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My list of tweaks and the verdict

As metro NY has been pretty much shut down for the past 11 months and counting, I get so bored sometimes that I find experimenting by buying tweaky audio products to be a helpful reprieve and keeps me from spiraling into the abyss.
So this is what I have purchased in the past 6 months and my quick verdict on sonic impact — what I hear or perceive to hear using my brain and ears in my 2 channel all analog all tube setup:

Not in any particular order and using baseball terms:

1. Walker Audio Talisman. Strikeout. A big swing and miss. The silliest purchase for sure.

2. Copper ankle socks. Home run. No more shocks when I touch my tonearm. Just wow. Least expensive tweak to date that works.

3. Symposium Segue amp shelves. Strikeout. Heard no difference in noise floor, bass, etc. But looks really nice.

4. Symposium Segue ISO Stealth turntable shelf with Rollerblocks Series 2. Home run. Out of the park. Really hear and SEE a significant improvement in everything - clarity, bass, soundstage. Took the performance of 2 very different turntables up a lot. “See” because my needle would jump sometimes and now you can actually see the rollerblocks doing their job swaying back and forth with no impact on the music like a building a Japan. Disclaimer: Room suffers from significant footfall.

5. Townshend Seismic Isolation Platform under my Harbeth 40.2 Ton Trager stands. Home Run. Further improvement due probably to serious footfall in my room. My most expensive tweak but worth it to me.

6. Stein Music Carbon Edition Perfect Interface. Another big swing and miss. Strikeout. Zero diff perceived vs no mat or stock mat. Most expensive swing and miss.

7. Yellow bird Hexmat. A solid double. First time I’ve heard a mat make a noticeable improvement. Probably cause this mat is a record isolator/decoupler and again reduces impact from vibrations.

8. Stillpoint Ultra LPI ver2. A solid double. This one is so easy to A/B and hear a noticeable improvement on some songs vs using no record weight or even the stock record weight. Basically things got quieter enabling me to turn up the volume which increased the perceived dynamics. Plus it looks really cool.

9. Symposium rollerblock jr. Under my phonostage or preamp. Strikeout. I don’t hear any impact on the noise floor but theoretically it’s there.

10. Isoacoustics Gaia tried under preamp, phonostage, amp. Strikeout. Didn’t hear anything noticeably different but again theoretically it’s doing something.

11. Assorted tube rolling. NOS, new new etc. Not sure if this is a tweak but I didn’t really hear any discernible difference to my memory. But it was fun to learn and do it.

Well there you have it! Anyone have similar experiences?


aj523

Showing 8 responses by mahgister

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
You have psychic abilities now too? You have no idea how my room sounds.
You are right i dont know HOW your room sound and i apologize ...

But the problem is not how your room sound, probably good, but how much it can be improved...

I dont understand why no audible effect were perceptible with the S.G in your room. ...

Except for the room ...

We are not the only one who tried S.G. most people who use them hear an audible effect....

Then my post is a deduction not and arrogant affirmation born from psychic abilities i dont have....And certainly not a rebuke of your truthful and direct experience...

We must not confuse the fact that a room may seems to sound "good" enough, without being at the same times at his best acoustical greatest potential at all ...

Most people confuse the 2 and try for decade costly upgrading of electronic design gear instead of improving the acoustic potential of their room....

This DEDUCTION was only my point.... Not arrogant psychic abilities i dont have...

I am perhaps faulty in this deduction but then why there is no audible effect in your room and there is effects in many owners of S.G. ? There is other possibilities than the room but i dont want to create useless arguments...

S.G. is not a new "tweak" in town waiting to be evaluated....It is a very well known fact in audiophile circle for decades and easy to verify in the right environment...

Anyway i apologize for the discomfort i have created with my post....

My best to you....


 P.S. This is the reason why i never recommend S.G.  in the first stage of room treatment.... The effect could be inaudible....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
And I tried a Schumann generator for a while, didn’t make an audible difference. I guess I could have tried 6 or 8, but I had better things to do.
The S.G. produce audible effects but in an already good room where the effect can be audible in the first place... The effect of my S.G. is very audible and subtle at the same time especially in higher frequencies range, no way i would have been able to enjoy them BEFORE my room increasing acoustical controls and treatment...There is an ORDER in the process of improving a room , the S.G. are NOT the first thing to do at all....

You have certainly better things to do, i guess it will be improving your acoustic treatment and controls...This experience is a sign of a lack in your acoustic settings....

My best to you....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
There exist 3 working dimensions for any audio system:


-Mechanical : try and experiment with simple device to eliminate vibrations but also to decrease internal resonance in the box speakers ( other gear also but speakers are very important)

I succeed for peanuts with sandwich of varied materials under my gear and using springs in a way to decrease resonance with a dyssimetric compressing force applied to them.... Cost: peanuts...

-Electrical: Decreasing the noise floor of the house electrical grid is of the utmost importance.... I created my own device at peanuts costs...
"golden plate" : shungite plate+ copper tape on the external side....I put 30 of them all along my electrical grid.... Very audible impact... Low cost...

