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Tweaks you got rid of because they were not effective (enough)?

There are some audiophiles for whom cost is no object; they buy what they wish and every single tweak and gadget which promises to improve the sound. And the industry is all too happy to produce such tweaks -- often made of expensive materials with elaborate engineering explanations. Those who question the value of these tweaks are frequently accused of being "naysayers" who are either too ignorant or insensate to realize that "everything matters."

Of course, money spent one place cannot be spent elsewhere; expenditures on tweaks take the place of other more central factors affecting the sound. In some cases, those tweaks are worth it; you can hear the difference, and that $400 (or whatever) really could not have improved your speakers or sub or amp, etc.

So, the question here is simple: Which tweak have you tried which, after some experience and reflection, you realized was either *not* effective or not the most effective way to improve your system? 
128x128hilde45
glupson
7,842 posts
 
"And so it is not as great as mine, which cost less than the sales tax on theirs."

There is a value in such systems. Actually, they are priceless. It is that pride in "I did it".

According to https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 it costs not only less, but much less than the sales tax on theirs. Unless they are in Delaware, Dubai, or some other location with D.


jacksky
102 posts
 
One of my most unutilized tweaks was a Sound Shaper III Equalizer.
16 bands for each left and right with a toggle to notch each one up or down by 2 ( don’t remember if it was DB or...).
I remember using it to tailor the sound in my room, and tweak, and tweak, and tweak never getting around to sit back and relax to the music.  Finally bypassed it and just enjoyed the music.  every couple of months I got the urge to play with the EQ and most times  I settled on the same wave shape attenuation. I guess the ears know what they know.
of course, if friends came over and I played disco,the right side EQ controls were all at the top
hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,117 posts
 
16 bands for each left and right with a toggle to notch each one up or down by 2 ( don’t remember if it was DB or...). I remember using it to tailor the sound in my room, and tweak, and tweak, and tweak never getting around to sit back and relax to the music.

I did the sub crawl and discovered, happily, that a best spot for my REL was right next to my listening chair. That makes it easy to adjust the bass levels at the beginning of the song. Sometimes, no change is needed, but typically, a bit of dial-in is necessary.

Based on what you relate, I better understand why Schiit made their Loki equalizer have 4 bands. It gives one enough to play with, but not so much that it becomes a distraction. Or, at least, it's less tempting.

mitch2
4,109 posts
 
@jacksky - Thanks for the blast from the past!  I owned the Sound Shaper One back in college and had a bunch of fun adjusting the sound of different systems.  This was way before tone controls were considered a bad thing.
sgordon1
447 posts
 
I think tweaks are like clothes.
If you only add, without periodically
sorting out the "keepers," you will have a 
pile of stuff that either is neither useful nor
beneficial.

For me, it is mostly eliminating vibration
control pieces.  Adding is the easy part, like accumulating shirts
and pants.  The real work is critically looking at
the whole audio setup, making subtractions,
and re-evaluating the resulting sound changes.
Less can be more.

I might be the only one with this opinion, though.
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