Big sonic improvements for little or no $

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by bdiament, Oct 9, 2007.

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  1. BrewDrinkRepeat

    BrewDrinkRepeat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merchantville NJ
    I'm curious if they are solid or hollow (I suspect the latter), and how round the bowl is (eggs are not round, and if the cup isn't round it's not going to work in exactly the manner Barry describes).
     
  2. Hmm...guess I'll find out. I can ship back to Amazon if it doesn't work out. I could drill a hole in the cups and fill with sand or something.
     
  3. FastEddy

    FastEddy Member

    Location:
    North Californie
    The marble being much heavier will absorb turntable "rumble" ... as well as let you level up without too much concern for passing truck traffic, etc. More marble is better up to the point of popping the inner tube. (Some folks fill their inner tube with water to add to the mass ...)

    What's going on here is the turntable is mounted on a more massive slab, thus dampening a whole lot of the micro-movements of the table and pickup / cartridge arm. These micro-movements are noise, as far as your pre-amp is concerned ... the needle micro-wiggles do move the tiny slugs in the coils ... more mass = less needle movements except for the action in the platter grooves :angel:
     
  4. Just pinch your nose and blow. There. You just restored your hearing "system" back to its original performance. Everything is now just a bit louder, a bit more dynamic, and a bit wider bandwidth. The tweak? The Valsalva Maneuver. Cost? $0.00.
     
  5. KT88

    KT88 Senior Member

    Try a high end preamp or a really nice, new DAC.
    -Bill
     
  6. If you use speaker stands, the interface between them and your speakers is another critical area ripe for cheap tweaking. Four dime-sized blobs of Blu-Tack - one under each corner of the speaker - will do wonders for a) keeping the speaker in place; and b) tightening up the sound (bass will improve as will soundstaging). Cost? About the same as a six-pack of decent beer. And it's reusable too!
     
  7. bluesky

    bluesky Senior Member

    Location:
    south florida, usa
    Use vintage, or vintage type, cables with vintage stereos.

    Someone very important on this forum stated that!! :agree:

    Thanks Steve... your absolutely right!! Sounds really great... just perfect.

    Most appreciated advice.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2015
  8. Darksolstice

    Darksolstice Forum Resident

    Location:
    Murfreesboro Tn
    I placed my turntable on a wall mounted shelf. biggest improvement ever !! highly recommended if you can.
     
  9. Zipperheadbanjo

    Zipperheadbanjo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Perhaps self evident to most, however on the weekend I moved all my devices with switch mode power supplies to a separate outlet, put all the hifi with linear power supplies on a single outlet with conditioned mains (Audience RP2 Conditioner), removed a couch from my listening room (replaced with a Poang Chair), and moved a 1 x 5 Kallax unit from the side wall of my listening space (next to left speaker) to the back wall of my listening space.

    Combined this all made a huge improvement to soundstage, imaging, and timing. It's got me thinking to look at cable dressing now... I suppose that is the final stage of hifi lunacy :)
     
  10. willboy

    willboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wales, UK
    [QUOTE="discreplayboss, post: 4631614, member: 14777]"

    I think that their intended use is for folks who want spikes on the bottom of their gear, but don't have an appropriate surface underneath.[/QUOTE]

    I agree there.

    Can't speak for other components, but I was taken aback by the sonic improvement when I replaced my turntable's stock feet with spikes. They lowered the noise floor resulting in a cleaner more detailed sound, better transient attack and bass definition, and improved imaging. If there are any negatives it's that they made for a slightly leaner presentation, but I can certainly live with that.

    I think it is far more preferable to have the spikes coupled to something heavy and inert like a sandbox, which is what I use (it has a 20mm plywood top-plate), rather than something like a flimsy stand, glass shelf or even a granite slab, which will more than probably transfer more resonances back into the turntable than were there to begin with. It's a rather debatable subject from what I can gather, but my understanding is that by using spikes you are effectively adding the mass of the given support to the turntable. So something like a sandbox seems the ideal support to me as it adds a substantial amount of weight to the turntable, which can only be advantageous in reducing unwanted resonances from the turntable's motor, bearing etc.

    Spikes certainly worked wonders in my set-up, whether they do the same for others is a matter of suck it and see.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2015
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