Another part of this is to have the pigtail off the neutral side of the A/C line. This is slightly more 'advanced' as having the pigtail off the hot instead of the neutral is a really bad idea. and the wire should be carefully implemented anyway, with the bare end covered with a cap of some type. (I use heavy duty plumbers' Teflon tape.)
Again it is only on the neutral line (In none USA if both sides are hot do NOT do this tweak) |
Hi Elizabeth,
Wondering what prompted you to do this? Reading about a tweak and what it helped alleviate motivating you to come up with a DIY solution?
A specific anomaly and the tweaks benefit?
I will investigate EVS product to get a better idea of what it is about.
I am interested in your response. Thanks in advance.
Best,
Dave |
Copied from my post over at Audio Asylum. It is quoting myself so I am certain it is OK. Due to request for exact discription of make the pigtail here it is:
AA posted last week:
The idea is to add a 'pig tail of wire to the wiring, generally on the negative pole.
This is to improve the sound.
The places to do this are on A/C wiring at the receptical on the 'neutral side (and never on the 'hot' 120V side.)
Or at the amplifer five way binding posts. (It can also be put on the ground side of interconnects)
Various forms are for sale commercially for $30 a pair.
From reading about those, I decided to add the ferrite as a 'load' at the end of the wire. The original idea was just the wire was all, hanging in space going nowhere. Then the first adaptation made the wire into a bit more substantial blob. My further take on this puts a ferrite blob on the end of the wire.
Appearance:
The wire is any wire. I use a 12 gauge teflon insulated silver plated wire because i have a lot of it. And am actually using up scrap from a 700 ft spool of it.
The ferrites are 1 inch long, cylindrical shaped 1/2 inch diameter ferrite tubes. (these i have because they are a perfect fit over A/C 14 gauge three wire power cords)
I take 11" of wire, and peel off 5 inches of the insulation from one end.
I place the wire in the hole on the ferrite up to 1/4 inch from the end of the stripped portion. So about 6" of shilded wire, and 1/4 inch of bare wire is out one end of the ferrite, and the remaining bare wire out the other end of the ferrite barrel. I bend the bare wire back up and around the outside of the ferrite back to the top of the ferrite where it meets the shielded wire. I wrap the bare wire to the 1/4 inch bare portion at the top, pulling VERY tightly on the wire as I wrap it around together (using the needlenose pliers leverage to tension the wire) so the wire is now very tightly holding the ferrite. I wrap the bare end around the shielded wire about three turns, then cut off the rest of the bare wire.
So now i have a single shielded wire, six inches long with the ferrite at the end connected to the wire and the ferrite is electrically bonded to the wire. (I use the pliers to smooth the remaining bare end to the area the wires are twisted together.
Then I take some Teflon plumbers tape (blue thicker teflon) And I wrap up the ferrite, and the bare wire holding it. So the teflon completey covers the bare metal. both wire and ferrite.
The result is a (smokers pipe shaped) device. The end tip of the shielded wire is striped for about 1/2 inch.
Now my tweak is ready to use.
You need at least two. One for each negative speaker terminal on the amp. Most amps have five way binding posts, and use the one that is not on the speaker wires. So my wires use the screw down, and leave the banana free, so I stuck the tweak in a banana connector and just plugged it in.
I have added six more, so the positive at the amp also has one, and at the speaker the low input, and the mid/high input(biwired) each have one. This is just me playing around. As the first pair really do the magic. and the added ones just are minor, but they do NOT degrade the sound. (like so many tweaks where a little is good, but a lot is bad)
i also have one on each of the four dedicated A/C lines.
(On interconnects did not do much good, Only made sound fuzzy)
All I can say is it does help. |
This should be harmless but some iterations use a loop or coil. This is similar to an inductor or choke. This may pick up stray alternating magnetic fields from transformers and from the speaker voice coils and possibly the speaker wires themselves. This could quite likely introduce some form of very mild distortion due to the magnetic field created by the device itself, as this device is close to the negative wire and there is nothing the positive side to cancel it out. |
The additional ferrite was just a 'it popped into my head'.
