I have Magnepan 3.3/R speakers. Where the heck am I supposed to put the coins? A small blob of Blu Tac will do it. Will improve the sound and at the meantime makes a great fashion statement. |
|
~
I have Magnepan 3.3/R speakers. Where the heck am I supposed to put the coins?
I like to put together relevent sets for such things. I'm thinking:
1) Beatles: "You Never Give Me Your Money"
2) Violent Femmes: "More Money Tonight"
3) Pink Floyd: "Money"
4) Boz Scaggs: "Loan Me A Dime"
Come to think of it, why not:
5) Boz Scaggs: "Some Change"
Best,
Rob <-- Hey, the name kind of fits, too!
|
Hahnzie - Have you heard the one about little battery powered clocks that do all sorts of mystical things?
Only $50 for a $5 POS. It makes the change tweak look smart. Just don't let the wife throw it out when you're not looking or else all those epiphanies will be shown to be nonsense.
Couldn't have that could we? |
The .90c tweak thought that was hella funny way back in the day, maybe folks will bring this back, old school baby.. |
I had to use paper money on my Gallo Ref 3s because the coins kept rolling off. |
10cents 25cents 10cents placed at the front of the speaker.
Apparently Canadian coins work better.
E-mail me and I will sell you some. |
Be sure to use Euros, if the speakers were made in the E.U. but Pounds Sterling for British speakers :-) |
My guess is that if it has any effect at all it comes from a metal object vibrating in sympathy with certain musical notes, addin g a sense of high frequency sparkle. There is a company that makes little bells (they call them "resonators") out of precious metals attached to exotic wood blocks. You are supposed to put these in various places around your room to improve imaging. They may very well produce a pleasant effect (never heard a controlled demo, although the manufacturer was going to do one before he got distracted). Maybe a similar effect.
There is no way a couple coins could shift the resonant frequency of a hundred pound cabinet enough to change its damping / ringing properties. |
Canadian loonies would seem to be the answer. It works even better if they're cryo'd. |
Here's my two cents, try it. |
|
This has been around for a long, long time. Check the archives. |
If by spare change you mean a 10-pound bag of nickels. Good way to stabilize any speaker or component. I happen to have a bag of lead shot on top of my transport right now. I use these cheapo vinyl auto ashtrays as bags for higher SAF- one has lead shot, the other has 20 silver eagle coins. Had these on my dynaudio monitors before I changed to a full size speaker. Now have on CD player and preamp.
Does it sound better? Maybe I'm not listening hard enough... |
I've got B&W 805 Signatures, and with the curved tops, the coins keep slip slidin' away whenever I try this trick. Guess I should be playing Paul Simon. "A good day ain't got no gain. A bad day's when I lie in bed and think of tweaks that might have been." |
Help! I have had change fall into the cooling slots on my amp from the top of my speakers. Now the amp rattles with every bass note. I have a strange electical burning smell and I can't get change for a one.
Any advice? |
Theo is right. This is reminiscent of the Totem Beaks. In fact someone on AudioGon posted (facetiously, I think) a note about using stacked coins in place of the beaks. |
Yes, I rememeber reading an article about placing 2 quarters and a dime on top of each each speaker . The dime went in the middle |
Hi,hate to tell you guys but this is a method of resonance distribution and its effects can clearly be heard.I've experimented with numerous devices (washers,cones,cone bases,Totem Beaks,different materials:brass,lead,steel,aluminum,etc.)on various positions on top of my Vandersteen 3A's with amazing results.You can tune your speakers to your liking if you're willing to experiment and invest your time.Downside is you can go brain dead trying various combinations.I've settled on a combination for my speakers,and I'll never remove the devices.Those who have visited my room,have also easily heard the differences.Try a quarter in each front corner with a dime centered between them as a starting point and go from there.For additional details email me with the speakers you're using. |
This is Sam Tellig's old tweak from back in the time of the Combac dots that people (yeah, me too) put on their speakers to change the resonant frequency of the cabinet. I think that Sam felt that the dots did work, but they were expensive (he was the Audio Anarchist or Audio Cheapskate at the time), so he theorized that you might be able to get the same effect if you taped coins to the speaker. I've forgotten what he concluded, except that I seem to recall that he did say that by using nickels, dimes and quarters instead of the dots he would be saving a hell of a lot of money if the tweak didn't work! And I also recall a bunch of letters to the editor claiming the tweak worked. |
Spare change is all I have left over after buying this stuff, now I know where to put my savings. |
"John, I can't tell if you are kidding or serious..."
