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Tweaks - An Honest Discussion

I know there is a lot of talk about performance tweaks in this forum and the value that can be realized.  I've started this thread because it seems that folks tend towards believing they are either the silver bullet to sonic bliss or conversely simply snake oil.  I believe tweaks are somewhere in between and in most cases, worth about what you pay for (crazy  I know).

I'm open minded to tweaks and have employed many in my system over the years including isolation, fuses, footers, HFTs, cabling, cable risers and attempts at reducing RFI (among others).  While I believe that many of these tweaks incrementally helped me get better performance out of my system I never for a second found any tweak make a transformational difference the way that a significantly upgraded piece of gear brings to the table.  I think many of us have been quite happy with our systems over the years but that doesn't mean implementing a tweak can possibly compete with the benefit of replacing a piece of gear that is well matched to elevate your system. Just because you're happy with your setup doesn't mean a major gear change can't really elevate the experience - surely well beyond any form of tweakery.  

As an example, I've been very happy with a Hana ML cart and how it's performed in my system.  I recently decided to acquire a Lyra Kleos cart - for a $2K increase the change has been transformational in terms of dynamic range and ability to convey detail and imaging.  There has never been a dot I've placed on a wall, carbon platform placed under gear, or RFI shielding device I've ever used that could possibly come close to this equipment upgrade.  Same goes for upgrades to my system over the years in terms of amps, pre's, and speakers.  For anyone to suggest that through tweaks alone you can elevate your system to a level that only gear changes can achieve simply falls flat in my experience.  Some may be shocked to hear that most of the time a $200 tweak truly only gets you about $200 worth of improvement (if any) and not the equivalent of a $5000 gear upgrade. I know there is a certain allure that by simply being smart and applying elbow grease that we can extend the sonic limits of our system well beyond it's design, parts, and capabilities but that's just not true IMO.

What's your experience been?   
128x128three_easy_payments

Showing 1 response by clearthink

clearthink
1,421 posts
 

three_easy_payments "Apparently one of the great things about being a tweak guru is being able to extract thousands of dollars of better performance from a piece of gear that the designer/manufacturer should have included for mere pennies of incremental cost. That makes the tweak guru orders of magnitude smarter and of more value to the audio community than a gear designer/manufacturer."

Yes they see themselves as bold, brave, defiant, enlightened masters of audio, confidently proclaiming Truths that evade other people of reason, promoting their concepts, theories, and strategies as that chosen by those who are wise, experienced, and expert.  Often they will conceal little things into they're explanations, such as extreme political references, obscure insults that require visiting extremist sites to "decode" special abbreviations, and then there are the posters who invent entire "truths" such as the guy who says audio is based on 'embeddings" the guy who promotes "Tru-Fi" and the one guy who I will not name who always puts a link to his system but if you click on the link it looks like what Americans I believe politely call a "cathouse" so yes there are some odd people hear!
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