Hey everyone, I am looking for some cheap tweaks, i just got done putting in a inner tube under my componets as an isolation device, and it works great. What else would you reccomend?..i am also thinking of an inner tube under the spkrs, with some sort of device to keep them stable. What do you think of Rf blockers..etc Please leave comments on your tweaks and how they turned out. i am looking forward to trying some. Thanks all
You can improve the sound of CDs you buy by turning them into a CDR - on a computer. The commercial CDs are pressed, and by burning a CDR, you improve the quality.
The link below shows you how.
Some also use the computer as the source - with a good soundcard - you can add a DAC to improve still at 24/96. The jitter is lower than most transports (even high end), and it's convenient to have hundreds of CDs right at your finger tips. http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/whitepaper/Black_CDsII.pdf
The "FREEZER TWEAK".......First you want to put your CD's, DVD'S, cables, or components in a air tight bag.......I am using two good trash bags......then wrap the bag in a big towel and put them in the refrigerator for 24 hours......(the KEY to this tweak is to bring the temperature down very very slowly and then bring it back up slowly)........next step is to put them in the Freezer for 72 hours.....Be sure to set your freezer at its coldest temperature settings.........then put them back in the refrigerator for 24 hours......then put them in the coldest part of your house for 24 hours........after that your ready to enjoy!............Rpatrick
Gonglee3, the computer burning technique may be okay but IMHO black Cd's were total garbage. Muddy, fuzzy, low fidelity sound. Sort of like going from 16 bit to the 12 bit CD player in my Denon mini-system. Another thought, if one prefers low fidelity sound no reason to spend a lot of money for it. Not that black CDR's are more expensive than others, just that why get an expensive CDP to reduce resolution to a subjective 12 bit level? Skip the black CDR and mega $$ CDP, just get a cheap 12 bit CDP like in the Denon UD-M31 mini-system. Just a thought I've been kicking around for a while.
Actually, CDC, the BLER rate of properly burned CD's is much, much lower than that the mass produced high BLER disc that you purchased at the store. The burned copies sound much better.
Some audiophiles have been for years, buying the store bought disc and making a better, higher resolution/lower Block Error Rate copy. The guys I know have been using the better pro burners to do this, like the Alesis Masterlink, for example.
If you haven't heard the difference, you may want to.
Jes45, I burned the black CDR on a Marantz pro CDR500 at 1x. Like I said, what one person says is "better" is highly subjective. IMHO "Muddy, fuzzy, low fidelity sound" is worse not better. But I have seen more than one audiophile trade in his high resolution setup for one with higher distortion because it sounds "better". That's okay, just not my definition of better. Unless maybe it covers up some problem somewhere else in the system. None of my burned CDR's sound better unless the recording is very bright and they need a little softening up. But Yamaha makes a hard disc burner which can increase the length of the burned tracks. A CDR can only hold 63 minutes, not 79 because of the longer track length. THAT's a burned disc I'd like to heard.
From what I know about the subject and have been told by those who actually produce CD's and SACD's is that Block Error Rate is a key factor in resolution. CD Burners such as the Alesis Masterlink will produce CDR's with very little BLER, much, much lower than the mass produced CD's you'll buy in the stores. This is not subjective.
FYI, "subjective" listening tests have been done on my friends system comprised of TRL GT-400 amplifiers ($80K retail), TRL GTP-4 Linestage ($15K retail), Esoteric UX-1 (?) ($13K retail), Magico Speakers ($84K retail) and probably around $16K worth of cables from Nordost, Purest and FIM. Distortion? I don't think so.
The Yamaha has been out for a few years. I think that they are really onto something, I only wish that they had the software and A to D section that matched. IME, the Masterlink is hard to beat if you are looking for a high resolution/low BLER CDR. The Masterlink does not "soften" or tame brightness as your Marantz CDR 500 does.
This said, I stick with my same statement, "If you haven't heard the difference, you may want to".
Jes, The Alesis model you mention sells for $800 but has many features meant for professional sound engineer and seems geared for doing sound studio work.
I wonder if the Reality Check CDR duplication deck mentioned in current Positive Feedback article designed specifically for audiophiles to copy/improve CDs can do even better job for less money? Have you or friends tried this unit?
I would caution any over-reliance on one parameter to evaluate CD quality - in your case, Block Error Rate.
This counts error frames, so it counts 1 if an error frame contains only one bad bit; and similarly it counts 1 if the entire contents of the frame is erroneous.
BLER testing, according to ISO-10149, requires an average over a 10 second interval. This may give a less than accurate indication of quality should there be severely localized degeneration.
