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hawaiiguy

A few months ago, I went back to the late Unclestu's Audiodirections website that is archived and came across something that he touched on and I had always seen on his racks since he reopened a brick and mortar shop back on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving) 2012. I don't know why the times I went to his shop I never talked about the tuning forks he had on the ends of his racks. Guess I just thought those were expensive doo dads because I had in mind that they were heavy and so just blew it off.
In the article below, he mentioned about the positives on getting a tuning fork tuned close to 120hz. He specifically said 128 hz provided improvements, and so I was thinking hmm, how much are these 128hz tuning forks...so went on Amazon and Ebay to check out the pricing...wow, inexpensive like about $5-$6 each. For the total pricing, heck..i'll get two of the 128hz. This was about 1 1/2 months ago when I got the tuning forks.
When it arrived, I was unsure as to why and how lightweight they were... perhaps 4-7 ounces each ? and now I wondered how am i to attach it to my Pangea Audio racks? Well, I had a small spruce board rectangular block laying around and so I made a hole with the tip ends of the scissors so that the tuning fork could stand vertically and not fall down... damaging any of my equipment or tubes. There was some give so the fork was slightly loose --- if there was any changes to be made to the hole when playing my music I'd modify the hole or make another smaller hole so the fork could be seated more securely.
Stu says to place it close to the transformer.. since my Quicksilver Mid-Mono amps were on the top most of one of the racks, I placed the tuning fork/spruce board next to the transformer. It was not positioned in any way to be precisely or even close to being in the middle between my two Ohm Speakers...it was offset slightly to the right side.
With my tubed system warmed up about 15 minutes, I played an lp album --- my reaction: yes, my jaw dropped !... like wth ? wow ! It sounded clearer, dynamic, and focused with a deeper soundstage !
As I was playing the album, I played around with removing the board/fork off the rack and then putting it back on ! Definitely could tell a difference when it was there on the rack ! After a few records played over the few weeks, I noticed that I've had to lower my volume control on my EE Minimax preamp as the sound became more dynamic even though a couple of months earlier I bought a Nagaoka mp-200 stylus to replace the stylus on my also brand new mp-150 cartridge. The mp-200 stylus had a lower output (4.0mV) vs. the mp-150 stylus (4.5mV).
Over the weeks, I tried adding the second tuning fork onto the same spruce board but angled differently (N-S) vs. (E-W) along with placing it in the same orientation direction like the original fork. For my area in my living room, it kinda was too much and so I removed that one and just left one. YMMV.
This was one tweak that was like the topping on the cake of all my other tweaks, and to think..it ONLY cost around $5.00 !
I don't know if it'll work on your system.. i think it will as it elevated the sound on my system ! Experiment with the placement...
I saw he did discuss it back in 2011 and even earlier on AA Tweaks with some other people.
How I miss Stewart !
Below is Unclestu's blog from about 7 years ago... the pic of Unclestu's rack with the two forks on either side of the rack at the extreme top of all pictures are from his website.
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TUNING FORKS AND AUDIO
This is one of the most unusual tweaks we have developed.
We place a tuning fork tuned to low C, about 128 Hz on the metal uprights of our racks. It really helps the sound, making things sound noticeably clearer and focused.

Apparently tuning forks will start to vibrate if their resonant frequency is present. A 128 hz fork is set about double the line AC frequency (60 Hz in the US and North America). Since many forks have tuneable hammers, I moved mine out a a bit to get a range closer to 120 Hz, double the line AC. The 120 Hz is actually the fundamental resonant frequency of the rectified AC.
The resulting sound is clearer, more dynamic and reveals finer nuances in the music. Apparently the forks actually absorb some of the 60 and 120 Hz resonance and in dissipating some of that energy into the air, pulls that energy from the components themselves.
This was discovered by accident as I was experimenting with something I had read on the net, whereby one could place a tuning fork against a speaker cabinet while playing music and when the fork started to resonate, it would indicate where damping was needed. The idea didn't work for me, maybe because I wasn't using a steady test tone, but in placing the forks in the ends of the rack for convenience while experimenting, I noticed that the sound had improved.
These forks are a part of every doctor's little black bag, and they use it to test for skull fractures, apparently. Very few ever use it today and maybe if you ask your physician, he may give his to you (if he can remember where he put it !). Average cost seems to be about $5 to $6.
It works best close to components with the largest transformers: typically the power amps. But it does work everywhere.....
The power transformers which form the heart of many components, all work off the 60 Hz line voltage. Thus many metal type racks are then magnetically coupled, via induction, to the line frequency. This magnetic induction can be significantly reduced by placing small magnets on the various bars of a rack. This will resist the flow of magnetic fields and confine them to a smaller area. Again in reducing the magnetic induction, the result is superior sound; better detail and nuance.
Magnets are NOT recommended on Turntable stands, however, as the cartridge will be affected by the magnetic field of the magnet.

Edits: 07/02/21 07/02/21 07/07/21

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Have you tried placing a tuning fork on your audio system rack ?

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