I was reading about tweaks over at Audio Asylum, and the big thing was quartz Crystals. Other folks had complicated 'treatments' to make them work better. i saw the treatments basically were coating the surface with a non-conductive material. So i went to my junk and found Ford Silicone high temp brake grease. Perfect. Used up two tubes of it on my many pounds of crystal bits now deposited insinde and all around my stuff.
In that site, I also saw a mention of a nearly forgotten tweak of wrapping the prongs of all A/C plugs with Plumbers' Teflon tape. Wrap them and then push the teflon down off the mating part of the prongs. i tried it, and yes it worked. I measured the wattage and discovered that the tweak also reduced the wattage by a tiny amount 2% average. I treated every wall plug in my place!
So then the pigtail. Well I was on a roll with tweaks, and tried it. The result was "I can really hear this! 100% no guesssing 'maybe?' stuff".
This was only the second 'tweaky' sort of thing i could say I can hear a definite real change 100% no question. (the first was the use of a Pangea Power cord on my Forte' 4a amp)
So I read more about the pigtail tweak, and there is a battery ground tweak that is somewhat aiming for the same thing. Then the EVS product. And I noted the original tweak was just a bit of wire. Then it got 'thicker, or more stuff off the end of the wire. And i thought that is the key, a big thing off the end of the wire. So I had the ferrites at hand and added them. WOW. big improvement. Probelm is it does not last. a full day and the added sound quality faded.'So something is working, but not lasting. So then I thought what would the ferrite need to keep the ?? electron count? who knows? up, I tried to add the 9volt battery tweak, but is was like 'double ground tweak' in a bad way, too much.
So I glommed on to the idea of adding a 'bush; of wire allowing the ferrite to interact with the natural air ions more quickly to 'refresh' the ferrite 'whatever' that made the sound better. So I stripped piles of wire and added trees of wire clound from the ferrite up above it.
Two possible things can allow the ferrite to recover: One is to turn off the mp at night (I usually leave on 24/7) then i get a refreshed ferrite. ??
Or the added wire cloud.
So far i have been increasing the wire cloud, going from copper to silver plated copper (no problem with tarnish on bare wire.)
I just fulfilled this all in the last week. And I am very happy with the results.
My system had tremendous clarity, and it was at the expense of a slight diminishing of that pleasant lower midrange bloom. With powerline conditioners on everything to gain the maximum clarity, i accepted the slight loss.
But this pigtail tweak brought MORE clarity, AND the midrange natural bloom was back!!! plus better Low Frequency response.
A WINNER!!
So I really want to find the permanent solution to why the ferrite loses to 'magic' after a full day of use.
The added wie is new these past few days. and the idea to turn off the amp just came to me a day ago. So it is up in the air a bit.
But the added beauty is just wonderful.
And I think the cumulative effect of various tweaks adds up. So the pigtail tweak may not work for some folks. I myself had tried it a bit a long time ago, and it did nothing. Where now it moved the whole thing fundamentally.
It is an amazing mystery.
I used to really scoff at this crap. But i have seen the light. to some degree. (I can STILL call it crap)
I still am against expensive tweaky things that are just someones idea using cheap stuff but charging a fortune for the 'idea'. And i back that up with: try this, it works, nearly free, and who cares about 'paying' me for it. What goes around comes around.. i got part of the ideas from others, and just stuck in some new bit. maybe someone else will take it further.
So this is in answer to Corazon about his interest in this, and my development of what i am doing. |
To Shadorne: agree best not to loop wire around ferrite. I have only one loop through the hole of the ferrite, and that is just to make a strong physical contact.
