Strangest Tweak?

Nothing is perfect, certainly. I prefer to buy component that doesn't need any kind of such a tweak. Otherwords, I avoid it.

HEY PAL: THIS IS NOTHING NEW. i READ ABOUT THIS IN THE 70s IN THE AUDIO MAGS. SOMEONE CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO BUILD A TUB TO FLOAT HIS TURNTABLE IN TO AVOID VIBS. ALSO SOMEONE WROTE AND ARTICAL THAT I RECALL THAT THE SPEAKERS WERE SUSPENDED WITH WIRE FROM THE CEILING. MAKES ME LAUGH. MY WIFE WAS WORRIED ABOUT MIROWAVES FROM HER CELL PHONE. SOMEONE CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO WRAP HER HEAD IN ALUMINUM FOIL IF SHE HAD CONSTANT USE OF THE PHONE. FEARS & SUPERSTITION - HUMMM,YES, QUITE POSSIBLE. OH-BOY. "RESQUEME"

There is only one way to find out. You have to give it a try. You can read all the manufactuers scientific methods (or BS) on why their's is the best. It won't tell you a darn thing on how it sounds. To think that some people actually swallow this garbage without trying, has no credibility with me. There are some tweaks that will give more importance in sound than a piece of gear. Yes, there are some snake oil products. Some you have mentioned will work for some. Others will tell you that this is snake oil. please do not underestimate the importance of certain racks, shelves, outlets, room, PCs, and dedicated lines. Only you can determine what is snake oil and what works.

CD demagnetizers trip my BS detector, though some swear they can hear the difference.

Waterford Crystal Goblet Tweak

KF

Take a pair of old speakers place them in the corner of your listening room, NOT hooked up of course, ...how will this improve sound on your listening speakers?????????!!!Strange indeed!

The strangest tweak that works well is the Shakti Holograph room treatments. Don't ask me how or why they work, but I heard a Demo at CES and was amazed at the improvement in soundstage, focus and resolution. Weird stuff, but as I said, it works. They'd rotated the top section back and forth, to demonstrate fine tuning capabilities. They also would remove them and cover them, which showed even more what a difference they'd made. Snake oil? Not if they improve the sonics of your system.

Just my 2 cents.

The fifty-two-cents-on-top-of-each-speaker tweak was more trick than tweak.

They aren't speakers, tweakerman, they are 3 strange wiggly sticks placed vertically about 5 inches apart from each other with the center one placed back about 4 to 5 inches. I saw a photo of them in the latest Music Direct catalog, which came recently in the mail, (I had to show the Wife). Maybe they have a photo of them on the Music Direct website? www.amusicdirect.com

Like I'd said, strange, unusual, and something that I questioned up until I heard the difference.

The weirdest accessory I remembering hearing about are ear extensions - like satellite dishes on the side of your head, like one-upping Dr. Spock. There is so much about this hobby to be proud about.

totem beaks!

Ohlala,

I remember those "ear extensions" you've mentioned. I think they were called "Serious Listeners," and they were made of leather if memory serves. Hey, if you want to try a similar tweak that has an amazing effect and is free, just cup your hands behind your ears while listening. It makes a huge difference!

I often see a couple of octogenarians at Symphony Hallwearing those leather pinna-extenders because of necessity. Quite the upper-mid boost I suspect.

Tweekerman,

Actually, putting old speakers at the corners is a well-known tweak. What you need to do is to short the speaker terminals with a wire. Now if you push the woofer with you hand you will feel resistant and it will act like a bass trap.

Brian: I don't think Tweekerman was talking about the Hologram things. He was talking about speakers. I think you are confusing Ben's (of Shakti) explaination of how the Hologram works--"like a speaker due to the amplitude of the wood he's using, which de-localizes the main speakers." That explaination is when the second speaker is active and has nothing to do with what Tweekerman is talking about. Tweekerman's tweak is not so strange. I speaker not hooked up acts as a bass trap capacitor, particularly if it's a sealed enclosure. It can work remarkably well for smoothing out the bass as it absorbs the low frequency and releases it slower and out of phase at a much lower volume than the original. There are some real tricks with placement here and you can actually tune the frequencies that are a problem.

it balances out the uneven side wall reflection on one side....
of course...if there's a kitty occupying it I have to adjust distance

ooops....it's carpeted kitty condos

I have to say that I was sceptical of the Stones after reading the info on there site. So I bought one to see what all of the hype was about. My amplifier transformer used to Hum, when I put the stone on top of the amp the hum went away. So I put several other objects on the amp, just to make sure that the weight of the stone wasn't the cure, nothing else worked. So, I'm a believer now and I just bought 4 more. Take it for what it's worth.

that mi-horn thang was preeeeeeety weird!!!

Some that seem suspect include many Shun Mook devices, Marigo dots, coins on speakers, and how about the latest craze BRILLIANT PEEBLES.

I have read some reviews on Shakti Holograph but I don't care how well it works those things are so big & ugly they would never be in my listening room.

I leave a piece of 11x17 paper atop my power amp when not in use. It keeps the dust from getting into the amp's vent holes and speeds up warmup when I turn it on.
There is a better thread about strange audio habits but I couldn't find it. So I post here instead.

One I heard is High Teflon content Auto Wax to polish the metal posts and shelving of equipment rack( Rational- cheap- if it is good enough for thecable jackets- it may be good for the shelving and metal posts)

Cdc -- What bond do you recommend? Any particular color work better? Water mark up or down?

