|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
212.102.144.2
i have thule cd150b, an average mid-quality CDP from 5-6 years ago. it is a decent machine but somehow i thought that it sounds a bit "congested", lacks a better flow.an experienced friend came to me for the first time to hear my system and after 5 mins he started looking for a small feather-filled cushion. when he placed it under the player, the difference was pretty obvious: more flow, more realism, less hardness, less digital glare. i would say it is a rather dramatic difference considering a simplicity of a tweak. i even didn't bother to put my CDP in a perfectly horizontal position.
i am really surprised as i have never heard of this tweak: people usually place their CDPs on cones to marble support to eliminate vibrations.
my wife, usually not interested in changes, asked me yesterday evening what happenned to our sound as it now sounds more enjoyable.
Follow Ups:
I'm send MY pillow to the guys at The Upgrade Company to have it modded so all YOU suckers will have outdated pillows ...... bwaaahaaahaaa
Inner tubes rule. Low PSI is best, a few PSI at most- just enough to raise the component.What I've done is to use single ceramic or stone tiles in your color of choice from HD/Lowe's in either 12" or 18" sq. and set component on top of tile, then tile on top of 12" or 15" bicycle inner tubes. Looks a lot nicer than with just the tube underneath.
I adopted a different principle and it worked a lot (before I tried all crazy sandwiches of materials, such as expensive teflon too):- 1 layer of expanded polyurethane (that adopted inside buildings, 2cm thick)
- 1 layer of linden (tilia) wood on the top (it's cheap and adopted for making some parts in instruments, 2cm thick)
- 1 layer of your favorite CD player on the top of the tylia wood
- 1 layer of a 5kg weight on the top of the CD chassis exactly centered on the CD spindle (this is a round weight with rubber around, and you can easily find it in fitness stores)The total cost of the tweak is around 30 euros, so you might give a try.
One of my least expensive, most effective CD player tweaks is to procure a 6" wheelbarrow inner tube. Inflate to 3-5 PSI and place under your CD player. Balance the player on the innertube with a bubble level.All U really did was isolate your CD player from the rack by placing it on the pillow. This just goes to show how much influence just the rack can have on the musical quality of components.
Cheers,
or even a sheet of cardboard.i'm not heard of a feather pillow, but i'll try it.
I'm finding that the mdf shelving of my Lovan rack is just as toxic sounding (when gear is placed on it) as concrete & painted plywood.
just slip an empty album cover, or piece of cardboard, posterboard or sheets of copy paper on top of your shelving and simply lay your gear on it as normal.
LP covers + a pillow?
thanks for sharing your report...seems like there's a host of great sounding free tweaks lying around.
If you want a bombastic change to your cd player, grab a magnet off your fridge and locate it on the chassis top just over the cd's inner spindle. Read down a page or so & there's a report about this.worked like gangbusters for me. with tweaks like this you may never upgrade to another cdp...
has been so profound on what i hear, and how i like it, that going forth i'm no longer interested in tweaking the effect of the LP covers any further. i might find cooler LP covers, but that's it.the effects i've experienced are somewhat of a 'night & day' thing, and i try not to throw that term out lightly here...too many bars on the windows. The square footage of soundstage increased, widened and sounds dope. bass has not been adversely affected (which is usually the case with isolation), and the rest of spectrum improved the most. Before laying LP covers under everything, mye 'phantom center channel' was about 5' wide with a 1' or 2' gap at each far end (and holes within)...just before each speaker which are 9.5' apart or so. now there is no phantom center, its all filled in 100% and even as can be. my speakers have all but disappeared as well, and mine aren't that type. no musicians occupy the same space anymore either, for YEARS the drummer and bass guitar player have bascially been within the same 2' bubble. i'm experiencing depth and height differences (most prevalent amongst vocalists) too depending on the recording.
being a consumate tweaker there are other areas i addressed that affect my rambling as well, but because it took little time to lay the LP's out - and for my gear to settle - the effects were immediate and obvious. too cool for a free tweak. it might have been the straw that broke the camels back though and is allowing the benefits of tweaking in other areas to jump out.
the LP covers are under all my gear which is isolated by Isoblocks & maple platforms: TVC, Power strip & TT. when i could i used 1 LP, otherwise 2 per shelf side by side.
My cdp is wide so it has 2 LP's laid side-by-side underneath & and a single LP cover w/LP in it is under both the channel islands vpp-1 & vac-1..again side-by-side. both these components just sit on the shelf w/factory footers.
this ain't a recipe on what to do, just how i do. i've tried inner tubes and cork and neoprene and vibrapods and a host of other DIY materials. to my ears, thin rigid paper has bass - adds crazy imaging gains - and sounds like music. everything else i've tried had trade-offs...no trade-offs that i can detect w/LP covers.
i just realized i have a closet full of down pillows...
J/K =^)Actually it's what the cushion is doing rather what it's made of.
Your friend seems to be familiar with resonance tuning. Sometimes components respond to rigid coupling to the surface below them, sometimes isolation works better.
Now you're thinking "What else can I try this on?", aren't you? hehe ;^] .
I realize I am at risk of transgressing as I am about to mention a product I distribute, but I think the post has merit as the product is quite unusual and may be of interest to the Tweaker's Asylum.
Acoustic Revive makes pure silk wool which is quite reasonably priced (100 grms for $55 - actually quite a lot of wool) which can have a profound effect when placed under CD players or between interconnects, power cords etc.Joseph Cohen
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: