanny.
The best tweak I have ever heard is the TriPoint Troy and the cheapest is rotating RCAs each night.
so just wondering how much more effective this US$7-8k grounding conditioner is over the Acoustic Revive's RGC24 ones of which I already have a few? If they were only US$700 to 800, I would venture ordering one to try...but ten times that price, need to do more consultations and research. Thanks in advance...
Edits: 06/11/09
Once I removed them and had only the Tripoint. I like the AR grounders but think their effect is much subtler. They tend to add a purity and quiet. The Tripoint is much more obvious and immediate. You would be shocked at the involvement in the sound stage and quietness.
I think that placement of the puck of the 24s is all important not where it is grounded to. Since I have only my H-Cat line stage grounded to the ac ground, I ground my 24s to it. One puck in over the dac and under the sacd player.
The Tripoint is grounded to your ac ground through a very substantial ac cord with only the ground plug connected. All components are then grounded to its three solid copper binding posts go through its magnetics to ground.
Fundamentally, it is apples and oranges.
It is hard for me to say anything more than you really need to try the Tripoint. I already have exceptional imaging thanks to H-Cat, but this added a lot.
Thanks for the prompt reply.. ;-)
I don't consider speaker placement a tweak, any more than turning on your stereo is a tweak-its mandatory, and a basic part of setting up a stereo.
My most effective "tweak" is vibration control. Specifically, vibration *absorption*. Both of my sources are sitting on a symposium platform that is on top of a seismic sink. My amp is on a symposium platform that is on a signal guard. This has had more benefit for my stereo,regardless of the gear, than anything else.
jack
Seriously, there seems to be no "ONE" golden thing to do in this very multi-faceted and complex hobby.
Try anything that appeals to your time, money, ear from the laundry list in this post and the bazillion others on this board. That's the "ONE"!
I found the following really dramatic:
1) acoustical treatments
2) cabling
3) vibration controls
4) power filtering.
I DIY almost all of that and so it's cheap and usually fun.
But of all things, remember this: the biggest single component of any audio system is the room. So no matter what else you tweak, if you don't deal with your acoustics, you have no idea how good (or bad) your system really sounds... YMMV
getting rid of my solid state preamp
Amen
Switching to tubes for me. A whole world of tweaks open after than.
I agree with junaid and mkuller. Speaker placement is the biggest bang for the buck.
I would classify room treatments as tweaks because the room becomes one component in the whole system.
Treatments tweak the room.
Properly applied, they are very cost effective
Julien
"There's someone in my head, but it's not me"
...in order of magnitude (without opening up any equipment):
Speaker placement optimization (equidistant from side and front walls within 1/16 inch)
Room treatments - bass traps, first reflection points
Dedicated power circuits
Power conditioning
Power cords
Caig ProGold contact cleaner
Cable lifters
CD Mat
Demagnetizing CD
Bedini CD Clarifier
makes anything sound, or for that matter look, good.
...equipment support and resonance/vibration control right around the dedcated power circuits, pretty high up on the list.
I can relate to all but the last two. JWC and HP turned me onto using the CD treatment fluids.
BTW, I still have a little bit of Caig Cramolin left over from the 70s. I think it was later banned by the EPA! :)
rw
Dear Sir,
How did you get them measured within 1/16th of an inch? I want to get my speakers that close in tolerance but using a standard measuring tape I am prone to errors...did you use a laser measurer? I heard they work great but they are a lil pricey for me. If you know of a less pricey means I appreciate any feedback!
Maggie Mancave,
If you attach a string at the center base of your listening seat (between your feet) you can then measure closer than 1/16th difference between the two speakers. Think of a baseball diamond and your the catcher, attach a string from home plate and run to first base, mark that point on the string and run to 3rd base. Voila! Easy peasy.
(nt)
Well,,,, to start with, there are quite a few. But a tweak is the name of something which costs practically 'nothing'. I would say that the most cost-effective tweak is placing the speakers according to the Cardas Golden Ratio. It truly shows what your speakers are about, because of minimal Room interactions. But its one of the most annoying placements one could find, aesthetically. Coz it puts the speakers virtually at 33% of the room, which may not be practical unless one has a dedicated Audio-Only room...
The other tweak is the one where you use two 0.47uF Auricaps across the positive & negative power terminals of a Cd player. It really cleans up the mess coming into the player, & also the digital hash going from the player to other components....
I dont know if you consider Acoustic treatments as "Tweak", coz it does cost a bit even if you DIY. But nothing pays better than them... Not even a component upgrade...
Since tweaks are generally about reducing (or increasing?) problems like power line noise, electro-acoustic ringing, bad room acoustics, etc., the effectiveness of a tweak will depend on how strongly that problem affected your system beforehand. And of course, there's no accounting for people's personal tastes.
The use of expensive - fast, soft recovery IXYS rectifier bridges - they totally transform sound - amps, cdp's, dac's - for the better, like you would never believe.P.S. this is a secret.......don't tell anyone.
Edits: 06/25/09
1.Finite elemente feet and racks.
2.Audidharma cable cooker.
3.Mapleshade contact enhancer
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