There are many CD parameters that are measured to estimate the quality of a CD. If all of these measure well, and the BLER is good, then you have a good disc.
Megasam, No I have not tried the Reality Check duplicator yet. I did have my Masterlink modified by Tube Research Labs for $550 which made a HUGE sonic difference, especially on the quality of copies now made. Info is at www.tuberesearchlabs.com Stephaen Harrell of 6moons.com has a review of the TRL mods at that site.
These two are, really good tweaks.......................... www.dakiom.com and (Mi-Rollers)from...... www.mihorn.com . I froze both these tweaks made them even better with my Freezer Tweak.......First you put your CD's, DVD's, cables, or components in a air tight bag...I used two good trash bags and then used a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out of the bag........then take a towel to wrap around the bag and (leave the towel wraped around the bag thru all these steps).......next, put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours......after that put it in the freezer for 72 hours.....(make sure the freezer is set at its coldest settings).....after that put it in the refrigerator again for 24 hours......after that put it in the coldest part of the house for 24 hours.......after that you are ready to ENJOY!.......Richard Patrick
Mock "Cloud Tens." Get 5 Vibrapods ($30) and 5 raquet balls ($6). Use the Vibrapods as bases for the raquet balls and postion underneath component (w/raquet balls contacting componet chassis). Works better than every cone I've used, including Audiopoints, DH Golden Sounds, BDR, RDC, RA Design Labs.
Flrnlamb: I have reviewed the Dakiom feedback stabilizers. They worked quite well for me with the original B&K ST 140 amp, and also helped with the Odyssey Stratos Extreme Monoblocks. At FIRST, when used with the Odyssey Extreme Monos, they seemed to truncate upper end detail ever so slightly, but still improved the overall sound, including the bass, so I kept them on. LATER, after several weeks or so, when I retested them again (with and without), they did NOT seem to truncate upper end detail, and just made the music sound sweeter, and overall better. Not sure why that happened but it was undeniable to me and my instrument-playing wife. The folks at Dakiom seem to think that "burn-in" is a psychoacoustic phenomenon but that runs contrary to my experience with their product. Also, the boxes still helped the Odyssey Monoblocks, even though those amps use "very little" negative feedback, according to Klaus Bunge, when I spoke to him on the phone.
Some of the more recent statements made by Dakiom on the Audiogon site seem a little "odd" to me, but they do make a fine product worthy of audition.
Be sure to read the comments made by Tvad in response to my original review also, as he had some intelligent things to say. Ultimately, this is a subjective topic, to say the least.
Cheapest tweak ever. My spike where digging up my shelves, so I put pennys under them. 6 cent total, and when I'm done with them, I get my 6 cents back!
Bass traps! I guess these could be fairly expensive if you really go all-out but even one or two strategically placed traps can make an amazing improvement.
IsoClean Audio Grade Fuses from www.aaudioimports.com These fuses will AMAZE you on both Video and Audio gear! I even have these fuses in my TV and satellite receiver....NICE IMPROVEMENT!
If you have to adjust spike tips on any of your cones, I found using thread tape helps to tighten the connection up. I have some adjustable spikes on my speaker stands, and because my floor is pretty uneven, some of the spikes are extended pretty far, while others aren't extended at all. The one's that are exteded where pretty wobbly untill I put the thread tape in there, and now they are rock solid. Thread tape costs about 89 cents and you can use it for any other threaded connection associated with your stereo system.
I suspect the improvement lies in sharper listening skills not fuses. Sorry, the only thing I'm amazed about is the gullibility of people willing to fork out $25 for a fuse. It's your money but make sure you get the ginsu knives with your next order.
Tin_Cup, the only thing that amazes me about fuses is the fact that people are amazed by the improvement that an expensive fuse makes. That and the fact that some people seem to think that the direction of the fuse (or cable for that matter) makes a difference, even though AC current travels in both directions every 1/50 or 1/60 ieth of a second!
place cdp on two 12" long 1/2 inch copper plumbing pipes wrapped in foam pipe insulation. This really put some air around the music. Also instead of using a full shelf I use 1" wide by 1.5" deep cherry slats as my shelves. components sit on a 2" piece of maple with brass arrow tips screwed in to the underside. These sit on the cherry slats.
Place your more sensitive components in a lower postion in your audio rack. Units that are particularly reactive to changes in inertia such as a cd player or transport will become more focused have greater detail and deeper bass.The lower center of gravity will result in less error correction needed by the player with greater effective power supply stability..Tom
My Polk LSi15 speakers are in a carpeted listening room (spikes attached). I have placed a 17.5" X 17.5" inverted ceramic floor tile under each speaker; I paid less than $5 for both tiles, tax included. The impact this tweak has had upon my rig is nothing short of astounding. I attribute this to the rock-solid stability the tiles have provided. Extremely cheap tweak -- give it a try if your speakers are in a carpeted room.
understand what each componant is doing and trying to achieve.
