Crazy cheapo tweaks and impressive SQ hacking


Got a great little digital setup, enjoying the sound Ive been getting. But I had been craving a better DAC, maybe a really nice CD transport, player, SACD...etc.

Instead of going down the typical rabbit holes (where I inevitably be traveling), decided I’d try some silly tweaks and pluggin options?

Got a Raspberry Pi/Allo Digione with usb storage plugged in for files to play, into a cheapo Schiit Audio Modi Uber II, into a Creek Evolution 50A into some used Tekton Lore Reference, decent but very affordable cabling throughout thanks to Zu Audio.

Sound/resonance isolation a starting point, my daughter has an impressive rock collection, where she “loaned” me a perfectly sized rock to set atop the Modi, which I had already set upon some Hudson hifi feet. Also placed these feet under the Allo Digione. Then, downloaded a CD player plugging (Nanomesher) for the Digione that accommodates a cheap external CD/DVD drive via usb.

Stuck the CD player atop a dense little package box.

I cant even begin to describe the improvements...through CD player compared to ripped tracks from the same cd, more soundstage, depth, clarity, tone... mid bass has more color, definition and richness. Every clicky inadvertent texture is heard. Can hear Piano hammers lifting, releasing. Can differentiate the change in tone color and spit moving across a saxophone reed, you name it...all without being too harsh or clinical. I had already had the Hudson feet before using the rock and box, which suggests the cheapest mods worked the real magic here.

What gives? Didn’t expect this. Thought I was just grasping at the ridiculous...what will happen when I can actually allow myself to spend real money? Or do I have to? Thinking not?

Curious about your stories along these lines...anyone else with obsurd yet wonderful tweaks?
riccitone
These principles of vibration control were worked out by a process of trial and error very gradually over a period of years. The turning point was realizing that properties or effects can be tested just fine without having to build an entire shelf, or rack, or whatever. 

There's no point arguing about this either, because anyone can prove it to themselves one way or the other. One simple test, cut some 3" squares from scrap material- MDF, plywood, maple, oak, acrylic, whatever. The material itself is not the point. The comparison is the point. Actually doing the comparison. 

Cutting them all the same size and shape eliminates those variables. Whatever differences there are now must be due to the inherent vibration properties of the materials themselves. So whatever they are- different wood, plastic, whatever- should all be the same size.

So you cut your 3" or whatever squares. Place them under the cones or footers or whatever. Listen. Change to the next ones. Listen. They all sound different. Pretty freaking amazing. Cost you next to nothing.

Wait, it gets better. Get some little squares of sorbothane or other rubbery material. Again, exactly what does not matter. Try it under the square, between the square and the shelf. Then try it on top, between the square and the component. Notice it produces the same effect on top and bottom, but more pronounced on top? Pretty freaking cool, eh? Do this enough, might eventually sink in, the closer, the more effective.

Why, its almost like whatever vibrations these things are making are finding their way back into the signal. In fact it is exactly like that. Whatever sound these things make when you plink them, is the sound they impart to your music.

But hey, don't just take my word for it. Try it and see.


LIGO the project to detect gravity waves succeeded not because of vibration control but because of vibration isolation. Vibration/resonance control has its place in audio and is relatively easy to accomplish but advanced audiophiles have known the audio system must be decoupled from very low seismic type vibration 🔜 for best results 🔚 for almost 25 years, when Vibraplane, Seismic Sink, my Nimbus Single Airspring Sub Hertz Platform and Bright Star air bladder device ruled.

Geoff Kait
Machina Dynamica
Vibration Isolation and Resonance Control
I placed a teak chest (13 x 13 x 18) In front of my component rack and in between my floorstanders and filled it with books, and the improvement was immediate and very obvious.  Wider deeper soundstage, smoother and more extended highs, a wonderful combination of air and weight to each note. Tweaks like this are room and system dependent,but this one sure worked for me.  
This is some quantum-freaky stuff! 
Wish I had more time to experiment in full...but you guys have set some very interesting parameters for controlled variables. 
Geo show us the math please to anchor your Wild interpetation of Maxwells,Teslas and other electromagnetic gurus.
do you even know the basic forumals??
you sound like a good used car salesman
also please explain how to filter out the sub Hz resonance of the earth and the ever changing cavity with the ionasphere.. ever hear of the russian woodpecker.  or Teslas earthquake resoniator.

" >>>>Several points. The signal is not an electromagnetic field, it’s an electromagnetic wave. The magnetic field induced by the current traveling in the wire is not pulling or pushing the signal - it’s orthogonal to the signal, I.e., right hand rule. 👎 Also, the signal itself in wire is not vibrating. It’s an alternating current and voltage - they alternate at the instantaneous frequency of the signal. But there is only one current/voltage traveling in a wire at one time. The signal in wire is, however, subject to external vibration.