My transport has "tuning dots" what are these?

Likely they are Marigo dots.

Colors include black, green and white. There are several diameters depending on what the "tuner guy" intended.

I have used them and they are definitely audible.

What do they do though? where are they placed and what is the benefit? I dont want to open it up because with my health its too difficult so I am curious to know about them

They may also be tuning dots made by Combak. I have used them in several components back in the days of "try anything". They were reported to tune the component ridding the system of unwanted anomolies. The science behind it was never clarified.

The idea behind at least the Combak dots (and the Marigo ones too, I think) was that they would take vibrations from whatever they were attached to (I had some on my speakers, even some on circuit boards inside my old Krell SBP 64x) and re-tune them to a different frequency, so they didn't adversely affect the music. I opened one of them up, and inside there's a little piece, apparently metalic, that looks like a form of a tuning fork, so I think that the theory really is being implemented. On my Duntech Princesses you could clearly hear a difference for the better in terms of midrange clarity and slightly better-defined bass, but on other equipment, such as the DAC, the effect seemed negligible to me. I'm sure there are some who heard a change for the worse as well in their experience--remember, just because the sound changes doesn't always mean it's for the better.

If the dots were expensive, they are likely the Combak dots, which were pricier than the Marigos. It will be very hard to remove them (you'd need dental floss), so I'd just leave them in there, if you like the sound.

Tuning dots are marvelous little things that can have a surprising affect on most anything associated with an audio system. I have used the Marigo dots with success and at one point actually got a little carried away with too many. Overall, though, a great tweek to get that last 5% out of a good system.

thanks guys

Yes the whole Tuning dots tweak may seem silly to some. Yet there is a principle to their schematic application priciple to applying them. My first experience with the Marigo's was years ago on a turntable, without them, then with. The tonearm looked like it had the measles, or rabbittitus. But they did make an auidible difference. I would just leave them as is, since you might not be able to remove the adhesive residue once partially removed?

Back when the dots wrere just comming into vouge the owner of the high store I dealt with advised me to use quarters on my speaker bases for tuning to save money, they also did have a positive effetct.

Has anyone got experience using the tuning dots on speaker cabinets and/or drivers, specifically Avalon Eidolons? I am using the Marigo "super dots" on all glass windows in my listening environment, which made a huge beneficial difference. Glass always adversely affects sound, so any sort of damping to that has to be beneficial, however, my concern is about application to a driver causing a "deadening" of the driver response.

Based on my experience with the Marigo dots I would not put them on Eidolon's. The Eidolon is already a VERY well controlled speaker.

I got positive results with the very large black Marigo's on Fosgate sub woofers (14" driver), but poor results on my Sound Lab speakers except on the back plate. Best was right above the speaker posts, using a green or black was audible, and depending on who was listening the gain was debatable.

I agree with your experience with Marigo on the windows. Large glass windows behave almost like planar speakers when they are bombarded with sound, the Marigo's definitely help dampen that.

If you must try dots, put green Marigo on the back side, upper corner of any piece of audio gear that has rack mount or face plate that extends beyond the chassis. That's a harmless tweak and sometimes helps.