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Crazy cheapo tweaks and impressive SQ hacking

Got a great little digital setup, enjoying the sound Ive been getting. But I had been craving a better DAC, maybe a really nice CD transport, player, SACD...etc.

Instead of going down the typical rabbit holes (where I inevitably be traveling), decided I’d try some silly tweaks and pluggin options?

Got a Raspberry Pi/Allo Digione with usb storage plugged in for files to play, into a cheapo Schiit Audio Modi Uber II, into a Creek Evolution 50A into some used Tekton Lore Reference, decent but very affordable cabling throughout thanks to Zu Audio.

Sound/resonance isolation a starting point, my daughter has an impressive rock collection, where she “loaned” me a perfectly sized rock to set atop the Modi, which I had already set upon some Hudson hifi feet. Also placed these feet under the Allo Digione. Then, downloaded a CD player plugging (Nanomesher) for the Digione that accommodates a cheap external CD/DVD drive via usb.

Stuck the CD player atop a dense little package box.

I cant even begin to describe the improvements...through CD player compared to ripped tracks from the same cd, more soundstage, depth, clarity, tone... mid bass has more color, definition and richness. Every clicky inadvertent texture is heard. Can hear Piano hammers lifting, releasing. Can differentiate the change in tone color and spit moving across a saxophone reed, you name it...all without being too harsh or clinical. I had already had the Hudson feet before using the rock and box, which suggests the cheapest mods worked the real magic here.

What gives? Didn’t expect this. Thought I was just grasping at the ridiculous...what will happen when I can actually allow myself to spend real money? Or do I have to? Thinking not?

Curious about your stories along these lines...anyone else with obsurd yet wonderful tweaks?
riccitone
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Go back to school. 
jerrybj
858 posts
 
Go back to school.
Why do you see a need to respond rudely?
riccitone OP
219 posts
 
Lol!!

Looks like you two must go way back. I very much appreciate your recommendations. Physicists have been operating on the principle of vibrations as the reason for our very existence for some time now.

Stands clearly to reason that the very thing that our brains translate into music can at the same moment interfere with the equipment associated with generating said music. 

This, spoken by a musician...not a physicist (but a child of a physicist) so forgive my sloppy seudo science. 

Again, thank you 🙏🏼 

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
These principles of vibration control were worked out by a process of trial and error very gradually over a period of years. The turning point was realizing that properties or effects can be tested just fine without having to build an entire shelf, or rack, or whatever. 

There's no point arguing about this either, because anyone can prove it to themselves one way or the other. One simple test, cut some 3" squares from scrap material- MDF, plywood, maple, oak, acrylic, whatever. The material itself is not the point. The comparison is the point. Actually doing the comparison. 

Cutting them all the same size and shape eliminates those variables. Whatever differences there are now must be due to the inherent vibration properties of the materials themselves. So whatever they are- different wood, plastic, whatever- should all be the same size.

So you cut your 3" or whatever squares. Place them under the cones or footers or whatever. Listen. Change to the next ones. Listen. They all sound different. Pretty freaking amazing. Cost you next to nothing.

Wait, it gets better. Get some little squares of sorbothane or other rubbery material. Again, exactly what does not matter. Try it under the square, between the square and the shelf. Then try it on top, between the square and the component. Notice it produces the same effect on top and bottom, but more pronounced on top? Pretty freaking cool, eh? Do this enough, might eventually sink in, the closer, the more effective.

Why, its almost like whatever vibrations these things are making are finding their way back into the signal. In fact it is exactly like that. Whatever sound these things make when you plink them, is the sound they impart to your music.

But hey, don't just take my word for it. Try it and see.


geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
LIGO the project to detect gravity waves succeeded not because of vibration control but because of vibration isolation. Vibration/resonance control has its place in audio and is relatively easy to accomplish but advanced audiophiles have known the audio system must be decoupled from very low seismic type vibration 🔜 for best results 🔚 for almost 25 years, when Vibraplane, Seismic Sink, my Nimbus Single Airspring Sub Hertz Platform and Bright Star air bladder device ruled.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
Vibration Isolation and Resonance Control
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