-Acoustical controls and treatment: I used passive materials treatment homemade with simple materials, absorbent one, reflecting one and diffusive devices, i use Helmholtz tubes and bottles, resonators, cheap grid of Schumann generators modified, and ionizers, and many other devices....i created my own room tuner at NO cost....The Helmholtz-Fibonacci room tuner....

Cost peanuts with result so powerful that it is better than upgrading with most possible choices in my purse range...


Is it snake oil?

Feel free to try my device or idea....I sell creativity, confidence in our own ears, and fun....

Is it hallucination?

I must say that i will feel insulted to read that about my experience especially on the guise of an alleged "scientific explanation"....





My advice is simple: dont buy costly cables and costly "tweaks" before  taking care at low cost of these 3 working dimensions where your audio system is working....I never bought "tweaks" and i dont need them now at all....

A tweak can  never  be a method of listening experiment and no tweak  can be the  single solution to all the problems is these 3 working dimensions....

Tweaks are costly and even if they work you can most of the times replace them with a no cost solution.... I did it then you can....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
I sorta thought it was ear to brain. My point aj is that the equipment is where the money is not in these things. Most tweaks are only about improving the eye to brain experience.
This is completely false....

The S.Q. is where your creative work to rightfully install the gear is, in his working dimensions...My 500 bucks system is better to my ears than very, very costly system ....

Attacking blindfully all devices as "snake oil" is pure prejudices and ignorance...Some are, some are not...

My own devices cost nothing or almost nothing and are homemade and completely transformed my audio....Hallucinations?

Think before judging and recommending to people to throw money at upgrades ........The world is bigger and more surprizing than what consumerism dictate you to think it is....

It is more clever to learn how to control the mechanical electrical and acoustical dimensions than plugging new upgraded amplifier or new speakers....Acoustic of a room for example can KILL or TRANSFORM totally a pair of good speakers at ANY price....

And i am tired to read about "hallucinations" and "suggestion" coming from some about all other people experiences...

Sorry....

Nevertheless, i dont want to upset you....I only want to say what i think is true in the sea of your free generalizations to justify your prejudice.... And your prejudice is only simple: buy an EQ. and call the rest "snake oil"...

The best example is your last use of Bell curve without knowing what it is and how it is used voluntarily or not to hide reality....Same thing for your use of the placebo concept....

Negating the sensory experience of others and throwing all testimonies in the drawer of illusion and deception can be insulting, even if you dont want to insult people.... Do you understand that at least?

Invoking true scientific concepts like, placebo concept,  in a context that suit you, audio experience, to use them for your own opinion expression which is the negation of sense experience you dont want to hear about, is no science it is sophistry....


mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
mahgister.....send a link
About what? i speak about many things....

I have a thread about all my devices....Feel free to read....

If you have a question i will try to answewr if i can....

My best to you....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
But I’ll definitely check out Schumann generators looks interesting! Thanks again !!
Check my schumann generators grid modified with "golden plate" and my last creation using cheap chinese ionizer to smooth the room...

Peanuts cost and powerful results....



For the springs i use them but they must be used with 2 set of 4 for each speaker one set under and the other set on top under the heavy damping load.... The speakers must be damped by an heavy load (around 75lbs) to create a dyssimetric compressive force between the 2 sets to decrease the internal resonance of the rectangular speakers box....If not the musical timbre perception is unnatural....In my experience one set of spring under speakers is NOT  the good way...

My best to you....


mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
The only synergy going on here is with the mind. Some of us are more open to suggestion and do not have the background to determine what is feasible vs total BS. It is the way things are and there is no getting away from it. Nature operates on a Bell curve.
Your first point about synergy and some devices being ONLY in the mind is completely false being a general assumption that means nothing for each specific case...

"Some of us are more open to suggestion and do not have the background" is a badly veiled attack or a paternalist remark at best, not an argument at all....Sorry....

And Nature by the way never operate on a Bell curve.... The Bell curve or the Gauss curve normal distribution MASKED the fine graining of reality that percolate trough the visible scale of the Bell and through the illusory normal distribution which is an easy tool that erase the concrete meaningful details ....

« The bell curve satisfies the reductionism of the deluded. »p.242 " Fooled by randomness" Nicholas Taleb an expert on the Bell curve by the way in 5 books...Pick one....

https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/GIF.pdf

I apologize for my correction about your points but it is not possible sometimes to let pass some affirmation that are as free as deceiving....

My best to you anyway.....




«No plane will ever fly... Why? It is the way things are and there is no getting away from it.»- Anonymus Smith

 I can state flatly that heavier than air flying machines are impossible.
— Lord Kelvin, 1895

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/no-one-can-explain-why-planes-stay-in-the-air/
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,961 posts
 
I created too many homemade devices to be described here, at low cost, and all were useful to reach my actual S.Q.  And this S.Q. is the best i ever listen to...

What is the problem?

Costly devices are GENERIC and created for all needs...

My peanuts cost device were SPECIFIC and  adapted for my ears in my room...

Simple....
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