True or False?


Many high-end manufactures deny the benefits of tweaking their components with upgraded power cables, fuses, etc. We all can agree that even the best speakers respond to room placement but is it true or not true in (your experiences) that the better your audio components are, the less they respond to various tweaks? 
aewarren
If you say so. That is not the case whatsoever. But if that is what you got out of it, that is what you got out of it.

It is demonstrably the wrong conclusion. Read the comments on my system page. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 There’s one where the cable elevators were removed. Actually I think there are two. In both cases the people clearly heard the improvement. Not change, improvement. What it takes a little more effort to understand, this was the same test but in two different systems. The Tekton Moabs in there now are WAY better than the Talon Khorus. Ditto the speaker cables. Heck every single little thing improved between those two visits. But the improvement heard by this one tweak, that did not change.

Totally blows your conclusion out of the water.

Also if you read the Townshend Podium review you will find the same huge improvement I got with my Tekton Moab speakers as another one got with much more expensive Wilson, I forget the model but way more expensive. Multiples. Most would say better. So another one blown out. 

I could go on and on. Suffice to say it is trivially easy to take even the most expensive SOTA system and make it sound a whole lot better- UNLESS it has already been systematically and thoroughly tweaked. 

To put it another way, you don't tweak, you are leaving mass sound quality on the table. 
We all can agree that even the best speakers respond to room placement but is it true or not true in (your experiences) that the better your audio components are, the less they respond to various tweaks?
Totally agree to placement (as they are measurable).
And it depended on the "tweaks" you mean, for the second half of the question. EG: snake oil ones or legit measurable ones?

Cheers George
For sure the costlier a system is, the more it seems for the owner that his system is "immune" to any embeddings controls...There is some truth in this because the engineering is more sophisticated to a point...

But no speakers at any cost beat  the vibrations aggression , a too high  electrical noise floor in the house nor acoustic control...

Embeddings controls are not for the gullible crowd unable to afford 100,000 bucks system but for all of us....It may cost very low....


By the way it is not necessary to prove or measure anything... We are  in audio listening experiments  not in a reunion of the "sunday club scientism and skeptic association "....
What i have found is the best audio components respond and show more about what the better tweaks and cables and conditioners do in a system so my answer is tweak away to get the best sound for any level of component.
Master M.. Now we're talking..

1. Lower the noise floor, and clean up the electrical.

2. Treat the room to match your equipment.

3. Take care of excess vibration.

MC, Master M, and most here believe in that. How many others actually do it, a lot more than we may ALL think. ALL the tweaks in the world come right after these simple principals. 

Tweak away BUT do the basics FIRST.  It saves endless hours chasing a null, suck out, combing or canceling effects... 

Tune The Room.... THEN tweak all you want..

GOOD Contact Enhancer is one of the best TWEAKS there is...

5 people out of 5 will hear the difference IF they treat the entire system..

I find like Douglas S cables in groups or sets tend to work better together.

WHY? the way they are constructed for one, but JUST maybe, pre conditioning the cables and pre applied contact enhancers make all the difference too. I mean after all an RCA and a Speaker IC WHAT do they have in common? Usually two different types of constructs, with two entirely different purposes. low in, HIGH OUT!

Maybe the low input might be sensitive to a little noise..  BUT the TWEAK is in construction of the cable and how a given manufacture assembles a product. EX: Cold Press with a contact enhancer and the cable being pulled off the spool the way it was put through the dyes...

Is it a tweak or a way of constant thinking and keeping QC the same through simple practices.. Don't cost a CENT... Just peanuts... LOL

So we are clear, some things are just for looks... nothing more nothing less.. I like eye candy, it doesn't always have to be pleasing to everyone either... I'm not into a space age studio look AT ALL... More of a Roman column guy.

I use cable lifters, WHY? It's easier to clean under and I've ALWAYS had cables off the floor. So I really couldn't tell you what they sound like on the floor other than I know when they are.. It takes a while for me messing around to finally look and see something laying on the carpet or wood floors. You can hear it especially if it is REAL dry and the wind is really blowing... Ozone and humidifiers work.. tweak category for sure..

Maybe not so much in a higher humidity climate.. Zone exclusive tweaks..

Regards