I placed a canvas bag filled with 4 lbs.of narrow-band 1/2" gravel on the roof of my garage. The garage is located on the rental property below my house and sits approximately 85 feet from my listening room which, of course, is in the main house.
I also took a five pound bag of broad-band cat's-eye marbles of very fine quality and buried them in the sand at the ocean beach 200 yards from my stereo. Using my cellphone I then rang up my answering machine from the beach and allowed the message machine to run for 60 seconds before cutting the connection.
The results were nothing short of dramatic as well as being totally unexpected.
I definitely experienced increased detail, a much blacker background, improved dynamics, smother top end, faster response, and reduced listening fatigue.
I have tried similar tweaks inside my listening room and always found them overwhelming in their effect. I had too much detail, too much dynamic range, response that was faster than real life, even the background darkness was exaggerated to the point of absorbing one or two of the musicians into the black hole. To be precise, I used the same two bags of gravel and garnets
as the ones I removed to a distance but needed to create a distance from the actual listening environment to fine tune the effects.
These tweaks are inexpensive (industrial grade garnets work fine) and you can wait for a nice day to go to the beach and take a swim or surf while you are there. (Remember not to take your cellphone into the water or the tweaks may not work.)
In passing, I'll remark that the placement around my room of several world globes, crystal balls, glass marbles, and other spherical objects of varying sizes, weights and materials reduced perceived harmonic distortion and improved imaging before I tried the other tricks outlined above.
I also took a five pound bag of broad-band cat's-eye marbles of very fine quality and buried them in the sand at the ocean beach 200 yards from my stereo. Using my cellphone I then rang up my answering machine from the beach and allowed the message machine to run for 60 seconds before cutting the connection.
The results were nothing short of dramatic as well as being totally unexpected.
I definitely experienced increased detail, a much blacker background, improved dynamics, smother top end, faster response, and reduced listening fatigue.
I have tried similar tweaks inside my listening room and always found them overwhelming in their effect. I had too much detail, too much dynamic range, response that was faster than real life, even the background darkness was exaggerated to the point of absorbing one or two of the musicians into the black hole. To be precise, I used the same two bags of gravel and garnets
as the ones I removed to a distance but needed to create a distance from the actual listening environment to fine tune the effects.
These tweaks are inexpensive (industrial grade garnets work fine) and you can wait for a nice day to go to the beach and take a swim or surf while you are there. (Remember not to take your cellphone into the water or the tweaks may not work.)
In passing, I'll remark that the placement around my room of several world globes, crystal balls, glass marbles, and other spherical objects of varying sizes, weights and materials reduced perceived harmonic distortion and improved imaging before I tried the other tricks outlined above.