Isolation Ward From ebony pucks to magic foil, mystical and controversial tweaks.

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There is a certain

Posted by unclestu52 (D) on September 13, 2009 at 16:06:15

In Reply to: RE: Believing in belief. posted by caspian@peak.org on September 11, 2009 at 12:42:40:

hierarchy to audio tweaks.

Many tweaks induce relatively small changes in a system and if your system is not corrected for larger errors, the smaller ones may not be audible at all. The analogy I like to make is that if you start off with muddy water, no matter how much sugar and lemon you add, the taste will still be bad.

The most important aspect to any tweaking is to achieve a relative phase and time alignment of your speaker system. If you an not hear changes in signal polarity in your system, then something is very wrong. Those other factors must be corrected prior to performing any other tweaks because a system out of time and polarity alignment will smear rather than reveal the detail which is possible.

Achieving such a fundamental change, IMHO, means often recalibrating an entire system, something which many listeners would rather not do, because of the time and cost involved. It is important that the fundamental set us be attended to or else, the listener is apt to simply spend too much time and money working around these faults.

I, for one, would not recommend Mpingo discs or crystals on speaker system where drivers are out of polarity to each other. I have seen this attempted and the results are mixed: somethings get better, some things get worse, and the net conclusion is that it is a draw.

I specifically mention the polarity issue because after 20+ years of attending CES, I have rarely (only once, as a matter of fact) met any exhibitor or reviewer who seemed to be sensitive to polarity issues. I have in speaker designer's rooms and asked them to reverse polarity of the speakers ( easy to do with some CD players or DAC's ans most were surprised that 1.) I could detect a difference in sound without actually making a comparison, and 2.) that any polarity changes were actually audible.

Therein lies an important issue. If you are spending thousands of dollars to achieve "realistic, live" sound, we have to address fundamental issues. If such issues are not addressed, the mistake is carried forth and you end up "treating" a symptom, not necessary effecting a cure.

It would be a grave error to condemn what others hear without being aware of shortcomings within your own system first. I do know know what your personal system comprises of, so please do not take my comments personally. But adding a big carburetor to a stock four banger Pinto is not going to make it into a super muscle car. The same applies to many audio tweaks.

Stu

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