Your favorite "tweaks"

What tweaks (either commercial products or DIY's) have you tried on your system, and how well did they work?
- I purchased vibrapods for my CD and DVD players, they actually showed the most improvement under the DVD...
- I placed my speakers on clay tiles, rather than directly on the carpet to tighten bass reproduction
- I'm "anal" about cable management---all signal cables are far away from all ac, and cables are lightly tie-wrapped.
What have you done?
- I purchased vibrapods for my CD and DVD players, they actually showed the most improvement under the DVD...
- I placed my speakers on clay tiles, rather than directly on the carpet to tighten bass reproduction
- I'm "anal" about cable management---all signal cables are far away from all ac, and cables are lightly tie-wrapped.
What have you done?
Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amplifier: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: PSB Imagine T2 - Cables: Kimber Hero XLR; Kimber 8VS Bi-Wire; DH Labs D-75 dig coaxial
Post edited by steveinaz on
Comments
- moved all my equipment to a differnt room from my speakers for the ultimate vibration isolation
- put my speakers on clay tiles affixed to the slab for maximum stablity
- I replaced all my tie-wraps with twine...
OK, only the first two are true... I do avoid parallel AC and IC runs, but I have never used a Sharpie to apply green ink to the outer edge of a CD...
Tour...
Vox Copuli
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. - Old English Proverb
"It's easy to get lost in price vs performance vs ego vs illusion." - doro
"There is a certain entertainment value in ripping the occaisonal (sic) buttmunch..." - TroyD
"Death doesn't come with a Uhaul." - Dennis Gardner
Gidrah hooked me up with a box of vibra-pod like 'discs' - small but audible difference under cd/dvd sources.
Thick tile or slate under all subs, I've placed a 'spiked' floor tile under some speakers that didn't offer spikes, great low-end enhancement as you noted.
I haven't placed any metal cones on top of the speakers, or glued a small sandbag onto the jitter crystals in my cd players yet....
Wire mgmt is something I should probably look into, but I'm always swapping components, testing gear etc...
Cheers,
Russ
2005-06 Club Polk Football Pool Champion!!
Maurice
Cool! Somebody else using a Sunfire True Sub with Polk speakers!
Interestingly, the floor of my HT room is granite and i have my sub sitting on one-inch high foam risers.
Beauty set-up, Frank!
Rgds,
--Pete
Hey! We could start the "He-Man SVS Haters Club!" I'll be Buckwheat, you can be Spanky, and we'll sign up Dr. Spec as Alfalfa, remember he gets kicked out later.
2005-06 Club Polk Football Pool Champion!!
:rolleyes: the wife is near her limit
1/4 Twin...
BTW, I get to see my first sonogram tomorrow. I took the day off so I'm haven a beer. AGAIN!!!! OH, Shame on me:D but I was doing a lot of traveling and missed the Tornadoes sonograms so this is way cool. **** I hope all goes well...
Well I started with different wire.Trying to find the RIGHT sound.Then came system matching,digging deeper went setup.After all that placement seemed to make that last bit of difference...........then I realized something after awhile.....The room had a big Impact on the overall sound quality or lack there of...so to speak.
My favorite other then wire upgrades is tilt.Tilting the speaker back slighty back a huge impact on overall presence.
I'm gonna say that was the one that started a chain of events.
Dan
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
Once the new couch was put in place though, it sounded like I had a new set of speakers.
Polk RT800i (BI-wired)
Rear
Polk RT600i
Center
Polk CS400i (BI-wired)
Sub
SVS 25-31PCi (22Hz tuning port)... it's SubHuman
Receiver
YAMAHA RX-V1400
TV
Mitsubishi WT-46807 HDTV
HD receiver
T i V o HR10-250
Rope caulk on driver baskets.
Window insulation between cone and whizzer.
Strip speaker wire to connect to high and low terminal.
Grind bolts to a point and use as spikes.
Use of discs mentioned by Russman. I may try spiking some.
Superballs. Not impressed. Will try again later.
DIY cables and wires.
Plug amps and pre's into separate circuit from motorized equipment.
To do list:
Rewire Altec horns with silver plated copper.
Get better RCA plugs for solid silver interconnects.
Get some large rubberbands and belts for isolation experiments.
Mass load the Altecs via sand inside and stone on top.
Re-cab the 10Bs into MTM towers with side firing PR.
Clean all terminals thoroughly and replace any that don't pass muster.
Try terminal caps and/or shorting plugs.
1. Cardas caps on unused preamp inputs
2. BNC terminator on unused digital out on CDPlayer
1 thing I'd like to do:
By-pass (via hard-wire) the volume pots and "bridge" switch on the back of my Parasound HCA-1500A, I don't use either. I don't like the idea of unused pots/switches in the signal path.
Alternately, we could just be The Three Stooges: you as Moe and Dr. Spec as Curly. I would, of course, be Larry - the Stooge in the middle.
Rgds,
--Pete
Tour...
Vox Copuli
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. - Old English Proverb
"It's easy to get lost in price vs performance vs ego vs illusion." - doro
"There is a certain entertainment value in ripping the occaisonal (sic) buttmunch..." - TroyD
"Death doesn't come with a Uhaul." - Dennis Gardner
I sometimes go to friends houses and do this simple tweak on their fronts. and they are impressed with the difference they get.. some times they have their fronts firing to far toed in. kills the imaging.
Vancouver, Canada Sept 30th, 2012 - Madonna concert :cheesygrin:
2. JM Labs Electra 920.1; Parasound JC2 and JC5; Sony HAP-Z1ES; Marantz SA8004 SACD; Music Hall MMF7 and Acoustech phono pre; PS Audio P1000; MIT S1 Cables
3. Polk LSiM703; Anthem Pre-2L SE; Parasound A21; Sony 48" 4K TV; Wyred4Sound DAC 2; Oppo 203; Squeezebox Touch; PS Audio Power Director 4.7; MIT S3 cables
- many hours properly locating speakers in the room (the rest is icing on the cake)
- balanced power for entire system
- install Bybee quantum filters on balanced power unit
- install differential noise filter on balanced power unit
- construct Bybee filters for speaker level connections (mains only at this time)
- DIY tube traps (three of 10 constructed)
- DIY speaker cables (UBYTE-2) for mains
- construct 12" high, 45lb stands for subwoofers; place 5kg weights on top of each sub
- Sorbothane material for feet under main speakers (calculated correct size is very important for best results)
- "super balls" as isolation for components (cheap and fast, not as effective as I would like...)
Two children so these are now future projects:
- complete seven tube traps
- build custom oak or maple A/V stand
- finish constructing Bybee filters for surround speakers
- finish UBYTE-2 speaker cable for center channel speaker
- DIY interconnect cable (several designs in mind)
- ?
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
I will have my vengeance in this life or the next.........
http://www.svsubwoofers.com/animation.htm
Ed Mullen ([email protected])
Director - Technology and Customer Service
SVS
Doc,
that was so funny...........**** dude:D
My personal quest is to save to world of bad audio, one thread at a time.
Steve, what sort improvement did you notice from the caps?
Senn HD650 Cardas, Mapletree Audio Ear+ HD2, Kimber KS1030, Bel Canto DAC2, M-Audio Transit, Laptop.
My system is already extremely low noise, so I can't hear any difference with these---they may be reducing the noise floor more, but in all honesty I can't hear it.