Bonding is not a good idea, hard to get the paper off the amp :-).
Actually 24 lb bond paper impregnated with carbon and copper fibers blocks EMI buildup in the machine. White color reflects the heat back into the amp for a quicker warmup. Although I prefer magenta as this gives a rosier hue to the music.
No water marks, could short out the amp.

refrigerator as Cryo treatment. SOme say it works!

Put your CDs in a ziplock bag in the freezer for a day, then very slowly bring them back to room temperature.

ditto the freezer thing for records

Placing(elevating them away from carpet) power conditioners on Hard wood cutting boards as suggested by several vansevers PLC users.There is a lot of information about exotic woods and how they effect the sound at vansevers website.A small hard wood cutting board at close out stores costs 3 dollars, Larger Maple ones at E bay are about 22 dollars. If one wants to be really adventurous they can try Olive wood cutting boards under equipment costs 33 dollars( Google search olive cutting boards).
I used maple boards.Olive boards are on order

CD demags .crazy and mihorns just plan stupid.But cables cones and outlets .make a big diferance at least too me .

Maybe not so strange, but warm up your ears. Start off listening at very low volumes slightly increasing volume every couple of munutes or after every track. Take a good half hour to slowly bring it up to your normal listening level. Your ears will love you for it.

I've recently gotten into the tweak thing and now I can't imagine my system without the tweaks. Every carefuly placed cone adds to the sonic characteristics of my system. It's fun to play and manipulate the sound. It doesn't necessarily change for the better by switching things around. Sometimes change is just good for change's sake. Better than spending tons of money to upgrade to something that's different. My latest tweak that made a nice difference were Totem Beaks. They actually blew me away and they are on my speakers to stay.

Think the beaks only work on speakers? Try them on your CDP or amp.

Much has happened since this thread started in 2003. The Totem Beaks frankly don't seem so strange seven years later.

Why should something that works be strange? Typically, many people have opinions about things they have never tried or not tried in the same way others have tried them. So their opinions are just opinions. If something works it works. The Totem beaks work for certain speakers and I have discovered they work INCREDIBLY WELL with my EMM CDSA SE. All the talk about how these little things can't possibly work is just a lot of hot air exhaled by people who have no experience with them -- or whose experience was not successful so they generalize their experience. Now that's a VERY big step to take because the synergy of every system is different and a small change that may do nothing at all in one system may make a HUGE difference in another.

I completely agree. I find it funny when people say "There's no way that will make any difference" as if there's some sort of mystery or magic at work when someone says it does. Most of what people hear can and has been so easily explained, that to say that science doesn't explain it is just silly.
We make a change to our system. It looks different, smells different, seems different, whatever. Even if the output of the system is exactly the same (which in most of these cases it almost certianly is), it will sound different to us because how it sounds depends on how we process what we hear. How we process is directly affected by the change we made.
The only mystery to me is that we act like we don't know this.

Hi Sebrof, If you wait for "science" to "prove" something that your ears already hear then you can wait a very long time. Those who won't trust their own ears are those who lose out. "Science" says I should have been dead years ago yet here I am 20 years later alive and well and as fit as a fiddle. I have learned to take "science" with a grain of salt. Some things can be explained, some things cannot be explained, and some people refuse to listen to any explanations because their opinions are more important to them. For me, the only thing that matters is if something works or not. Everything else is irrelevant.

Dude #1: "When I turn the volume knob on my system to the right the music gets louder and when I tuen it left it get lower. I have no idea how it works and science can't explain it but o know what I hear."
Dude #2: "Actually it is explained. When you turn the knob to the right the potentiometer sends more of the audio signal to the amplifier..."
Dude #1: "No that's not it. This can't be explained by science. Go ahead and keep a closed mind but I know what I hear."
Dude #2: "enjoy your beaks" :)

"If you wait for "science" to "prove" something that your ears already hear then you can wait a very long time."

How true. If Bumblebees had waited for science to explain how, they wouldn't have achieved flight until recently. The pity of it is, that this truism, coupled with the enormous profits and subjectivity inherent to high end audio, is tantamount to ringing the dinner bell for every flimflam man, snake oil salesman and hustler on the planet.

Please keep in mind that without science, there would be no invention of audio equipment and thus no such hobby called HiFi, and we would not have this science vs. mystical force discussion.

here's a tweak nobody evr thought of:

when playing a cd for a second time, press open, twice, and replay the cd.

There was a guy on the computeraudiophile forum that bought a $3,700 facial cream (not kidding) to lubricate the speaker wire ends. It cost him $157 each time he listened to his system, as he reapplied each time. He went on and on about the amazing sound it made.

So far, that is the dumbest tweak I've heard...but the day is still young.

Manoterror, Can you get me the name of that facial cream?

I bet if that facial cream were branded as a high-end audio tweak, it would have costed at least twice as much. So, it is a bargain for $3,700.

I visited the home of a high end distributor who has bowls of water strategically filled and placed around his room. I can't recall what his claim was, but when he was out of the room, I couldn't resist pouring a little water from one bowl into another. He didn't notice.

I once went to buy speakers and while I was listening the sales person made me remove my digital watch and place it in another room. He said it's digital signal somehow changes the bass and imaging of a stereo. I did buy the speakers.

lol...damn my feeble brain. Why didn't I think of rebranding and selling it. You guys are brilliant...this is why I'm just a newbie at this.