Your most recent system tweak, did it help or hurt the sound?

I have a bunch of BDR cones I haven’t used in years. I wonder if they are worth trying again.

 

i bought a SBooster for dv p75 and I do not think it did anything positive (and nothing negative).

 

These two “super dots” go on the rear plate of the speaker, 1/2” above the center and from the edge.

The green dots go on the woofer/mid range cones and the white ones on the tweeter frame, max 4 per speaker.

 

Wooden platforms seem to do better, see this recent thread, supported by our host!
Review of Butcher Block Acoustics Audio Platform. Also, what is under your stereo components?*

 

I rolled a lot of tubes. Huge difference of various brands. Interesting the most expensive tubes sounded best.

 

After playing around with the Easy VTA adjustment for a couple of weeks, I must say it’ll be hard to go back to life without it. I’m comfortable with my settings I adjust it to based on record thickness, and since it only takes a couple of seconds to use and can be returned to the exact spots, it’s highly recommended!

 

After some reorganization of furniture I relocated the pair of sub-woofers into respective the corners and adjusted the speakers relative to the wall behind them and side walls. The sound went from very good to where I do not want to leave thee room or stop listening. So my tweak was to reposition the speakers in the room and shift some furniture around. Total cost under an hour. Results are over the top improvements in all aspects of the sound and an increase in desire to listen to more music.

 

I assume you have 3 green dots on each woofer, correct?

 

Now imagine adding some 'dots' to them

 

Kimber 8PR speaker cables - first speaker cables to make a notable improvement in my system.

 

It is 2. I did not have enough with 8 green dots, as I have 4 woofers in total. Marigo states that each dot should give an improvement. And for now I am happy with this improvement of 2.

However, the range is 1-4 dots for the optimum. If 3 dots is the optimum on your speaker, for example, then with 4 speakers sounds less lively and you need to remove the last dot. I might try more dots in the future, but I could be unlucky and my optimum is indeed 2 per speaker.

 

Speaker placement and room treatment also came out as no1 tweak in a thread I started last year about your favorite accessories to improve sound. It can get down to mm work in some cases, but rewards are large!

 

Don't laugh until you try it.

 

Sorry, no wood on my planar speakers to put them dots on .

 

I cleaned my ears, it helped.........

..... yes, I view my ears as part of the "system"

 

I've been tweaking my DIY tonearm's anti-skating arrangement, specifically the hanger.

More specifically making and arranging the hanger such that, at the start of a record, the angle at which the weight pulls the arm is 90-degrees, and as the stylus approaches the end of the album, the angle of pull is closer to 78-degrees.

This translates into a rather tiny reduction in force. If I start with 1.5g at the beginning, at the end I'm at sin(90-12) * 1.5, or 1.47g.

But as it just so happens, that is likely very nearly ideal at these sorts of tracking forces. And previously, my hanger's shape and position likely resulted in the beginning and end having the same degree of anti-skating, with a slight bump higher about 20% in. It worked fine, we're talking tiny changes here. But might as well get it right.

And now that I have a better grasp on this subject, I can fairly easily accommodate higher tracking forces* by repositioning my hanger again. The closer I place my hanger to the arm's attachment point, the greater the angle I can impart as the style traverses the album.

*The higher your tracking force, the greater that variation in skating force from beginning to end of an album side.

To answer the question of, did this make a difference, I was able to slightly reduce the weight I'm using w/o increasing skating-related distortion, so yep.

 

Buy the tonearm damping dot kit and get with the program here.

 

1. Upgrading the motor and controller in my VPI Prime table from the stock motor and Phoenix Engineering Eagle controller, to the SOTA Condor motor and controller - big difference, less noise, more flow.

2. Replaced stock feet on the VPI Prime with Isoacoustic GAIA II - less difference than #1, but noticeable improvement in clarity and tautness of sounds.

 

I installed now a third dot on the woofers and sound and sound stage again firmed up even more !
I considered my speakers so far as the weakest link in my system and I was thinking of upgrading for while. However, now I will stick with them. These tiny dots have been a good investment for me, thanks for the tip!

 

I tried SR Blue fuses in my amp and dac since there was a 30 day return window. Not knowing what to expect, I was shocked at how much improvement it made to the sound, more air/separation is the biggest thing I noticed. It was so good that I returned them after a week, and got the SR Orange fuses instead!

I did this after having gotten my room treatments/components/cables/interconnects to a high level of performance. How much of a difference these would make if I did them earlier in the process, I have no idea? Point is, if you can try these with a return period, I recommend trying them.

 

Just added 3 x IsoAcoustics Orea Indigo's underneath the IKEA Aptitlig bamboo butchers block on which my OPPO 205 (transport) resides.

Orea Series | IsoAcoustics

APTITLIG Butcher's block, bamboo - IKEA

Definitely perceive better clarity and more extension in the treble region...

Read a lot of good things about their "Gaia" range for speaker isolation.
Unfortunately in my case it would cost $2K..........not happening...

 

I recently purchased some second hand foam acoustic panels (you know the cheap studio foam ones used) as I found the Bass overblown in my 3x5m conservatory and it had made a improvement, not a night and day change but noticeable non the less.

Looked ridiculous tbh and I had to take it down as the wife rightly wasn’t amused. But I am now thinking about aesthetically neutral alternatives.

I may try to make a few homemade panels to see how it goes, just need to do some homework on materials but it’s something for the future that I will explore.

 

Granite plinths under my speakers and Hudson hifi big blocks between the speaker and plinth.
Pleasing results ergo worth the effort.

 

Changed my mid bass subwoofers' notch filters to depress a slightly higher set of frequencies using the built in parametric equalizers each one has.
The sound got drier and clearer in the upper mid-bass but something was missing in the "you are there" department.
Moved on speaker tower 1/4 of an inch and VOILA!---suddenly the vocals became more alive.
Now I can hear the recorded "flavor" of each session---old dry Western Electeric studios or newer high performance consoles really come alive!
I guess the whole change took two days to sort out.
Not bad ---for FREE!
What I often discover (over and over) is that TINY changes really DO make a huge difference---ONCE your set is real real close to perfect.
That last "inch" of setup improvement seems to make huge changes to the overall presentation at that point.
It takes me years to get that last tiny 'bit" to pop out.
But it makes all the difference to my enjoyment!