The biggest change I've made is to quit fussing with my stereo. I enjoy it so much more now.
Changes that made a difference (in order of effect).
Here are the changes I’ve made to my system in the last six months -
Speaker placement: I’ve been moving my SF Auditor M’s around trying to get the best imaging and smoothest frequency response. They are currently 30” from the front wall, 67” from the side, 76” apart, and toed in ~ 15 degrees. I have moved them back and forth in all directions as well as shifted my seating position trying to optimize the room/ speaker interaction. This is a very time consuming study. REW software helped; being able to see changes in distortion, time domain and frequency response makes it less ambiguous. It now feels like it’s as good as it’s going to get. BTW, the mad NASA engineer was right. Speakers closer together, closer than you might otherwise think, is better.
Diffusor: I built the Arqen lean diffusor designed by Tim Perry and put it on the near side wall to improve clarity. (Unfortunately, my room set up is not symmetrical.) I have lots of constraints in my mixed use living/ listening room. So a diffusor doubling as wall art is a win/ win situation. (See photo in my virtual system.) Initially, I tried the model 4 but in the end I went with the flat version. Moreover, I made it out of walnut and reduced the height to 13” instead of the recommended 48” for improved WAF.
The “Master Handbook of Acoustics” recommends absorption at the first reflection point and Floyd Toole recommends nothing on the wall at the FRP. Recommendations also vary depending on whether it’s a studio control room or a listening space. The diffusor is 8’ from my listening position. I don’t know if the lean diffusor is actually diffusing or just attenuating. What is noticeable is how much clearer China Forbes’ voice is when playing Pink Martini. YMMV
Preamplifier clipping: This issue is discussed at length in the Harbeth user group. http://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/forum/the-science-of-audio/amplifier-matching-mismatching-and-cli... Willemj pointed me in that direction a while back. Previously, my volume setting was around 9 o’clock for ~70 dB sound level, not much useable range on the volume dial. I added -10dB attenuation to my Marantz CD player (one of the default settings) and that shifted the volume setting upward to around 11 o’clock. Previously, listening to Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” there were two points in the song where the guitar goes twang and my ears would go Ouch! Now, much better.
Wall outlet: This is a tweak that others swear by but I can’t be sure of. After seeing what extreme measures Folkfreak went to manage his incoming power, I wondered about my standard residential set up. I unscrewed the old back stab wall socket that my system is plugged into and pulled on the wires. They easily slipped about 1/8” before grabbing. Hmmm...not a very positive connection. I replaced it with a Hubbell 8300H (old un-plated version) I got on eBay. It seemed like the bass response was better (maybe) but I couldn’t confirm by A/B testing the outlets. 1) it takes at least 10 minutes to replace a socket (too long to remember) and 2) I cannot recreate the 30 year old marginal connection to the back-stab outlet. In any event, I’m happy with the very positive connection provided by the Hubbell plate and screws.
I’m done (for now). These positive changes are mostly from shared learnings by forum members for which I’m grateful.
What recent changes have you made to improve the sound of your system?
Speaker placement: I’ve been moving my SF Auditor M’s around trying to get the best imaging and smoothest frequency response. They are currently 30” from the front wall, 67” from the side, 76” apart, and toed in ~ 15 degrees. I have moved them back and forth in all directions as well as shifted my seating position trying to optimize the room/ speaker interaction. This is a very time consuming study. REW software helped; being able to see changes in distortion, time domain and frequency response makes it less ambiguous. It now feels like it’s as good as it’s going to get. BTW, the mad NASA engineer was right. Speakers closer together, closer than you might otherwise think, is better.
Diffusor: I built the Arqen lean diffusor designed by Tim Perry and put it on the near side wall to improve clarity. (Unfortunately, my room set up is not symmetrical.) I have lots of constraints in my mixed use living/ listening room. So a diffusor doubling as wall art is a win/ win situation. (See photo in my virtual system.) Initially, I tried the model 4 but in the end I went with the flat version. Moreover, I made it out of walnut and reduced the height to 13” instead of the recommended 48” for improved WAF.