- Sources turn Mains power into music - therefore noise free power means noise free music. - Arcing produces RF noise - dirty contacts & switches make noise (use 'switchless' power points if possible. And clean plugs (interconnects etc) and trim bare wire 6 monthly. - Household appliances often have motors/compressors in them and will squirt heaps of RF noise into the circuit and cause the voltage to drop. A seperate AC circuit with a higher gauge wiring and circuit breaker will help tremendously. - The anal retentive can even determine which phase the neihbourhood is using and tap into a different one! - Amps can transiently draw large currents, power conditioning can filter noise & fill in voltage drops. (A well made computer UPS can do these things / cheap too)
- ALL electronic componants are microphonic. That means vibrations will alter the signals they carry, ESPECIALLY in the presence of a magnetic field. Therefore items that isolate and damp resonances work miracles. Heavy shelves have a lower resonant frequency, that equipment is less sensitive too and is easily filtered by cones etc... These vibrations can come through the floor OR the air. Resonances in equipment also need attention.
- Magnetic fields come with electric currents, and exert a 'dielectric effect' back to the electric current. Hence cable 'dressing'/ or keeping weak signal cables away from larger current carrying cables or metal or carpet helps alot (air is the very best dielectric / thats why sitting speaker cable on styrofoam cups seems to work). - Distance between componants helps too.
- Speakers are trying to accelerate & decelerate their cones at crazy speeds. As the speaker pushes the cone, the cone pushes back, therefore making the speaker as rigid as possible whilst isolating from floor borne vibration works miracles to even modest speakers. Tweaking screws couples the driver 'rigidly' to the cabinet. Spikes allow vibrations to travel easily through the point, but not back up. Wood is pretty soft, so standing a speakers spikes onto coins or a spiked stand (for floor standers a spiked granite slab is excellent)- standing a speaker on something soft would allow the cabinent to move and even store energy - a very bad thing.
- Acoustic relections that arrive in less than 11 miliseconds are 'evil', so damping first order reflections should be a priority. Hard parallel surfaces are bad as they encourage 'slap echo' and standing waves, break them up with hanging rugs or other treatments.
All these things can be done very cheaply and will elevate a modest system to greatness and allow great systems to perform on a par with their prices! ignore these things and great gear can sound worse than cheap gear thoughtfully set up! (I managed to inflict a nasty case of 'upgarde-itis' on someone with a $40k system vs my (then) $4k system!) Some tweakery is 'theoretical' &/or 'smoke & mirrors' but your ears will tell you whether they are BS or real steps towards accuracy.
Clean up your power supply. I discovered this last, but it should have been first. Get an electrician to run a dedicated cable from your switchboard to your power outlet for your analogue components (amp, power amp),and another for your digital (CD etc). The induction noise induced by fridges etc is amplified and creates background 'noise'. The changes for me included a bigger soundstage, more bass (even at low volumes), more black (quiet behind the music), and a general ease in the delivery. In terms of bang-for-bucks, this was the biggest improvement over new Transparent interconnects and Purist Audio Proteus speaker cables (the latter gave the best improvement but at a RRP of USD8000, they should).
Power Cords Definitely work, it's just a question of which one, and how much improvement you get for the $. They often take 100s of hrs to burn-in, so see if you can borrow a few and listen to their effect. I have found the greatest improvement on my amp and pre-amp, rather than CD.
Power Conditioners You can spend heaps on these, and whilst the good are exceptional, the others are VERY ordinary. (If you can't here the difference it is not for you, regardless of the hype.) Bang-for-bucks: If you have access to a computer UPS uninteruptible power supply, give that a try to clean up the noise. The best are those which convert your power to DC and then back to AC. If you are drawing heaps of power, you will need one of suitable size, but I would recommend one of 1000kVA or better for amps or pre-amps. The small ones do a great job on CD players.
PS Rememeber it is about listening to your music, not your system. Cheers
I just read all the posts on this thread; a very interesting thread to say the least. Here is my suggestion:
Go to radio shack and buy four spools of solid 18 gauge wire in both red and black colors. Each spool has 60 feet of wire and you will need a total of two red and two black. Also pick up 8 to 10 gold spade connectors with the red and black insulation covers on them. If you don't own a soldering iron, buy a 60 to 100 watt iron and some 60/40 rosin core solder. Get the lead based solder, not the lead free kind. Make sure it has rosin flux center and is rated for electronic work. Thicker solder, about 40 to 60 mils thick is fine.
