I initially scoffed at these but then in a bout of liquid courage actually bought a couple. Those SR PHTs really do make a difference when it comes to analog playback. I have the green one on my head shell and the black one at the tonearm pivot point and the difference when they're on versus when they're off is quite noticeable. I have no idea why.
My Favorite Tweaks, What is yours?
My favorite tweak is Puron lowering noise floor of my system. Holostage they open my system more, bigger soundstage , improves layering as well ,and made my system more effortless to listen.
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Just received 2nd Apotema Materik Mains Filter. Materik #1 plugged into 1st receptacle of balanced power supply along with the Apotema Black Hole filter. Not to be confused with the Vera Fi Black Hole filter. I will be trying Materik #2 in the wall receptacle of dedicated line to see how things sound. While auditioning these filters from Italian company Apotema, I have removed a handful of Purons & PS Audio's Noise Harvesters. For anyone unfamiliar with Apotema's offerings (Not well known in the States but enjoy a fine reputation in Europe) my impressions will follow in a few days. |
By far the most notable tweak that made a huge difference and it cost nothing. Getting a better understanding of the bass nulls/dead spots in my room led to far better bass. Simply learning how the sound was affected by the location of the subwoofers in relation to my seat. The best result came when, out of frustration, I did the unthinkable and placed one sub directly in the corner and the other mid-wall sub both turned 90 degrees inches from the wall. "but you're not supposed to do that!" It removed the null in the middle of the room and the bass was improved through out the entire space. Tight and dynamic levels are easily controlled by gain control. The improvement was a major transformation.
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My fav tweak has been system grounding. I use the Nordost QKore but there seems to be many different options out there now. Its hard to describe what it does, but once you hear a ground tweak its hard to go back. Does not work in every application or on every component tho.
Second fav tweak is isolation footer, specifically Stillpoints. |
A few tweaks I have been doing for years. As many here might know, I damp horns, woofer frames, cabinets, equipment chassis, everything. Another tweak that for me was always significant with improved sq was to remove the power cord from a power amplifier (non IEC inlet) and install (hotwire) a heavier duty power cord/plug to the design. A couple that come to mind are Adcom, Soundcraftsmen, Hafler, Phase Linear, SAE, and so many more. It turns out, the puny power cords on these amps are a bottleneck to the capability of the amp, as some of you might imagine. I also attempt to decouple the power transformers from the chassis, which on some designs makes a significant improvement in sq. These products are always "out of warranty", and never had an issue. My best, MrD. |
I don't know if it is considered a tweak. But I've found huge benefits from extensive, almost obsessive messing about with speaker toe-in. Sometimes the tiniest change can make a huge difference. Not always, but most of the time anyway. It sometimes takes me weeks of constant fiddling before I get a new pair of speakers dialed in just perfectly. When I get it though, it is worth all that trouble.
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@bdp24 I could check into what stock I have. Personal issues would require a wait to look into it. |
