@sns That little "Buick" V8 is pretty special. Should pull nicely and make "good noises".
Have you ever solved a high end audio issue using non-audio technology? Or, visa versa?
Sometimes we just have to be creative to fix a problem. Our "bag of tricks" may go well beyond the usual "audiophile grade" tools of the trade to produce a positive result.
Here's one:
Years ago, I acquired a little British sports car. This, itself is an unusual story. I'm a performance car enthusiast with a 835HP vehicle is parked in my garage.
At any rate, the little 4-cylinder "tractor motor" had solid lifters that sounded like a Singer sewing machinegoing down the road above 3,000 RPM. It distracted from the driving experience. I was thinking how nice it would be to quiet them down a little.
Then I remembered the can of Acoustical Magic material I had in the basement. For those unfamilar with this material, it's used to dampen the vibration/resonance of turntable platters. I pulled the aluminum valve cover, cleaned and degreased it thoroughly, then applied a generous portion of Acoustical Magic. After a little curing in the oven and allowing it to set for 24 hours, the valve cover was reattached.
If I had it do over again, I would have measured before/after with a spectrum analyzer. But, my best guesstimate is that there was a 6-9db drop in the tapping sound, and I could hear the sounds around me while cruising. The driving experience improved exponentially. Thanks to Acoustical Magic for a cheap, effective solution to my "acoustical" problem.
I have to admit that a year later the true "hot rodder" in me required that I add a turbo to the little engine. The sound of the off-throttle blow off valve is music to my ears. And, driving something resembling a real sports car, as opposed to a British commuter car was a plus.
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I bought some heavy duty equipment vibration control pads for under the 4 rectangular feet on my Volti Rivals (135lbs.) They are made of a dense closed cell foam sandwiched between two pieces of rubber. I have a large room with long floor joists that I suspected were causing a lack of overall definition in the lower mid/ upper bass area. $32 later for 8 & voilà! Great improvement! They are available in many sizes from 2”x 2” on up & they’re about 3/4” thick. |
@waytoomuchstuff Would this little British sports car just happen to be an MG? I have 70 MGB-GT, can relate. I also have much higher power car and motorcycle, and MG still feels faster on road, going slow and feeling fast so much fun. |
Not audio related, but thought I would add. I once hooked up the outdoor Christmas lights at my employers shop into the 220 plug by accident (only plug there). Turned on, wow, nuclear dawn!!! You could read a newspaper 100 yards away!!! The boss said “ that’s bright, But it looks good!!! Needless to say the lights didn’t last long, but we had the brightest lights on the beach for awhile !! |
@clearthinker It was my room. That photo was from an experimental phase. Some of you might know @brownsfan . He and I corresponded for months. He discovered that when a cd rack was placed in a way that diverted some of the direct sound, it resulted in significant improvements in soundstage accuracy and a sense of spaciousness. I didn’t have CD racks but went and bought some boards, had them cut, and tried them in various combinations. He and I tested this extensively in my room -- with REW and small movements of the boards -- forward and back, different angles, heights. Listening, measuring, moving, repeating. I suppose could take umbrage at your comment, but I'd rather think that you and I are different in how we approach audio. I like to listen with my eyes closed, too, but during the early phases of setup and getting the sound right, I like to keep them wide open. |
@thecarpathian "I have no idea what that means" Okay. See if this helps: We use subwoofer enclosure software to design custom subwoofers (in this case a bandpass enclosure). There's a lot of math going when parameters are keyed in. You get the expected frequency response, power handling, port diameter and length, etc. Another interesting goodie that is extracted is the speed of the air in the port(s). In our case -- 76MPH!! When the bass hits hard, the fire in the pit gets quite energized. A bit like pointing your leaf blower at the fire and pulsing the trigger. It's a lot of fun -- until all the firewood is consumed. Does that do it for you? |
On a lark I bought some vibration pads a friend had recommended from Diversified Products like you'd use for HVAC work mainly looking to use them under my vinyl turntables. I thought I'd try them under a CD player that skipped on loud bass notes and they worked fine. For only 66 CENTS per pad....LOL...far cheaper than more expensive vibration pads sold specifically for audio equipment... |
AUDIOPHILE RIDDLE What's better than a hockey puck? (drum roll please - cymbal crash) Two hockey pucks!!
