Any new tweaks out there?

06-19-12: Mechans
I have used a combination of a memory foam pillow with a board on top to allow for ventilation and leveling.

That is clever, Mechans.

06-17-12: Csontos
For instance, I'm sure many of us have noticed the the skimpy 12-14awg leads on the power supply of our amps. Has anyone tried replacing them with say, 8awg just to see what happens? Or changing out main caps? Or changing to pure silver signal wire?

Yes to all of the above, more or less. I recently changed the wire connecting the IEC to the power supply in my preamp. I replaced the generic small gauge wire with silver plated wire from DH Labs. It was a nice little improvement, and easy enough if you can solder. My preamp also has upgraded caps and solid silver wire at key points.

I'm a compulsive tweaker. You can see a list of the tweaks I've tried here. I'm happy to discuss which were the most audible in my system, if you're interested.

Bryon

Nice thread, heh, here are some of the tweaks I use, in no particular order. Herbies Halo tube dampers, Shakti Stone, Skyline diffuser, Shun Mook Original Cable Jacket, Shun Mook Mpingo discs, pens of various colors for colorizing CDs, Xtreme AV Quicksilver Gold Contact Enhancer, various CD treatments such as Jena Labs and Nanotec 8500, Ionoclast destat device from Mapleshade, Walker Audio Talisman demag device, suspending all cables and cords via fishing line (low WAF alert), one- and two-stage vibration isolation, bluestone slabs from Home Despot, Dots, Golden Sound NASA grade ceramic Super cones, cones under heavy funriture, cream electret and Pen X Coordinate Pen from PWB, Monster Cable CD Rings (CD stabilizer), obtaining absolute level of the CD transport, speaker set-up track on XLO Test CD. Some things I avoid: Lead, Sonex, Brass, Sorbothene

Geoff Kait at Machina Dynamica

Bryon, there's a thread revival going on about IEC's right now. My response to this, and I did watch the video, is why not just eliminate the IEC and go directly to the board and thus eliminate all the other issues associated with this imo, stupid idea in the first place? The video itself shows this. Eliminating ground could be beneficial depending on the circumstances so Marantz could have better served their clientele by providing an IEC for this purpose and instead hardwired the power cord. Convenience is usually not progressive and benefits only the manufacturer. When common sense prevails, you usually get improvement. So I would love to hear about some effective internal shielding. This is something I have not tried but have seriously considered.

My goodness Geoff. What does your gear retail for in comparison to the articles you just noted?

06-19-12: Csontos
...why not just eliminate the IEC and go directly to the board and thus eliminate all the other issues associated with this imo, stupid idea in the first place? The video itself shows this.

Sounds interesting. Can you post a link to the video?

So I would love to hear about some effective internal shielding. This is something I have not tried but have seriously considered.

I've experimented a lot with internal shielding in my preamp. My first experiment was with ERS cloth. I liked it at first, but after much more experimentation, I decided it was harming things more than it was helping.

The shielding I ultimately went with was a homemade sandwich comprised of 16 gauge copper, 16 gauge steel, and TI shield. I had about 20 pieces of copper and steel cut to custom sizes by a an online retailer. Then I screwed them together with the TI shield and installed them in strategic locations in the preamp (e.g. all around the power supply). I made sure each of the shields was grounded effectively to the chassis. By the time I was done, I had added over 10 pounds of weight to the preamp.

I installed the various shields incrementally, so I got to hear the effects of the shielding at least 3 or 4 times. Each time, it was the same thing: a little lower noise floor, a little better resolution, slightly better harmonic accuracy. After all the shielding was in, the preamp sounded significantly better.

It was a remarkably effective tweak. It was also fun. And cheap.

Bryon