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Snake oil and tweaks that work!

This is in no way intended to bring out argument but discussion of tweaks people have tried and have found success with. I know there are at least 50% of you out there that think everything in audio is snake oil, and you are initialed to those opinions. Please don't make this your battle field! If you want to start an opposing thread calling us nuts and getting in arguments please do, it might be fun to have both going. I want this one to be an informational for people who want to try things. I for one have tried a lot of the recommendations in Stereophile each month, most don't work for me, but I have found a few things that do work. #1 tweak: Speaker location. Even a 1/16" can make all the difference. I try to play with this about every six months. A dedicated circuit from the panel with 10ga. wire had a very noticeable improvement. Cables and wires matter, some have been good for my system, some real bad. We have plenty of threads covering this so lets no go there. The "Bedini Ultra Clarifier" works amazingly well for me, I know it's crazy but it works! The Cardas caps I got for X-mas really worked, they produced a more quite background, go figure. Black Diamond Racing "the Puck and the Shelf " have been great improvements, all the different cones I've tried change the sound, I haven't found one I would recommend. The Audio Prism Quiteline filters work great, but power conditioners and RFI/EMI ferrets did nothing. The last thing that has helped me is furniture location, I find if I move something only an inch it can help or hurt. I look forward to hearing others experiences.
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ohlala
993 posts
 
I've been messing around with my speakers lately (kiss, kiss). I don't have the precision to move my 1/16" 'cause i don't want to remove the spikes, but i've noticed a difference with 1/4". My desk chair also has to be in a certain place in order for the stage to center correctly. Because of my living setup I have to listen from my bed, and sit on it with my back against the wall. The arrangement of pillows between me and whoever, and the wall makes a difference. Sometimes I feel pretty neurotic, but that doesn't stop me
elgordo
530 posts
 
"Green edging" CDs works very well for me, as does using a Radio Shack bulk eraser. Hold the CD about 1/4" away from the eraser, hit the trigger and pull the CD away slowly to a distance of about 3 feet. I have not tried raising my speaker cables off the floor but will this weekend. A friend who has tried it tells me that some cables benefit from it while others don't. Go figure. Sorbothane under CD transports (or some other "soft" platform) always works for me. When I listen, I cover the TV and the coffee table with blankets. The TV or anything else between the speakers ruins depth and staging. Tweaks are like sex - if it works for you, it's normal.
rcprince
2,830 posts
 
Having heard them last week, the inner tubes under the components are a cheap tweak to isolate your equipment from vibrations and very beneficial, particularly for CDPs and tubed eqipment. Just play with the inflation level, you don't want to overinflate. Room acoustic treatments are also tweaks that will greatly benefit your system, and you don't have to spend large amounts for them (for example, cut a small pillow in half, sew the cut sides and you have two corner tunes). I've found plants to be effective at reducing reflections in my room as well (unfortunately, I use my living room as my listening room, so I can't put up devices I might otherwise use in a dedicated listening room). Finally, I've found the Top Hat tube dampers, while expensive, to be effective at increasing the focus of images and clarity of sound with the tubed units I have them in. Keep the tweaks coming, always good to hear of the ones that work and don't cost an arm and a leg!
abstract7
541 posts
 
Marbles under amplifiers. I took 2 aluminum plates per amp and had them routed so that 4 marbles could be sandwiched between them. They can move slightly, but still have a ridged mass supporting them. I'm using this with Levinson Reference 20 amps. It's amazing how the background got quieter and there's virtually no grain (which I didn't know was there until I heard the system with the marbles). Total cost $20.
tom_munro
162 posts
 
If you listen in a room with a suspended floor you can improve bass quality by stiffening the floor joists from below. This only works if it is pratical to position adjustable jack posts from a basement or cross base location, and if the expanse of unsuspended floor area is quite large. Two years ago I had a 16x20 addition built where the builder used 16' 2x8s 12" OC for floor joists. This allowed a lot of flex in the floor and was adding some boom to the bass. By positioning several adjustable jack posts underneath the floor joists I was able to improve the quality of the bass significantly.
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