Most useful tweaks that are sensible and really make a noticeable improvement


So after reading the thread of useless tweaks I'd  be interested the communities opinions of useful tweaks. I may be rehashing a previous thread but times change as do useful tweaks.

I have found that in my case the following were useful, immediate and audible,
In order of priority in my opinion
1 Room treatment
2 Speaker location, ie proper setup
3 Subwoofer location (if used)
4 Subwoofer integration
5 Component isolation
6 Cables, all SC/IC etc, normally I would not mention cables but did have an ear opening epiphany that makes me believe cables are system dependant and I do not mean directionality.

So if anybody has anything to add, please do so as none of us are ever too old to learn.



128x128gillatgh

Showing 2 responses by millercarbon

clearthink muddies:
If you are going to do this for the purpose, goal, and objective of higher fidelity then you will also have to design, build, and install a clamping device to insure that your head never deviates from the optimum measured listening position.


Actually if you think about it clearly you will see that even though we measure to a point that is for convenience. The sweet spot is in fact only one point along the imaginary plane that runs equidistant to both speakers. Move anywhere forward or back, up or down along this plane and you will still get good imaging. I even caught a guy doing this one time in my room. He got up out of the chair and was slowly moving closer and closer to the front, stopping every so often to move his head a little to one side or the other. Eventually his head was right above the amp, which sits on the floor between the speakers. Actually a little further back than the speakers.

Its interesting this guy who never heard soundstaging before the minute he did was able to figure out what some who devote tons of time and money and consider themselves audiophiles still do not seem to understand.


Some of us are well beyond this now, but it never hurts to repeat the most cost-effective tweak you can buy is a tape measure to perfectly align your speakers exactly equidistant. My beautiful example of this is the time we were struggling to get good imaging in the Talon Audio room at CES. After more than an hour of tweaking I finally said let's forget the room and walls and just measure the damn things. Ten minutes later and even I was shocked how much better it sounded. Yeah! Science!