Do you believe in Magic?

I had another experience with Magic yesterday. In fact, it was the most Magical audio experience I've ever had. I'm somewhat reluctant to mention it, because I don't want to sabotage my own credibility. But in light of the topic of this thread, I feel obliged to share it. Here it is...

Grounding pigtails. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it's little loops of wire that you attach to the negative binding post of your speakers or your amp (or both).

Audio Prism makes grounding pigtails out of Litz wire, and sells them for an unconscionable amount of money. I made a diy version using 12 strands of 23 gauge solid core wire that I braided together.

About a week ago I attached my diy grounding pigtails to my amp. I thought maybe I heard something, but it was within the "noise level" of placebo, so I didn't think much of it. Yesterday, I made some more pigtails and attached them to my speakers and...

SHAZAM!

Something very unexpected occurred. I cannot explain it. I suspect no one can explain it. It was Magic.

Unlike the ambiguous effect of adding pigtails to the amp, the effect of adding pigtails to the speakers was well above the typical "noise level" of placebo. I say that knowing full well the power of placebo. I have an avid interest in psychology, and I am married to a psychologist, making me aware of the tricks the unconscious mind can play on you. So of course I cannot guarantee that what I experienced wasn't a placebo. But I can say, with total sincerity, that I believe the effect occurred not in my mind, but in my listening room.

I should also say, in my preemptive defense, that I have tried a LARGE number of other tweaks. You can see a list here. At least half the time with tweaks, I hear no difference whatsoever. But in this case, I heard something. Something remarkable.

Sounds like nonsense. But it happened.

Bryon

Hi Bryon,

Given your disciplined approach to things, a lot of the following has probably already occurred to you. But fwiw here is a list of conceivable extraneous variables that comes to mind, which I think need to be eliminated before the difference you perceived can be attributed to the pigtails with a reasonable degree of confidence.

Obviously, a way to eliminate most or all of these possibilities would be to go back and forth several times between having the pigtails in place and not having them in place.

1)Improved contact between the speaker terminals and the speaker cables, resulting from increased pressure and/or scraping away of oxidation that may have occurred during the loosening and re-tightening of the connections.

2)Changes in room temperature. Temperature is a parameter that is fundamental to the physics of transistors and other semiconductor devices.

3)Changes in AC line voltage.

4)Changes in AC line noise.

5)Changes in rfi/emi conditions, such as may be caused by wifi signals, cellphone traffic, nearby radio stations which may broadcast at different power levels during the day vs. at night, etc.

6)Ongoing aging, breakin, loss of breakin, or re-breakin of system components or the speakers.

7)Components being in a different state of warmup during the "before" and "after" parts of the comparison.

Undoubtedly there are other possible extraneous variables that I'm not thinking of.

Best,
-- Al

Bryon,

Your 'pigtails' have been used by others here in different forms. Anything from a homemade wire type collector to various retail products that claim to have a beneficial effect. I use a Dakiom device in the same manner. I don't believe it is made in the same way as what you use. It was recommended by a fellow listener at my place and all three of us heard an immediate improvement. It tamed a bright high end tendency and seemed to reduce, overall, noise that I hadn't noticed before. A sort of calming effect. Hard to describe but discernible each and every time it was taken out and reinserted.

Now that was with an older integrated that I have packed away and just for the heck of it, I tried it on my present unit and the effect wasn't anywhere near as pronounced but it was there. My Burson PI-160 is a better made unit than the Classic 6.1 so that may be the reason. I can't really say.

It's hard to describe magic when you don't know how the trick is done.

All the best,
Nonoise

Hi Al, Bryon and everyone else.

Have found this a stimulating thread.

I must say Bryon Al has described you spot on, disciplined approach as evidenced by your many posts.

I have no doubt you experienced something with the pigtails and by your exclamation found it positive.

As Al pointed out there are many variables that may have influenced the outcome, as I know you are well aware of given the stimulating thread you guys had regarding that very subject recently.

Imagine being able to reproduce that result 100 times as suggested all conditions being equal but for the addition of the pigtails! Wouldn't that be something!

Since it is in the realm of possibility to control the variables I think it far easier to replicate your claim than those of some that want you to believe in "magic" alone.

My $.02.

Best,

Dave

Thanks Dave and Nonoise for your comments. I appreciate your open mindedness.

Al - You are the Voice of Reason, and your comments reflect that. There are most certainly confounding variables, and you identified some of the big ones. It is completely possible that the effect was attributable to some other variable, or was merely in my mind. I have no particular investment in being correct about this.

Having said that, the effect was startling. I have seldom had that kind of experience with the many tweaks I've tried over the years. And when I have experienced dramatic improvements from tweaks, there was usually a good explanation (e.g., add a reclocker and sound quality improves in ways associated with jitter, add felt to the speaker baffle and sound quality improves in ways associated with diffraction, etc.).

Your suggestion to A/B the pigtails, in order to replicate the results, is of course what should be done. Unfortunately, I cannot A/B this in my current system, because the pigtails are attached to custom crossovers that I built for my speakers, and the crossovers are located inside a sealed cabinet in the wall between the equipment closet and the listening room. So there is no way to quickly A/B, let alone blind A/B.

So I plan on doing the A/B'ing in a friend's system, which should be sufficiently resolving to either confirm or disconfirm what I experienced in my system. I will also ask him to help me blind A/B. I will report back with the results.

Like Alice said... curiouser and curiouser.

Bryon