Geoff, depends on what you consider big bucks, and I guarantee its done right. Although I must admit the room was really close to optimal.
The best tweaks EVER..
In audio history, thumbs-down for cable lifters, green paint for CDs, clock radios claiming to reduce RF, primitive wall-absorption panels and bass traps. Or 'soundstage-expansion' devices -like Stein Music or Synergistic's Atmosphere. Did they improve sound quality or just make small speakers sound bigger ?
Not for analog sources, a list that worked:
**CDRs/disc cleaner-polishers. Either one or both -these did good to improve the reflectivity of CD and help the laser do its job. No longer needed with file or RAM-buffer playback -although Essence's treatment might help w/ ripping and burning.
**Power cords, grounding units, balanced-power units. I'm throwing these together as they did the same ting -strip away the excess charge that accumulated near (or in) our systems. "Power conditioners" from the 90s to 2010 did no such thing (or helped in some ways but hurt in others).
-The first effective power cord was probably Custom's Top Gun ca. 2000. Many others since.
-Ground units. The first one, if it was grounding, was the Bybee-Curl device starting in the mid-90s. But its effectiveness was not certain until it improved ca. 2010. Newer entries incl. 'blocks' (and claim grounding). Euro-brands Entreq, Nordost, CAD and Vertex while the U.S. has Synergistics. Others, like Audioquest and Shunyata are grounding -but with full-sized units.
-Balanced power is even newer and seems to be *as effective* as grounding, Only a few reviews, though.
**Component noise killers (best -Bybee iQSE). Removes a large part of radiated noise inside a component -incl. RF +switching noise.
**Room tuning. The 'resonators' from ASR and Synergistics. I've personally used these for years and know of others also -all say helpful ! More recently and not quite 'tuning', Stillpoint's wall panels seem to be effective at removing harmful room reflections.
**Bass-mode breakup. About a dozen years ago, there was a corner-woofer idea -2 units time-corrected w/ DSP. This never took off, even though Kevin Voecks (of Harman/Revel) said it was a "huge breakthrough". Synergistic's newer take on bass modes, the Black Box, might be as good.
**For the 'tweako' -Teflon capacitors and better internal wiring (for passive XOs). The caps for equip, too..
**For CD players and those with BIG speakers -footers (from Stillpoints, Black Ravioli and Magico) reduced vibrations and microphony to a high degree.
Tweaks are finally working !!
Not for analog sources, a list that worked:
**CDRs/disc cleaner-polishers. Either one or both -these did good to improve the reflectivity of CD and help the laser do its job. No longer needed with file or RAM-buffer playback -although Essence's treatment might help w/ ripping and burning.
**Power cords, grounding units, balanced-power units. I'm throwing these together as they did the same ting -strip away the excess charge that accumulated near (or in) our systems. "Power conditioners" from the 90s to 2010 did no such thing (or helped in some ways but hurt in others).
-The first effective power cord was probably Custom's Top Gun ca. 2000. Many others since.
-Ground units. The first one, if it was grounding, was the Bybee-Curl device starting in the mid-90s. But its effectiveness was not certain until it improved ca. 2010. Newer entries incl. 'blocks' (and claim grounding). Euro-brands Entreq, Nordost, CAD and Vertex while the U.S. has Synergistics. Others, like Audioquest and Shunyata are grounding -but with full-sized units.
-Balanced power is even newer and seems to be *as effective* as grounding, Only a few reviews, though.
**Component noise killers (best -Bybee iQSE). Removes a large part of radiated noise inside a component -incl. RF +switching noise.
**Room tuning. The 'resonators' from ASR and Synergistics. I've personally used these for years and know of others also -all say helpful ! More recently and not quite 'tuning', Stillpoint's wall panels seem to be effective at removing harmful room reflections.
**Bass-mode breakup. About a dozen years ago, there was a corner-woofer idea -2 units time-corrected w/ DSP. This never took off, even though Kevin Voecks (of Harman/Revel) said it was a "huge breakthrough". Synergistic's newer take on bass modes, the Black Box, might be as good.
**For the 'tweako' -Teflon capacitors and better internal wiring (for passive XOs). The caps for equip, too..
**For CD players and those with BIG speakers -footers (from Stillpoints, Black Ravioli and Magico) reduced vibrations and microphony to a high degree.
Tweaks are finally working !!
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- 29 posts total
- 29 posts total