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The Most Cost Effective Tweak

What is the most cost effective upgrade or tweak? What yields the largest return on investment (ROI)? What if you could spend no money and no time and yield significant performance increases? Theoretically, that would result in an infinite ROI!

So how do you make that happen? Stop tweaking. What happens when you stop tweaking and messing with your audio system constantly is that you let everything burn in and settle down. Go read one of the many threads on this website that talks about how long it takes for components and cables to break in. The answers range from a few hours to several days. If you are suffering from constant upgrade-itis, you never let your audio system fully burn in. You’re robbing yourself of free, infinite ROI. And you never truly hear what your system is capable of. I’m not saying don’t upgrade your system. That’s a lot of the fun. Just give it some time and let your system burn in and open up. Reassess where you are at and where you want to go next.

Due to reasons I won’t go into depth on right now (mainly power issues), I am temporarily using a relatively cheap, high power, class D amp. I wasn’t thrilled with this setup and wasn’t sure if I could even call it’s sound signature high end. Due to a busy schedule, I have not had time to upgrade anything or even pursue simple tweaks. As a result of that, I have witnessed how the amp and my system have burned-in/settled down - whatever you want to call it. The sound was initially on the thin side and had harsh treble. Now the soundstage has become huge and the sound has become very smooth - smoother than I thought class D was capable of - especially from a class D amp that isn’t really something to write home about.

My point is that I realized significant performance increases by doing literally nothing. And now that I am hearing what I believe is the true sound of my system, my next tweak or upgrade will be more effective because I can clearly recognize where the weaknesses are at instead of making judgements while things are still burning in, which is often the case with upgrade-itis.
mkgus

Showing 2 responses by mahgister

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,623 posts
 
Not to start a whole big tubes vs. solid state discussion @millercarbon , but you can make generalizations about tubes sounding better, but some specific models of SS sound better than some specific models of tube gear.
Tube versus SS. is like digital versus analog...

Sterile and unproductive discussions because nowadays each type of gear is specifically related to the specific designer’s talent and goal...

Long time ago for me 8 years ago... I ought to decide what kind of amplifier i would buy...

I chose a Sansui top model of the AU series because Sansui takes 20 years to replicate their own tube amplifier the Sansui AU 111 tube amplifier in solid state form...

They succeed and replicate it with a Sansui AU S.S. model in front of a crowd in a demonstration with beside the famous Au 111 they present an AU SS. to mimic it without any difference to be perceived, proving that there exist NO ABSOLUTE difference theorically "per se" between SS. and tubes... There exist only specifically explicit difference between tube amplifiers that could be replicated by any S.S. design if the research and time and money were invested into doing it....

Generally for sure there exist differences between any tube design and any SS design but not because tube design is superior but because the DESIGNER itself is superior , be it  a SS. or TUBE oriented mind....

I buy my Sansui AU 7700 after reading and seeing that.... I lost the link.... sorry....
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,623 posts
 
The easiest embeddings controls to do is mechanical control of vibrations for the speakers and gear...

The electrical decrease of electrical noise floor can be accomplished in many ways, all complementary...

The acoustic passive treatment with materials of different kind is mandatory for all small room, and if like me you own an audio room, active mechanical control of the relation between the speakers specificities and the room itself is the more powerful embedding control ever...It gives to you the power to change imaging, soundstage,listener envelopment, relative source width, and the dynamical timbre 3-d perception envelope body...

I refuse to call "tweak" some so important cardinal factors to create Hi-FI which are on par with the choice of gear itself nevermind their cost...

We could call "tweak" some artefact among others to reach the final goal yes... But always speaking of "tweak" instead of embedding controls is reinforcing the false idea that methods to create embeddings control are secondary.... They are not ..... The device could be secondary, the method are not....
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