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Feeling Tweaky

I recently tried my first system tweak, purchasing IsoAcoustic Orea isolation footers for my Luxman 507uX Mk2 integrated amp, Marantz Ruby CD/SACD player, and Shunyate Hydra Denali 6000S power conditioner. I liked the improvement in sound quality so much I’ve gone ahead and ordered IsoAcoustic Gaia feet for my VPI Classic 2 turntable and Magico A3 speakers. I never expected a tweak to make such an improvement, not just a change, in sound quality. By the way, my cables are Audioquest Rocket 88 speaker cables, Audioquest Colorado cables from the CD/SACD player, and VPI phono cables. The Shunyata Hydra Denali has a Venom power cable. All the other power cords are what came with each component.

Acoustic room treatments that would affect room decor are unfortunately out of the equation and I’ve already tried my best to design component shelving to be a vibration free as I could. I’ve thought about are redoing the house wiring to create a dedicated circuit, and making an ultrasonic record cleaner.

So my question to you all is, what tweaks have had the most positive impact on your own system, that you could you recommend for the above described system? There seems to be a lot of tweaks out there that range from the sublime to the ridiculous in both performance and price. I’d like to know what tweaks of the many out there have worked best for you so I can make a list and prioritize each in terms of performance and budget. Please share your favorites and I’d appreciate your advice. Thanks,


Mike



skyscraper
isochronism
2,893 posts
 
Who need's TV when we've got this soap opera here?
skyscraper OP
836 posts
 
Try to play nice boys, although this last bit was pretty funny.
terry9
2,354 posts
 
Ultrasonic record cleaning is a good idea. It gave me as much as doubling the cost of a major component. Also, after nearly 1000 hours, my Koetsu shows minimal wear (according to a photomicrograph) - so my US cleaner has already paid for itself. I use an Elmasonic and run it at 80KHz. Look up the Rushton thread.

The next best upgrade is exchanging inferior parts for better ones. Film and foil caps usually sound better than factory, because factory makes to a price point. MIT RTX series caps give lots of performance for not so much cost, and may be a good match to your Magico's. BUT - this constitutes a mod, which tends to diminish resale value.

Good luck.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
skyscraper:
that book thing was some sort of joke.


Is this a joke?
So, let's start with the hypothesis that information itself produces detrimental information fields and that those things, the electronic devices, that bring that information into the house, that are essentially the LINKS to the OUTSIDE WORLD OF INFORMATION, are also detrimental to the sound. Thus, TVs, computers, cell phones, as well as LPs, CDs, DVDs, Blu Ray discs, cassettes, I.e., all music and video media, produce detrimental info fields. i won't even get into books, magazines, newspapers, bank statements, telephone books and bar codes. So while it's nice to collect these CDS and records and have them all nicely arranged on the shelf the more you have the worse the sound gets. Sorry to be the one to break it to you. You're just not aware of the degradation of the sound because it happens over a long period of time - and even if you were clued into the degradation who would suspect the CDs, right? Who would suspect information fields? I mean, really. But I digress.
I mean okay yeah of course its a joke. But read it. Does it read like a joke? It sure doesn't read like a joke to me. Did you look at the website? This stuff is for sale. For money. Some joke.

Here's a laugh: Believe a word of it, the jokes on you.
skyscraper OP
836 posts
 
Terry9, I know next to nothing about caps and mods but that sounds like an interesting subject to learn about. I once stumbled across a web site that talked a lot about DIY stereo and mods. I saved that site somewhere and you’ve reminded me to go back, find it, and try and learn about them. It would be interesting to learn something about the inner workings of our equipment.

Recapping my old Dahlquist DQ10’s always sounded like a good thing to learn about and do, but I hadn’t the background and knowlede to even think about doing something like that. Glad you brought it up. If I have the time left to do so learning about the electronics of our components is on my bucket list. That’s the kind of thing retirement is good, and gives you the time, for.

I do plan on building an ultrasonic record cleaner, maybe this winter. I’ve read up on them and it seems like a fairly simple DIY project. If it works even half as good as yours I'll be happy. I'm curious how well they work with records that have been well cared for, but still can be noisy. Any thoughts on that from your experience? 
 
Mike
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