And i leave a fairly long 'tail' (8 inches) on the pigtail to keep the ferrite away from the electronics, and away from the speakers proper. |
How about someone taking a picture ( finished product ) to show what it exactly looks like on the amps.....Would be nice to see to better understand .. |
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I wonder if this tweak is amp dependent , since we have heard a lot of this subject over the years , we decided to try this with my amp , a couple of club members and I could not hear a difference . We are going to try the same in a few other systems .
A lot of what is discussed above sounds like Transparents white papers . |
All I can say is interesting and it is certainly easy enough and inexpensive enough to try. I would think a phenomenon such as shadrone mentions is probably what is going on here.
Elizabeth thanks for the post.
Chuck |
Is it possible that this same mechanism is how the MIT Z stabilizers work? |
After reading this thread I made a 5 inch piece of solid core 12awg speaker wire with a banana on the end for termination. After A-B testing over a dozen times I almost thought I heard a differance. I pluged the two pigtails into my amps neg speaker output for the test.
I didn't conclusively hear a differance.
I'm all for these cheap tweeks and have tried a few that I could hear a differance.
It may be amp dependent or system dependent.
I gave it a shot.
I really wanted it to work. |
I used the commercially available inexpensive pigtails. On my speakers they definitely made a sonic difference. Very expended soundstage, but they diffused the focus a bit and souonded overall somewhat phasey. The initial reaction was WOW, but after a while I missed the focus.
So I put them on my amp and this focused things and still enhanced the soundstage. Maybe not as much as on the speaker but to a noticeable extent anyway.
There have been lots of reportings on this type of thing. Many good, some bad, some initially good and then not so good (like me). It is somewhat system dependent. Maybe mine didn;t work on my speakers because my amp is balanced (I've heard others with balanced amps report the same).
In any case it is cheap and worth the trial and error to find out for yourself.
Enjoy,
Bob |
I just tried the pigtail in my system and did some serious aba listening. By the way you must do aba to eliminate a different focus when listening after the change. For instance I listened several times to a favorite song and then installed the pigtails. Thought I noticed more reverb on the vocalist. Then I removed the pigtails and listened again. What I thought was more reverb was now exactly the same as with the pigtails. I did this on 6 cd's and sacd's and heard no difference at all |
Agree with Ahendler, Doing a tweak and not checking to see if it did anything.. not good.
Sorry it did not work for you.
I had mentioned i tried the pigtail tweak awhile back, and had no results too.
I have been doing a lot of tweaking lately though, and tried it again,and it worked this time.
I do not know what is the prerequisists of having it work better though.
At least it is cheap to try out! |
Just as a guess i would say if one person in five notes any improvement, and one in ten has a lot of improvemnet, then this tweak is a success.
A lot of this stuff is very system dependent. |
The continued descriptions certainly do not inspire confidence. |
If you want some different opinions go over to the Tweaks Asylum at AA. Lots of success stories over there. I tried the EVS version, couldn't tell a difference but it was cheap enough to give it a whirl and hear for myself. |
Yeah, worrying about a failure when it costs three cents worth of wire?
I'd worry about the new $12,000 preamp that turned out to be no better than the one you just sold.
Or those $4,000 interconnects that never seem to get broken in...
My advice: do not try it. It clearly is a terrible trick to get you to buy SOMETHING, not mentioned, but secretely imbedded in the idea.
Besides, in general it is a slippery slope to tweak Hell, So please, do NOT try this tweak, tell your friends DO NOT try this tweak. The Devil made me post this OP.
PLEASE DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT TRYING THiS EVIL EVIL EVIL TWEAK...
in my one moment of audiophile honesty, i tell you all clearly: this tweak sucks, and is complete and utter BS. I made it all up, I want to see fools like you try nonsense, i wanted to look good. but it was all a lie.
LOL!!