You really can't tell if he is kidding? Oh, my.... |
This reminds me of the Totem Beak if any one recalls. Totem speakers had an option call the "beak" which was a machined aluminum cone that had a center cavity in the base. They swore that if you placed on top of the speaker cabinet it did some "magic" and made the speaker image better of something. A dealer freind always offered it to me to take home and play with, but I think he was hopeful I wouldn't bring it back. But i do own Revels and now I must start trying this out. I actually hope it doesn't work or I will upset my cashflow tremendously. |
Soo I guess I deserve a bit of hazing for this question. I swear I heard a difference but the owner of the store was over near the preamp at the time so who knows what might of happened. He certainly seemed like a trust worthy guy. It was a pair of Revel Gems that sounded great already. I guess I assumed that it lowers the resonance of the cabinet or somehow minimizes a cabinet resonance at a certain frequency.
John, I can't tell if you are kidding or serious but the way I saw it was a stack of coins. It may be he did something to the preamp during the demo, or maybe he has some insdider knowlede of the cabinet resonance. For all I know Kevin Voelks at Revel told him to try it and it only works with Revels. |
John,
You are *way-out* there !
Did you polish your coins ? |
You have to use special Audiophile pennies (called AuraPennies), which are actually made in China - though they ARE designed in the U.S. Depending on the room size, you need between 6 and 12 pairs.
They list for $34.56 per pair (regular), while the Cryo treated go for $45.67, but can be found on Ebay for less. Be careful though - these things look EXACTLY like regular pennies, so you could be burned by unscrupulous Ebay sellers. I'm also told they can lose their effectiveness if shipped improperly. Better to pay the premium at your local AuraPenny dealer, since they will stand behind their product.
There are also silver AuraQuarters for quite a bit more $$$ money. I'm told they can be too bright sounding with SS equipment but may be suitable for tube/horn systems - though balancing them on the horns is best left to an expert.
Also, keep in mind that they require a significant "burn-in" period before your wife will be convinced that the money was well spent. |
totem beaks are sold to do the same thing....only they are more than 37 cents. |
I believe that Sam Tellig once had a few words to say about this (positive I think). I would recommend it only if you are tempted to spend $100 for some rocks in a bottle. |
I found change not to work as good as 10K dollar bills in each corner.Of course you may need to go to a bank to get them,cheers,Bob |
I find it best to use $0.37 on the inner rear corner of each speaker. No quarters either, as they will wreck the imaging. Place the 3 nickels in an L shape nearest the corner, with the 2 dimes coming out of the corner nickel at a 45 degree angle. Then place one penny on either sided of the outside dime. MAKE SURE NO COIN TOUCHES ANY OTHER COIN!! As this will cause the soundstage to collapse.
Done just right, it is magical. The best $0.74 you'll ever spend. FWIW, I have not tried this on a 5.1 or a 7.1 system, but I'm still experimenting.
John |
I would think it would only work if it was the change left over from the purchase of Brilliant Pebbles. |
Don't you think other things within that store could have caused this or changed things more than spare change on a speaker? perhaps a sales person standing within the room?
would using different currency, say a Yen, Pence tailor it to the Japanese or British sound? |
Oh for goodness sakes. You're not serious, are you? Sit back, think about it for a while, and see if you don't feel silly for asking that question....
-RW- |
