Know of a "Dirt Cheap" tweak?

I may be a wierdo, but I use clear plastic 4oz. "coctail" cups (think airplane beverage cart issue) with good results as cable suspenders. turn each cup upside-down, and cut a trough into the bottom of the cup. Make 8 to 10, and use it to keep the power, speaker, and interconnect cables off the floor. It is also not a good idea (in theory) to have cables pushed against a wall, as electrical fields develop in floor and walls, and having 3" of air between the cables and the flat, somewhat charged surface is a great insulator. Total cost, less than $5.

Vibrapods and a sheet of MDF or a Maple cutting board under the CD player are a cheap must do. I will be trying Mapleshade's Tenderfeet in a few days which are about the same price as the Pods. Keeping cables seperate and off of carpet and other surfaces as mentioned. My speaker cables run across the bottom of a doorway so I built a two channel box out of pine and brass screws to run them through (cut out the carpet and pad and cover it with a cotton rug that was always there). I hang my speaker wires with cloth ribbon from the bottom of standard bookshelves that are behind the speakers. I am also fanatical in regard to achieving the best speaker placement, which is free, within my limitations, as it makes loads of difference. If you have not tried isolation devices on the CD player though, start with the Vibrapods for $24.00, they greatly improved the sound of my old CAL player. Craig at Vibrapod will give you good advice on the setup. Oh, and Gthirteen is a real wierdo, just ask him what he does with the Planter's Peanut packs and the barf bag.

This doesn't help in every system, but this made a very audible improvement in my system. You need a voltmeter and a cheater plug(s) that will let you orient the ac plug(s) in either standard or reverse polarity. I made my own and used a grinder to remove metal from the thick sides of the ac adapter plug. Test the chassis voltage by touching the hot lead of the voltmeter to bare metal on the component chassis and the ground lead to a ground. Orient each component plug in the manner that gives the lowest voltage reading. I only had to reverse my cd player (Cambridge Audio CD4se.) It REALLY tightened up and extended the bass noticeably. Midrange sounded a touch more coherent and integrated.

I had a problem with Sibilance with my Perreaux amp...the T's and S's sounding much too harsh and opaque. Then, a guy from this site named Sean who is a professional sound engineer set me up with Mobile Spec interconnect cables that were fifteen bucks a pair. I think this must be used in radio applications. He said that when he engineered the sound for several big name bands, he uses these as Sibilance busters. Plainly put, I COULD NOT BELIEVE THE DIFFERENCE. Sorry to harp time and time again about these things, but I think they just buried my more expensive audio interconnects. BURIED THEM. Others have theorized that what has happend is that the cables are poorly designed and they act as a filter for certain high frequencies. I don't know, maybe, but they made my solid state sound much more like my tube amps. And I could not notice any loss of detail. Mobile Spec Performance cables. Don't know where you can get em. Ask Sean.

See my DIY thread under the heading "Best wires for cost". The design that I explained costs less than $3.00/ft, yet it has beat up many $400.00 per meter cables, really!