I have done this once before and was surprised then. Zero cost DO try this at home, but carefully of course Ask your parents or a grown up if you are unsure Needed to move Tivo back, swap over a mains cables so went mad. All kit off Circuit breaker off All items on the circuit unplugged and plugged 3 times each All items like filters unplugged from unswitched sockets All switched sockets turned off Circuit breaker back on TADs back on and sounding very good indeed. D-1000 and 2500 Try this yourselves and be amazed. Next up will be plugging mains filters and the like back in. What a great sound for no money Lower and fuller bass, percussion sharper, touch more detail coming through, clarity up More than last time I'm sure <thinks> This probably works for interconnects and speaker cables...
Dual subwoofers in my dedicated two channel system. They are low end Elac Debut 10” subs with auto eq that only go down to 28hz. I don’t know they’re in the system until I mute them Then its obvious what they’re adding and what they’re not (boom and bloat).
John, I moved from a 2160cf room listening den to a dedicated 990cf music room...know what you mean! Wow, what a difference in not only the stereo soundstage quality but also being able to energize the room!! Actually, the size of the sound presentation is so much larger, wider, deeper and higher than the room's boundaries that very often it is mind-blowing (What you Hear IS NOT What you See)!! Ted
I guess there are many additions and tweaks that you can make that certainly can improve the system’s sound and we all should make the effort. But The size and inherent acoustics of the space the system is loaded into is the primary factor that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately in many domestic situations this could prove difficult.
Getting rid of all bad records/CD's. (fake stereo, over compressed, annoying reverb added, even to the slightes amount on reissues, LP's with extended playing time.) All my music now is top notch, nothing now sounds bad. No need to worry about gear, room, toe in or out or whatever. One has to start with a good, preferable splendid record/CD. Lot of crap out there, so be pickey.
Getting my ears cleaned out of wax....... I went for a regular check up at my doctors and she looked in my ears...haha ...full of wax, some of it rock hard, I've always had this problem and never really gave it much thought. Hmmm.... she cleaned them out and I went home and didn't think anything of it until I put a disc on my turntable and sunk down in my sofa, glass of wine in hand.... Yes folks... your ears are an important part of your audio system. .
And my doctors have recommended the glycerin stuff to clear out the wax. It works. But it is not an enjoyable, boring, thing to wait 10 minutes with your head leaning to one side. Then you flush it out with a water pucker. And then the other side. But it works. If only more of us did it.
Fixing the VTA and properly aligning an Ortofon 2M LVB really shocked me. It went from tinny and brittle to beautiful and smooth. It now makes MUSIC.
I love this thread. The littlest, simplest things, and free things, make the biggest improvements. Unplugging all of your equipment from the power source, then replugging it in again a few times. Disconnecting all interconnects, then reconnecting them in again and again a few times. Huge difference. That’s how contact cleaners make their money. I admit I use them. But unplugging and replugging makes a huge difference without them.
I've had my speakers (Linn Ninka) for 14 years and they moved houses 5 times with me. They've gone from good to outstanding as I improved my listening space and upgraded other gear around them. They're now my oldest piece of equipment and still have potential. I also added minimal acoustic treatment last year to see another jump in quality. So, I suppose the unexpected sound improvement is how much potential these speakers had all along.
Thanks for the reminder. Cleaned my ears out tonight with a kit I bought last year for under $10 from CVS.
Room correction. I was quite unsatisfied with music playback from my home theater setup. I had owned several expensive pre-pros and amps. I am now getting much better sound from a relatively inexpensive Marantz receiver. I credit the Audyssey room correction software that comes with the Marantz receiver for a lot of the improvement that I hear. I now get a wall to wall, floor to ceiling soundstage, with more precisely placed and perfectly sized images, which are qualities that I prize when listening to music.
Well there are a lot of great records out there on which the original sound is not “audiophile”. Did you get rid of these too?
Around 2003 I started experimenting with CD treatments. The one that immediately impressed me was Mapleshade Mikrosmooth. It supposedly works by smoothing the CD playing surface with microscopic ceramic particles, thus allowing the laser to penetrate the surface without bending. I heard a lot more detail, especially on recordings of acoustic guitar. I've been treating every CD I buy ever since.
Finding the right "dot" or rubber feet for my speakers to rest on the stand. Tested a number of them (see thread if interested). They can greatly affect the bass response, at least with a lossy enclosure. Some completely deadened the bass while others created annoying peaks. I'm talking cheap hardware store dots, pads, bumpers, etc. Not too thick, not too thin, not too hard and not too soft and the sound was the best.
I have tried a few CD tweaks, mostly without success, but the PerfectSound control spray did make a difference (more transparency and dynamics).
Mapleshade recommended pairing it with Optrix, which sadly isn't being made anymore. So I tried pairing it with Walker Audio Ultra Vivid. I have two copies of a Mark O'Connor CD, which allowed me to do an A/B comparison. The Ultra Vivid improved the sound further. As a final step, I de-static the CD with Mapleshade's Anti-Static Brush.
Provided I don't use them too often, pretty much every time I use one of my burn in/enhancer CDs, whether Isotek, XLO or Ayre, I am amazed at how well it works to improve the sound.
As long as the record/CD sound fine for me, i.e. natural, good dynamics, no alterations by new mastering, fair full range it is good. Never use the word Audiophile, for me this only indicates a good recording/pressing/mastering. The old indicator "High Fi" was good, so what extra's does Audiophile has to say. Most important for me is the recording fashion, Fan of fifties music. Best example Rockin with Wanda, by Wanda Jackson on Capitol. Played this all my life, never bored me , sound always good for my ears.
