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.
128x128jadem6
I'm a little skeptical about tweaks, but I get great results and can enthusiastically recommend the following: 1) wrap any remote control devices in black Pashmina (cream, acqua and turquoise will NOT work for some reason), and while keeping them bundled, remove the parcel from the line of sight of your tweeters 2) using any HP calculator with RPN or reverse polish notation, affix it to the center of the top of your power amp using a roughly 50/50 mixture of Blue Tack and Play Doh. I have had especially good results with an old HP 12C. Most important, although not specifically a "tweak", ALL food past its sell by date MUST be removed from the house. Although trickier to discern in the 200-250 HZ region, this combination will dramatically improve most of 10-30khz spectrum and give spine tingling, holographic imaging comparable to systems worth 5-10 times the price.
I like the Auric Illuminator treatment for Cds, which I apply to any CD that I detect treble grain/hardness, which is over half my Rock/alt music section. Will give a slightly smoother cleaner sound without detail loss. Also like Kontak connector cleaner/enhancer. BTW I have both Bedini II and radio shack demag unit, but I have become less convinced of their positive effect as time goes by.
Museatex used to cryogenically freeze CDs to absolute zero. I had an Aaron Neville cd frozen, then went out and bought a duplicate. I never read any white papers concerning the theory, but what I heard didn't need one to explain. We tried doing an A/B test and EVERYONE who heard the comparison picked the one that was frozen as sounding better. If anyone knows what was supposedly happened to the disc when frozen, please let me know. The difference is amazing!
I have to say it's a bit disapointing that it's not possible for people who want to make fun of an honest question to stay away! Most of us want real advise, not clever ridicule. What suppoedly happened to your disc frozen to absolute zero (not yet possible), the molicules fell apart and you bought a second disk to replace the first. What's amazing is all this happened without a single word in the news! Now if you please leave this thread alone.
Retro is being very serious, this hard freeze concept has been around for years. The theory I have heard is the hard freeze and slow thaw releases impurities introduced during CD manufacturing process, which can then be cleaned away. Also supposed to positively effect CD disc pastic/metal properties. This is too extreme for me even if it does have some benefit, I generally will not apply a tweak that cannot be removed or reversed, in case you later change your mind about the changed sound.