The “Master Handbook of Acoustics” recommends absorption at the first reflection point and Floyd Toole recommends nothing on the wall at the FRP. Recommendations also vary depending on whether it’s a studio control room or a listening space. The diffusor is 8’ from my listening position. I don’t know if the lean diffusor is actually diffusing or just attenuating. What is noticeable is how much clearer China Forbes’ voice is when playing Pink Martini. YMMV
Preamplifier clipping: This issue is discussed at length in the Harbeth user group. http://www.harbeth.co.uk/usergroup/forum/the-science-of-audio/amplifier-matching-mismatching-and-cli... Willemj pointed me in that direction a while back. Previously, my volume setting was around 9 o’clock for ~70 dB sound level, not much useable range on the volume dial. I added -10dB attenuation to my Marantz CD player (one of the default settings) and that shifted the volume setting upward to around 11 o’clock. Previously, listening to Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” there were two points in the song where the guitar goes twang and my ears would go Ouch! Now, much better.
Wall outlet: This is a tweak that others swear by but I can’t be sure of. After seeing what extreme measures Folkfreak went to manage his incoming power, I wondered about my standard residential set up. I unscrewed the old back stab wall socket that my system is plugged into and pulled on the wires. They easily slipped about 1/8” before grabbing. Hmmm...not a very positive connection. I replaced it with a Hubbell 8300H (old un-plated version) I got on eBay. It seemed like the bass response was better (maybe) but I couldn’t confirm by A/B testing the outlets. 1) it takes at least 10 minutes to replace a socket (too long to remember) and 2) I cannot recreate the 30 year old marginal connection to the back-stab outlet. In any event, I’m happy with the very positive connection provided by the Hubbell plate and screws.
I’m done (for now). These positive changes are mostly from shared learnings by forum members for which I’m grateful.
What recent changes have you made to improve the sound of your system?
24 responses Add your response
Man, I LOVE experimenting with diets. For a month I was on rice-beans-cabbage and some basic fruits(hah! spent only $120 for whole month on meals) and after I cooked chicken soup that I was munching whole Sunday nothing else, but chicken soup because I was getting high eating that chickn soup! Any change to your system is good pal. Do change! The chance I'll do it again is quite BIG. |
1) Fuses. Simply helps to lower the noise floor allowing more to be heard. Not the expensive ones either (mine were $35 apiece) 2) Going to a bigger gauge speaker cable and keeping it a single, solid core with bare ends. That, and having extra enough length on the speaker end to reach both posts of my speaker which is bi wirable. It eliminates the jumpers and keeps it clean and simple, resulting in a very coherent sound. 3) Gutwire Perfect Ground cables. One for my integrated and one for my SACD player. Like the fuses, they result in a much lower noise floor, eliminating a haze I never knew I had. All the best, Nonoise |
1.) Getting the TDSS Level 3 upgrades for my Nuforce Ref 9 V3 SE mono amps--the already good sound of the Ref 9's was improved by a considerably margin with live dynamics, authoritative, articulate bass, and you hear things on the highs that were not nearly as audible, and the mids are just spectacular. Thanks Bob Smith. 2.) Getting the rods cut much shorter on my Sistrum rack so I now have 2 racks where the tops with equipment sit a foot below the midpoint of my speakers--much more stable and the soundstage has improved about 50% in precise location and sound of the instruments. 3.) Putting a Core Power Tech 150 PC on my TRL DUDE--made the sound more organic, clearer, and more dynamic. 4.) SR Blue fuses in my MW 5400, Whest 3.0 RDT SE phono, and Nuforce Ref 9's--more clarity with beautiful sound. 5.) Doing the Star Sound trans mod to both my MW 5400 and my DUDE. Increased the sound performance by 25% in all areas. 6.) Adding the Synergistic Research UEF panels and dots to the room. Made the speaker disappear more, solidified the center image, and added clarity and more beauty to the sound. 7.) Adding another CPT-150 to my Synergistic Research QLS-6 power strip. Lowered the noise flow thus improving the clarity and dynamics. COMING--Will do 3 of the High Fidelity MC 0.5's and THEN, the awesome Perfect Path contact enhancer to all contacts. The PPTC may become my biggest sound change. Beating the TDSS upgrade will be a trick though. |
