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The Most Cost Effective Tweak

What is the most cost effective upgrade or tweak? What yields the largest return on investment (ROI)? What if you could spend no money and no time and yield significant performance increases? Theoretically, that would result in an infinite ROI!

So how do you make that happen? Stop tweaking. What happens when you stop tweaking and messing with your audio system constantly is that you let everything burn in and settle down. Go read one of the many threads on this website that talks about how long it takes for components and cables to break in. The answers range from a few hours to several days. If you are suffering from constant upgrade-itis, you never let your audio system fully burn in. You’re robbing yourself of free, infinite ROI. And you never truly hear what your system is capable of. I’m not saying don’t upgrade your system. That’s a lot of the fun. Just give it some time and let your system burn in and open up. Reassess where you are at and where you want to go next.

Due to reasons I won’t go into depth on right now (mainly power issues), I am temporarily using a relatively cheap, high power, class D amp. I wasn’t thrilled with this setup and wasn’t sure if I could even call it’s sound signature high end. Due to a busy schedule, I have not had time to upgrade anything or even pursue simple tweaks. As a result of that, I have witnessed how the amp and my system have burned-in/settled down - whatever you want to call it. The sound was initially on the thin side and had harsh treble. Now the soundstage has become huge and the sound has become very smooth - smoother than I thought class D was capable of - especially from a class D amp that isn’t really something to write home about.

My point is that I realized significant performance increases by doing literally nothing. And now that I am hearing what I believe is the true sound of my system, my next tweak or upgrade will be more effective because I can clearly recognize where the weaknesses are at instead of making judgements while things are still burning in, which is often the case with upgrade-itis.
128x128mkgus
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Laser is an acronym- Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, LASER. There is no "z" in laser.

Speaker placement is important, very important, but getting it down to a fraction of an inch is a wasted effort.
Went through this same crap with this joker name of Ron at work. Miller you are so full of it, etc etc. Party one time he decides to play a practical joke on me, moves one speaker so sure no one will notice. By chance I happened to sit and listen to check volume before playing for this woman wanted something I hadn’t played in a while. Immediately I noticed the balance was off, the image shifted and out of focus. Checked the amp, no not that, must be.... within like 30 seconds I had it figured out and corrected. By ear.

Then as I went to get her wondering what happened thinking maybe someone just bumped it or something I see Ron standing in the door with this shocked look on his face. Instantly I knew. Busted. "This is not amateur hour, Ron."

The good news I guess, like Ron, you have plenty of room to up your game.

Hey @millercarbon - I am shocked you don’t keep your phono stage and all amps on at all times. What are your reasons?
Tubes. Makes it a tradeoff. Also I play records. Even with everything on and running - including the platter spinning - still the cartridge warms up. Yes I have tried and heard it all. It is a tradeoff, to be sure.

Every once in a while I will leave everything on for an extended period. Chuxpona, when a room full of audiophiles sat spellbound for a solid two hours, that was one of those times. I got so many tricks up my sleeve....


rc22
133 posts
 
I read through Galen’s articles a few years ago.  My speakers were not plumb just sitting on the floor.  Something I read emphasized the value in correcting that in order to dial in set up.  Probably those articles.
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,011 posts
 
The easiest embeddings controls to do is mechanical control of vibrations for the speakers and gear...

The electrical decrease of electrical noise floor can be accomplished in many ways, all complementary...

The acoustic passive treatment with materials of different kind is mandatory for all small room, and if like me you own an audio room, active mechanical control of the relation between the speakers specificities and the room itself is the more powerful embedding control ever...It gives to you the power to change imaging, soundstage,listener envelopment, relative source width, and the dynamical timbre 3-d perception envelope body...

I refuse to call "tweak" some so important cardinal factors to create Hi-FI which are on par with the choice of gear itself nevermind their cost...

We could call "tweak" some artefact among others to reach the final goal yes... But always speaking of "tweak" instead of embedding controls is reinforcing the false idea that methods to create embeddings control are secondary.... They are not ..... The device could be secondary, the method are not....
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sokogear
1,095 posts
 
Hey @millercarbon - that's part of the reason I like SS - always on. My phono stage has no on off switch and my amp now comes with the on/off switch in the back so you just leave it on.

I'll often just play one record or even one side, so having it warmed up (of course it sounds better when it is really cranking for a little while) is a definite positive without worrying about burning up tubes and heating the house in the summer.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Right. I've had that too. Just one problem. SS left on 24/7/365 still doesn't sound as good as tubes on 20 minutes.  

You just made me think of something. What if you took a ear bud apart to expose the driver. Put a tiny little dab of Blue-Tack on it. Stick a bit of sorbothane on the Blue-Tack. Mount it on a little pedestal with the driver pointing up. Connect it to your iPod. Set the stylus down on it. Now you can warm up the cart and phono stage without any stylus wear. 
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