Tweaks, money pit or real value?

Absolutely my own experience and the same results here after my listening room experiments...

Thanks steakster...

- Optimal vs Nominal

Even though an audio system might be expensive, that doesn’t mean it is optimized. A well-set up system should readily demonstrate if a tweak is a step up, a step down or a lateral move. Most systems are nominal due to any number of factors. As long as the music is enjoyed, then all is copacetic.

- When you hear a truly optimized system, it’s an a-ha moment. It doesn’t sound excellent. It seduces you.

- Years ago, I lived near a professional audio reviewer. His room was phenomenal. One time over a weekend, we deconstructed his entire system - every tweak was removed. There were a lot. With all gone, the music became - just okay. It sounded like a very nice hifi. After dusting and cleaning, we rebuilt it. It was a lot of work, But, the magic returned. The music was mesmerizing. The effect was cumulative due to the aggregation of the tweaks.

- If somebody can’t hear the difference between two different designs of power cords, then that is an indicator that something is amiss.

Nearly all money pits.  Not necessarily in principle.  It's just that suppliers mostly rip over gullible customers off.  $2500 for a mains cable, $250 for a fuse etc etc.

I can buy a nice amp, or a turntable or.... for $2500.  Or do a meaningful upgrade of an active component.  Apart possibly from room tuning, no passive upgrade will ever effect the change an active upgrade can.

There is only so much all these tweaks can do. Yes, there will be some perceptable improvement with some of them, others not so much. It is my opinion that you should just concentrate on the basics. Maybe the basics are more set up than so called tweaks. Anyhow, first (1) be sure to set up your speakers properly, ie stand mounts on solid stands well anchored to floor, ie spikes. Stands filled with Atabites or shot. Proper toe in and listening position, and of course treat the room accordingly, whether using furnishings or acoustic panels. Second (2), properly isolate all source components, ie turntable on a wall shelf away from speakers. Third (3), proper alignment of your phono cartridge, azimuth, VTA, VTF, level, etc...fourth (4), proper synergy when using cables. Strive for neutrality in cables and not those that add or subtract. Yes, not always easy, trial and error sometimes, but reading lots of reviews of the cable can help narrow down the ones that may work well. Fifth (5), clean power by use of quality power conditioners and power cables. These should connect preferably to a dedicated circuit. Also the use of a audiophile grade receptacle that will tightly grip the power cord prongs. Sixth (6), and probably a often overlooked point, listen to quality recorded material. You would be amazed how some pressings of an Lp for instance can sound drastically different from another.

Some of the tweaks that I personally think are bs are raising cables off floor. All that needs to be done is to properly route them. Signal cables should be separated from power cables or at least cross at 90 degrees etc...also, the springs under speaker thing...my belief is a speaker should not move, period. Some say the speaker is moving all the time due to seismic movement of the earth...well maybe in California, not where I live. I Could go on and on.....

@steakster

+1. No question the tweaks take a good sounding system and improve performance, typically that level can be magical. I have never heard a magical system that was not tweaked to get the most out of the basic components… ever $1M one’s. Although to be fair, I have never heard an untweaked million dollar system… who would do that?