... |
Thanks alot. Your prior suggestions/tweaks that DID work for me, come to think of it, they all of a sudden sound like crap! Yeah, take advantage of the male egos frailty. I hope you're happy! Still, we'll probably fall for your next one.... |
Isochronism: thanks! I am glad you took the comment in the sprit it was made. |
I'm about to advertise all my gear!!! Was going to switch to crafting or maybe flower arranging..... |
i use an ennacom connecting b0oh terminals of the speaker connectors.
i have heard the evs in my friend's system. i heard a minor improvement.
i generally seek more robustness and texture, rather than clarity and/or speed. |
I wonder why manufacturer's just don't include this inexpensive tweak with their new amps on delivery ? Placebo effect ? Hmmm.... |
Hmmm.... I just spent $10,000 on this amplifier, and the manufacture recommends for proper performance dangle this scrap piece of wire from output.... Oh, that would be well received. HA |
Well, then they wouldn't be tweaks, would they?
At one point not too long ago the idea of raising speaker cables off the floor was ridiculed (Enid Lumly at TAS)
Now $100 lifters are commonplace in the market.
Perhaps give it a few years, and your amplifier just may have some of these come with it. Various models to adjust the sound to your listening space. |
I started wearing elevator shoes... and my jokes have never sounded better :) |
at what point does increased resolution become too much resolution ?
i'm assuming the wire attached to the amp increases resolution. |
At one point not too long ago the idea of raising speaker cables off the floor was ridiculed (Enid Lumly at TAS) Are you actually suggesting that this isn't completely ludicrous? |
I'm pretty sure I have some old speaker cables from Tara Labs with three conductors where the third conductor was supposed to be connected to the neutral post on the amplifier but not connected to the speaker. |
Curious about 'too much resolution'.
With my powerline conditioners, I pretty much got myself to the limit of clarity (which i want) but at the expense of a thin (slightly) midrange.
The funny thing about the pigtail, is it add s to the clarity, yet brings back the normal warmer mids and definitely the lows are stronger.
So my system is just about 'perfect' (that is as good as THIS SYSTEMS sound gets)
I have had the pigtails in for over a week, and am pretty happy with the results.
This is not a 'joke' though I can understand if it seems crazy... no problem accepting that.
I am getting a negtive ion generator this week, as others say it helps the pigtail tweak.
Anyway, for three cents of wire, and a few $0.35 ferrite cores it is working pretty good, for me, anyway.
In general, the improvement is as great as the first aftermarket power cord one tried, or the first good cryoed outlet. So you who have tried those have an idea of what i am saying. |
Elizabeth...just for the halibut...remove your power conditioners and listen again to your system...you can always put them back. I, myself have never met a power conditioner which hasn't screwed up the sound in some way (I tried many of them..Richard Gray the worst). I have found that power conditioners do something which I focus my attention on..after which I realize they ruin some other aspect of the sound. |
I am aware conditioners have tradeoffs. For the ones I use currently, i prefer the sound with them.I do have to say a Monster AVS2000 (which was a voltage stabilizer) really made everything suck all around for me. But the ones I use, i am happy with the results. And as i mentioned, the one flaw of using them that i felt was a real detriment (though it was still better with, than without) was the thinning of the lower mids. lows. a miracle, the pigtail tweak brought back that from slightly thin to good.
Thanks though, Stringreen. |
Anyone have a picture on how this look? |
Hi Liz ....I'm going to try your pigtail suggestion if you try removing your power conditioner. Lets tell all in a couple of days... Looking for your post....Stan |
05-03-11: Wig
Anyone have a picture on how this look?
I second this request... |
I third this the request for some photos. |
My second attempt, the first time was with mutple thin solid core wires twisted together.
This time a 14 guage single solid core copper wire (plastci coated) thru a ferite block at the mid point of the closed loop of wire terminated at the amp in a WBT spade for each negative post.
I can't hear any improvemnt,definitely not as good as adding the Walker Music links or Foundation Research LP1 , both Zoebel type networks to the speakers.
Amp- DecWare SE84ZS, speakers, Ref 3A Grand Veena.
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