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A Big DIY Bang for Your Buck?

I believe in getting the biggest bang out of my audio buck that I can. I don't know about you but my audio budget is actually limited. I find it interesting when I hear about folks spending a zillion on the best magnetic cables and then someone comes along with some new cable technology like new liquid-infused cables that equal or best the magnetic cables at a fraction of the price. Some makers of magnetic and other cables may want you to believe that a patent pending means there must be something there that ordinary Joe Audio could never make himself. My experience leads me to say -- don't believe it.

I have been using neodymium magnets for years in my cables and around my system to improve SQ -- at a fraction of the cost that makers of magnet-containing products charge. OK, mine may not be at the very top of the performance chain when compared to those expensive products, but who cares? I have managed to get stunning returns for a pittance. It would have cost thousands, or tens of thousands, to obtain similar results from various makers.

The same applies to audio makers with a patent pending (or an actual patent) who market little aluminum audio resonators the size of pimples. I make my own resonator pimples for about a buck apiece -- with stunning results. I saved over $4,000 making 70 of my own. Maybe they are not at the very top of the performance chain compared to those expensive products, but who cares? I am very happy with results that are far beyond what I expected when I started out.

I am having a lot of fun doing DIY projects at home that reap wonderful results at a small fraction of the cost charged by audio makers for their similar products. Have others had similar experiences making their own audio products at home? Can you share your DIY experiences with us?
sabai
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Jeffery75
geoffkait,

I have attempted to educate myself concerning magnets and colors,
are you referring to different alloys as color? That is the crux of my post
and what I misread into as being sarcasm.

i already explained that too. They're painted magnets. Either neodymium or ceramic. I also already explained different colors for different materials. Going a bit further, blue for anything steel, red for anything aluminum, green for any glass including mirrors, TV screen, any and all colors for wood.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
 
koestner

Geoffkait: "My thesis, which was selected to be presented at the national AIAA conference, was on the dodgy subject of bombarding highly magnetized metal with high energy ions to produce low thrust for an engine to be used for interplanetary travel."

Is that how you plan to make it back home?

Whoa! What?! Ouch!


jeffrey75's avatar
jeffrey75
110 posts
 
geoffkait,

Thank you for the clarification on painted magnets and see your post
for what it is now and realize I jumped the gun... One of my first purchases
here on Audiogon was a set of A.M. GA-0's that as you probably already know are two magnets wrapped around gold plated conductors to create a field that keeps electronic and RF smog out of the signal. In short they are still doing what they are designed to and believe sabai is creating a field to keep EMI and RF out with magnets as well.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Jeffrey,

To close the loop more or less, my use of magnets, colored magnets, has nothing at all to do with RF, EMI, electromagnetic fields, with addressing magnetism is the audio system, or with the audio signal at all, actually, or with room acoustics, or even house wiring for that matter. And the products of mine that incorporate magnets, with one exception, do not address any of those issues either. I know what you’re thinking, what’s left, right? That’s what I meant when I said this talk about magnets might open up a whole can of worms. 😃

toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Geoff, I waffle between thinking you know what you're talking about and thinking you're a loony. 

I bet you'd be fun to have a beer with. Non magnetic, of course
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