Tweaks That Don't Work


This may be the subject of some discord, but a great community service would be to help others not waste money on snake oil.

Please let us know what you've tried that had no impact - or negative impact, even - on your system. Also, if there are tweaks or products that are only useful on some systems for whatever reason, please let us know what kinds of systems do and don't benefit from the particular products.

Some of you out there have tremendous experience trying to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of your equipment and probably have a laundry list for us - let's hear it!
aggielaw

Showing 1 response by rcprince

Two tweaks that did not work FOR ME (I'm sure many of you found them to work for for you, so take it easy):

1. Shakti Stones--tried them on my Forsell transport, without effect, and on the transformers of my Jadis JA 80 amplifiers, negative effect, actually made the sound a little harsher. Had the same result on the Jadis with a VPI Magic Brick, guess the Jadis doesn't like tweaks around its output tranny. At least the Brick worked positively on a solid state amp of mine, the Sonogy.

2. Shun Mook discs--a gentleman put them on my Forsell transport (which, by the way, seems to be more affected by tweaks than any piece in my system) in a number of different configurations, and was stunned when I couldn't hear any difference one way or another (for those of you who like blind testing, I wasn't watching what he was doing while listening). Guess I didn't know what to listen for.

And then there's the Shun Mook record clamp, which I can't tell you did or didn't make a sonic difference, because at the end of the first record side my cartridge (then the wide-bodied original Transfiguration) bumped against the wide clamp with such a horrible noise through my speakers that I promptly gave it back to the guy who loaned it to me with a polite no thanks.

None of these tweaks are necessarily snake oil, but in the applications I mention they just didn't seem to work for me.