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My list of tweaks and the verdict

As metro NY has been pretty much shut down for the past 11 months and counting, I get so bored sometimes that I find experimenting by buying tweaky audio products to be a helpful reprieve and keeps me from spiraling into the abyss.
So this is what I have purchased in the past 6 months and my quick verdict on sonic impact — what I hear or perceive to hear using my brain and ears in my 2 channel all analog all tube setup:

Not in any particular order and using baseball terms:

1. Walker Audio Talisman. Strikeout. A big swing and miss. The silliest purchase for sure.

2. Copper ankle socks. Home run. No more shocks when I touch my tonearm. Just wow. Least expensive tweak to date that works.

3. Symposium Segue amp shelves. Strikeout. Heard no difference in noise floor, bass, etc. But looks really nice.

4. Symposium Segue ISO Stealth turntable shelf with Rollerblocks Series 2. Home run. Out of the park. Really hear and SEE a significant improvement in everything - clarity, bass, soundstage. Took the performance of 2 very different turntables up a lot. “See” because my needle would jump sometimes and now you can actually see the rollerblocks doing their job swaying back and forth with no impact on the music like a building a Japan. Disclaimer: Room suffers from significant footfall.

5. Townshend Seismic Isolation Platform under my Harbeth 40.2 Ton Trager stands. Home Run. Further improvement due probably to serious footfall in my room. My most expensive tweak but worth it to me.

6. Stein Music Carbon Edition Perfect Interface. Another big swing and miss. Strikeout. Zero diff perceived vs no mat or stock mat. Most expensive swing and miss.

7. Yellow bird Hexmat. A solid double. First time I’ve heard a mat make a noticeable improvement. Probably cause this mat is a record isolator/decoupler and again reduces impact from vibrations.

8. Stillpoint Ultra LPI ver2. A solid double. This one is so easy to A/B and hear a noticeable improvement on some songs vs using no record weight or even the stock record weight. Basically things got quieter enabling me to turn up the volume which increased the perceived dynamics. Plus it looks really cool.

9. Symposium rollerblock jr. Under my phonostage or preamp. Strikeout. I don’t hear any impact on the noise floor but theoretically it’s there.

10. Isoacoustics Gaia tried under preamp, phonostage, amp. Strikeout. Didn’t hear anything noticeably different but again theoretically it’s doing something.

11. Assorted tube rolling. NOS, new new etc. Not sure if this is a tweak but I didn’t really hear any discernible difference to my memory. But it was fun to learn and do it.

Well there you have it! Anyone have similar experiences?


aj523
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 
aj523, I wonder if you made any observations:

(a) about your own objectivity, viz a vis price paid vs. results? From what I can tell, you seem to be setting that aside, but what do you think about your own objectivity? (A hard question, but one we can get better at!)

(b) about those tweaks that did nothing but which you suspect was not adequately tested by your setup? Sometimes, I've done something to my system thinking I'd hear a difference, and when I didn't, people have sometimes pointed out things like, "Your noise floor is too high for you to test that" or "You don't have a dedicated power line, so it would be hard to tell." 
aj523 OP
373 posts
 
Hi hilde45
Hard question for sure. But I feel like I have zero ego in this area and am being fully transparent to the extent my brain is allowing me to be. I had no problem saying to myself and to others as documented above that I wasted money and effort. Definitely have not willed anything to be “all that” when it ain’t!
Not entirely following your point in (b). My intention was not to state a product is worthless to everyone just to me. Certainly there is a law of diminishing returns here which could be the explanation. But like the Walker Talisman, my fiancée sees me waving it like a wand over my records and thinks I’m friggin nuts - I really wanted her to be wrong lol
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 
AJ, my (b) point was not that. Much more innocent, friendly. I’m only remembering that some of the tweaks I tried I only realized later were things I couldn’t have actually tested because of factors I hadn’t considered. It’s similar to those times someone asks you to taste something just after you’ve eaten something spicy? You might taste it and then realize that you have other things going on (the extant flavor in your mouth) which obscures the new taste. Maybe that’s clearer...
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