I discovered this by accident after installing two new amps. I was moving a speaker switch to a new location on my rack. It was previously under one of the amps which I had elevated with double HP to create the requisite space. The other amp had my standard one HP for mechanical isolation. For some perverse reason I installed extra HP under the amp with only one. I went into the other room to listen and make sure I had wired everything correctly. I was greeted with a sound that I did not believe these speakers capable of delivering (brand and model shall not be revealed, too embarrassing!). Off to the sporting goods store to buy a few extra bags of HP. Six HP in stacks of 2 under a component's chasse, not under the footers, but please experiment. Six under the preamp, amps, universal player, tuner, turntable isolation platform. Eight under my subwoofer spikes, I use two on top of my fiber optic converters, and five on top of the woofer cabinet of a speaker to quell some resonances. I have a single one under each leg of my steel equipment racks. I put 5 1/2 HP between the platter and tonearm of my Pro-ject RPM 10 and quelled some subtle resonances that I am sure they addressed in their subsequent redesigns. While I am at it I have found folded doormats without backing are ideal for light weight pieces like linear power supplies and Furman power conditioners. I have 90 HP and four folded rugs at work. Visually inconspicuous, effective, and dirt cheap. My kind of tweak! |
Don’t knock @hilde45 room until you hear it. I’ll bet it sounds amazing ! Happy listening! |
Blutak. Many uses. But it hardens and dries out over a year or two and requires replacing. Jeez @hilde45 is that your room? Looks like a junkshop or a bomb's landed. Guess you listen with your eyes shut. |
One of my early diy Walsh's cones got attached and interfered with the voice coil. Dis- and re-assembly would have likely ended up as a worst fail, so I began to poke 'n prod gently... A 'repurposed' paper clip. One of the other successful ones cooked its' coil later, but the 'augmented' one sings on...*G* Go figure.... "Repurposed Beyond The Ordinary"? Play Loud. YT Blue Man Group - I Feel Love ;) Happy Pre-Weekend, J |
You guys are definitely thinking outside the box. Great responses!! Okay, 2 more: I once used several 3" automotive exhaust pipes to vent an underground subwoofer into an outdoor firepit. At a (calculated) air velocity of 76MPH thru the ports, it burned thru firewood pretty fast. I wasn't happy with how my microwave popcorn was turning out. Cooked too short = unpopped kernals. Cooked too long = dry and tasteless popcorn. My solution: more/better power. So, I hard-wired in a custom "audiophile" power cord to the Panasonic microwave oven and ... I'm not going to reveal the (measured) results. I get beat up enough here from the guys who don't like premium power cords. But, I'll just leave you with this thought: Orville Redenbacher would have been proud. |
Place the duct tape on your expensive cables and the thieves will leave them behind. Our back patio hose used to get stolen quite often until I started doing this. A few weeks ago someone did steal the brass nozzle though, and our cement Buddha (way over one hundred pounds) had been moved a few inches.
DeKay |
I once used 20-24 gauge stranded speaker wire to jump start a car during a blizzard (out in the middle of nowhere Iowa - 1971). The dead car's owner laughed and said no way. WAY, as we successfully jumped an 8 cylinder Caprice with the speaker wire I used in my 1967 VW (ran from the under dash 8-Track to speakers located behind the back seat). The speaker wire insulation melted @ both ends, but it worked. I once used small corse foam rectangular blocks (my wife used them to buff her nails) as footers for a light weight Bel Canto DAC 1 (sounded better the the audiophile footers tried and the DAC didn't slide/fall off them).
DeKay
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active isolation is used in laboratories to reduce ground noise and resonance from corrupting the performance of electron microscopes for various purposes. i have applied it to my hifi system and use 5 active isolation devices. https://www.herzan.com/products/active-vibration-control/ts-series.html these products are then optimized for music reproduction purposes with improved linear power supplies, and added passive resonance control. this system is the Taiko Tana. https://taikoaudio.com/taiko-2020/tana-150-140-active-anti-vibration-platforms/
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