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Systems:some tweek responsive,some not?

Some particular systems (all being unique) are more responsive to minor tweeks, and some are not moved at all.
I wonder if some of the debate over tweeks (like power cords) is due to trial and error testing: One Audiophile tries a little tweek, being skeptical, but descovers that the thing works, and is encouraged to explore further!... Another Audiophile tries the SAME tweek and finds nothing, and feels he's been made a fool of for wasting the money. They meet on a board such as this and call each other bad things.. When in reality they each tried it, and <> one noticed something and the other didn't, but they assumed the "tweek" was the key element, and missed that each ones system may have been so different that the tweek behaved as each sensed it.
Aside from the theoretical group who spout dogma (flames!!)and don't care about trying stuff out.
I wonder how many realize that the system that responds to a power cord is sort of on a knife edge, so to speak, and the system that is not just isn't in that particular sort of balance? (not to say a non-responsive system is "less" than one that bounces all around if you look at it funny.)
I would like to see some comments about the SYSTEM variables that seem to make it possible to begin to get the experiences found in tweeking, vs the things that suddenly nothing seems to change anything since you "X"....
FOR EXAMPLE: My system has gone from general non responsiveness to noticable since I got the Adcom 750 preamp..... and... blah blah blah. (I'm burn out thinking these big thoughts so I'll turn this over to anyone else to continue:
elizabeth
elizabeth OP
6,726 posts
 
and due to the unique configuration of each system
(somehow these words dropped out of my post at <>
sorry, I shouldn't have used the <>
abstract7
541 posts
 
I agree completely. Particularly when it comes to power cords and power conditioners. It's very dependent on the quality of the incoming power and the power supply. I changed the power in the audioroom to 220v service with a toroidal transformer to drop it to 110v (2 sides at 55 volts out of phase). This dramatically improved the noise floor, but now expensive power cords don't have nearly the dramatic effect they once did.
mgottlieb
334 posts
 
Agreed. These things are all cumulative, and we're so used to changing an interconnect cable and hearing an immediate difference that it seems like power cords should do the same, or there's something wrong. Over the past year I've added a PS Audio 300 power plant, a Richard Gray Power Co. device, and a half dozen Bybee power line filters. A dealer recently offered me an astounding deal on a megabuck power cord and told me to try it first on the power supply that feeds my phono and head amps instead of the $500 cord that I have there. Result--nothing I could hear. His answer--replace all 8 cords in the system and you will, at a mere cost of 5 figures plus. At some point this all becomes too much.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
It is not always a matter of balance or "on the edge". A very revealing and transparent preamp and amplifier are more tweekable simply because small changes can be reproduced by the equipment. Also some people have better hearing than others.
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