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The Most Cost Effective Tweak

What is the most cost effective upgrade or tweak? What yields the largest return on investment (ROI)? What if you could spend no money and no time and yield significant performance increases? Theoretically, that would result in an infinite ROI!

So how do you make that happen? Stop tweaking. What happens when you stop tweaking and messing with your audio system constantly is that you let everything burn in and settle down. Go read one of the many threads on this website that talks about how long it takes for components and cables to break in. The answers range from a few hours to several days. If you are suffering from constant upgrade-itis, you never let your audio system fully burn in. You’re robbing yourself of free, infinite ROI. And you never truly hear what your system is capable of. I’m not saying don’t upgrade your system. That’s a lot of the fun. Just give it some time and let your system burn in and open up. Reassess where you are at and where you want to go next.

Due to reasons I won’t go into depth on right now (mainly power issues), I am temporarily using a relatively cheap, high power, class D amp. I wasn’t thrilled with this setup and wasn’t sure if I could even call it’s sound signature high end. Due to a busy schedule, I have not had time to upgrade anything or even pursue simple tweaks. As a result of that, I have witnessed how the amp and my system have burned-in/settled down - whatever you want to call it. The sound was initially on the thin side and had harsh treble. Now the soundstage has become huge and the sound has become very smooth - smoother than I thought class D was capable of - especially from a class D amp that isn’t really something to write home about.

My point is that I realized significant performance increases by doing literally nothing. And now that I am hearing what I believe is the true sound of my system, my next tweak or upgrade will be more effective because I can clearly recognize where the weaknesses are at instead of making judgements while things are still burning in, which is often the case with upgrade-itis.
128x128mkgus
rudyb
141 posts
 
Just for fun I measured the frequency response of my Harmon/Kardon GoPlay bluetooth speaker with the two apps of the previous post. I played the 20s logarithmic sweep 20 - 20kHz wav from here.

Repeated measurements show very similar results. And apparently this speaker, in my room, microphone at 1m distance, does not have a particularly flat graph ... there's over 10dB range between peaks and valleys. Can't show my Magnepan speakers with Duson class A amp right now because I'm in the middle of a move and just yesterday I packed all cables.

The three spikes at the start were my count in: one, two, three, go.

Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3

Could be fun to have a "Frequency Response" thread where everyone (who’s brave enough :) posts their measurement results.

pascon's avatar
pascon
17 posts
 
RE: the addition of ficus trees. How many do you need? Well, if you can still actually visually see your system from the listening position, then you need more trees. Caution: most afficianados tend to  overdue it when adding squirrels. Be conservative. 
pascon's avatar
pascon
17 posts
 
RE: the addition of ficus trees. How many do you need? Well, if you can still actually visually see your system from the listening position, then you need more trees. Caution: most afficianados tend to  overdue it when adding squirrels. Be conservative. 
henry53's avatar
henry53
280 posts
 
I bag of sound insulation used as two bass traps, total cost, AUD$50, and lot of hard work.
lemonhaze
416 posts
 
Room first. If the acoustics have not been sorted out then you’re just chasing your tail. Measurements to a thousandth of an inch can not smooth out the biggest issue: room nodes. The frequencies below the Schroeder threshold will be in the order of many feet. The wavelength (lambda) of 40Hz = 28ft and at 100Hz = 11ft. Lambda = velocity/freq so at the transition from the Schroeder frequency to a reverberant field which is about 250Hz average you are still looking at a wavelength of 4.4ft. so bring out the tapes and lasers after you have attended to the acoustics.

It takes effort and some money (not much if you can DIY) but is without doubt the best thing that can be done to improve sound. This needs to be heard to understand. Fix the room above all else.
Imitation ficus trees are incapable of doing much, they may scatter a narrow range of high frequencies but what they will do is collect dust. Lots of dust.
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