You need this particular wire as it is soft drawn copper, which is ideal for hobby boxes. It also happens to be perfect for speaker wire.
Cut each spool into six 10 foot lengths of wire. Keep the red and black wires separated. Tie one end of all six red wires to a door knob and close the door. Chuck the other end of all six wires into a drill chuck and tighten the chuck.
Step back and pull most of the slack out of the cable, then run the drill at low speed, which will twist all the wires. I recommend clockwise simply because most cable sets are wound that way and this wire may have had the insulation processed with that thought in mind. As the drill twists the wires, the wire lengths will shorten, so walk up slowly on the door knob. With a 10 foot run, you should get at least 5 to 7 feet out of it. Obviously, you can make longer runs, but you need to buy more wire. Don't use less than 6 strands, although you can use more if you like. This stuff isn't expensive, but the cost does add up. I used 10 strands each and I was wiring up a pair of 16,000 dollar speakers.
Stop the drill when you reach the length you need or the wire starts twisting up on itself. Straighten out any kinks in the wires from the twisting, so you have one long, straight, twisted bundle.
Do exactly the same thing for the black spool of wire. Now, you have two lengths of twisted homemade litz wire of approximately 12 to 14 gauge wire. Repeat for the other two spools.
Strip back the insulation on each of the red wires in one bundle about 3/8 of an inch. Slide the red insulating cover over the wires facing the proper direction. Slide all six wires into one spade connector and solder it in place. You can crimp it first if you like, as it will help you solder everything nice and neatly. Do get someone to help you, if you run out of hands.
Repeat the spade attachment on the other end. Slide the insulating covers over the spades. Do the same thing for both black wires and the other red wire. If you get any flux on the connector part of the spade, wash it off in rubbing alcohol. Make sure the alcohol doesn't catch fire, as it has a low flash point.
Now you have made a high class litz speaker wire pair. It is up to you if you want to put a slow twist of red and black together or keep them separate. If you twist them, you get more capacitance and less inductance. If you keep them separate, you get more inductance and less capacitance. Try both ways and see which one you like the best. In general, less inductance is best when dealing with speaker cables but too much capacitance can cause some grief to your amplifier. In my system, I twisted them.
It is cheap, works great, and beats a number of better speaker cables I had lying around.
Here is a modification of above speaker cables: Twist the red and black wires together, one pair at a time. Then, put all of them in one large bundle and slide into some nylon flex housing in a color that complements your system. Use the red for the hot and the black for the ground. Do the same of the other speaker.
This will lower the inductance a lot in comparison to the above method, which is the big problem at these currents and impedances.
I forgot to mention this above, you can make this cable where each wire is as large as 12 or 14 gauge but it starts to work against you at wire gauges larger than that. This is because the inductance starts to increase with larger diameter wires; you simply can't get them together close enough to reduce the inductance. This is not to be confused with "larger wire has less inductance than smaller wire". Although this is certainly true, I am speaking of mutual coupling to reduce the inductance. Hence, eight 18 gauge pairs will have less inductance than say four 12 gauge pairs.
If someone opts to build this, drop me a note with your experiences.
check out Positive experiences right here at Audiogon and also at www.audioasylum.com where I posted a full review of this item under "General Asylum". $ 35.00 small can containing more than enough cream to lubricate a full System. Best tweak I have ever tried in this 10 years being an Audio Enthusiast. Best, Antonio Machado.
I have used BLUE ICE packs (thawed, not frozen) under the component, each one supporting about 5 pounds, but use at least four..works like a charm and never needs air. I found them at my local camping supply store for a little over a dollar apiece on sale.
Keep your listening room cold and preferably dry. I have noticed this myself the music is warmer and less strident. Compared to a warm and less than perfectly AC environment. I have read that this can be explained by physics. Anybody out there with a PhD like to comment on that????? I have also noticed this same effect in a cool to cold inside of a car.
09-27-06: Blueranger Does the Grungebuster have to be perfectly positioned????
No, it does not. I`ve found that the application is simple and quick. After a few applications, you need to dab the sticky surface with painter`s tape to remove dust build-up per Herbies suggestion. No big deal. You might check out Herbies web-site. You`ll not only get all the info, you`ll also be able to read many reviews.
After noticing some high end CD players have separate displays and power supplies so as to prevent the LED's negative affect on power supplies and sound, I started turning off my LED displays. The improvements in soundstage and depth is instantly noticeable especially on my CD player.
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