Your Best Tweak Lately


My latest, and perhaps best tweak, is a continuation of fuse upgrades, first using HiFi Tuning, two types, then Furutech, and finally, Synergistic Research Reds. Now, you may not believe in fuses, and that's ok---not here to convert anyone, just to report that these SR Reds are so far ahead of the others listed--to my ears, at least. If you have Maggies that you want to easily improve, put these in. I also have them as the mains fuses in ARC 210s and 861GNSC. If you have confidence in your power supply as stable and plentiful--another tweak in itself--no worries about the safety of these fuses--I even push the ratings a bit to match my big-gauge power cord capabilities. In the Maggies, I push them to 8A and 16A (stock is 2.5A and 5A) for a more "straight wire" effect by way of the bigger elements--incredible upgrade without molesting the speakers. With potentials in power supply, cords, cables, isolation schemes, room tricks, etc, this is a tweaker's paradise--I'm stealing the term back--just for audio.
128x128jafreeman
Addendum. They're all excellent. The question is, which one is the best? I went for the most expensive one, hoping that strategy would get me in the ballpark.
I remain vey impressed with the SR Red fuses I have placed in the "mains" AC banks of amps and CDP. These fuses complete a trio of external power tweaks, along with an isolation transformer for plenty of quiet energy and DIY AC cables using Ohno Continuous Cast copper wire by Furutech. Make your own AC cables for an easy upgrade--with the quality of DIY materials on the market, there's no need to spend on the "big brands". Save a fortune there and buy a real isolation transformer, e.g. Torus, RGPC, with outlets right there at your gear. Power supply is, IMHO, the most important external tweak to make your good system a great one at any price point.
Jafreeman. I agree with you about power supply quality. For better systems and classical,jazz,solo instruments and choral music lovers I consider it essential. My experiments have always confirmed significant benefits (to my very fussy ears) on every device in the chain. Of course one must have patience and experiment with different types of products. For example, Equitech's balanced power, like the 2Q, is an indisputable benefit to any system (let's face it; the extremely demanding professional and research facilities using it have done their 'research' confirming it's benefits. I have also had excellent benefits from MIT's Oracle power cord, including the non-networked AC3, and Sound Application products. This is not to say other products are not excellent. For Geoffkait, Ultrabit Platinum products had great praise from The Absolute Sound and others, and I appreciate their benefits.
Latest tweak: Walker Audio SST to the tube pins. I just performed this on a RSA Raptor headphone amp- so far I can't say it is any type of night and day difference, although it sounded great before the application...

Best tweak: solid butcher blocks from Amazon under my Omega A8 using brass points (reasonably priced off Ebay) under the speakers and blocks. About $100 for an outstanding improvement in bass and in the already excellent soundstage.
Without a doubt ..the SR Red fuse that I put in my ARC REF-3 preamp about a week ago. Fantastic!