In the past three years: 1)Replaced my Classe CP-60 preamp with a DEQX HDP-5, which in addition to serving as a preamp provides numerous signal processing functions including room correction, speaker time alignment, DAC functionality, A/D converter functionality, and DSP-based equalization. 2)Upgraded my phono stage from the phono section of a vintage Mark Levinson ML-1 preamplifier (accessed via tape outputs) to a Herron VTPH-2. 3)Replaced my Soundsmith re-tipped vintage Grace F-9E Ruby phono cartridge with an Audio Technica AT-ART9. 4)Replaced my Stax SRM-1 Mk2 solid state headphone amplifier and Stax ED-1 Diffuse Field Equalizer with a Stax SRM-T1 tube headphone amplifier. A huge improvement, but listed fourth because it just pertains to headphones. The headphone I'm using is the Stax Lambda Pro I purchased in the 1980s. 5)Added an Adona Isolation Platform for the Herron phono stage. Can't say what if any difference it made, as I installed it at the same time as the Herron. 6)Replaced a BrickWall surge suppressor/power conditioner with a combination of an Audience aR2p, a Shunyata Venom Defender, and a Wiremold UL210BC power strip to expand the number of outlets. Can't say what if any difference it made, as some of the other changes were occurring at around the same time. Regards, -- Al |
After reading Al's post, I was reminded of another improvement along the lines of his 6th mention. I replaced my Blue Circle Thingee (a 6 outlet conditioner) with a couple of Chris Cullen's power strips. They are hard wired (no IEC inlet) with a captive PC and do nothing but add outlets. That made a big improvement. All the best, Nonoise |
The best changes I made are : 1- Put a one good wire bridge to the (-) speaker binding post while using a Bi Wireable speaker cable. 2- Remove speaker spikes and install Vibrapods 3- Install Furutech Wall Plate, even better than changing a GTX (R) to NCF receptacle 4- Bybee iQSE inside CD Player and QSE under power amp 5- Install better speaker binding post and diconnect terminal Furutech |
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Bought a $30 CEC BD-2000 turntable two weeks ago, because I wanted the Dust Bug arm brush that was on it. And the Empire 2000E cartridge on it made the addictive purchase even sweeter. But I became curious about the table. It sounded decent for a 70s piece of Japanese mass-produced hifi gear. So I went nuts on the damping and mass additions. Bought $6 worth of plasticine from the dollar store, and put it on the underside of the platter, and all over the underside of the chassis. Cut some foam replacements for the rotted spring suspension foam. Cleaned and re-oiled the spindle bearing, and re-oiled the motor. Finally, tonight, I gave it another indignity and placed some rubber bands from broccoli on the tonearm. Wow! This little unassuming little deck sounds fantastic. A sincere Canadian "sorry" for throwing a bit of ghetto into this thread. But dang cheap gear can be made to sound fine. |
I spent a lifetime changing equipment but was never satisfied until speaker & room correction in 2012. Only changes now are source components. Long thread here: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/is-deqx-a-game-changer?highlight=deqx |
I recently posted a threat about retipping my cart and the resultant shrinkage of my soundstage. It has started to open up enough but something happened that has been the biggest night and day change I have experienced. My soundstage is almost unbelievable and if my friend wasn't there listening with me I'd question my sanity or if it was a phase thing. My speakers have disappeared completely. Walls are there but barely. its enveloping, coherent but with fine tuning needed concerning bass response. I changed my speaker cables from Supra 3.4s ply back to classic Anti-Cable but just bare. Yes it's wired correctly, but I'm gonna just triple check. Btw, previously I couldn't have disagreed more about pulling speakers closer together but with the sound I'm getting that's as untethered as it is to my boxy Decware HDT's I'm gonna mess with it. It's crazy, floor to ceiling with side to side and forward of speakers bloom as well as depth. Turn out the lights and there is not a stereo system. Kenny Burrell and Stanley T. on Midnight Blue are ,trite as it is, very present to say the least. Ive swapped cable plenty before but never have I heard this kinda change. I just had to share. It's the soundstage I've been searching for. Thats all. Other tweaks are so far a distance behind they are not even worth mentioning. The retip is very nice though. Best bass in my system yet with new canti/stylus, props to NeedleClinic. |
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With the help of my most wonderful and patient wife, I hung heavy sun block drapes across the front wall, behind my Maggie 1.7s and the slight edginess and annoying bit of harshness, disappeared. I was to able to once more put my favorite, most revealing, silver ICs, back into service and replace the 1 ohm jumper in the tweeter path of Maggies, with a .5 ohm jumper. The sound is now very full, open and detailed with no annoying harshness. I’m a most happy camper...Jim |
Update to my previous post: I put the Perfect Path Total Contact enhancer on ALL my contacts in a pretty large system as I have both an analog and digital front ends. The change in sound after just one day way noticeable in that there was more detail, better defined soundstage, and particularly, the bass was more articulate and more powerful. The big changes are supposed to happen at the 4 week from application point and even bigger at the 8 week point. Sound then continues to improve for up to a year as long as nothing is disturbed by removing. Will let you know when there are major improvements. Bob |
