Is it possible to have too much/too many filters/tweaks?

Sometimes “less” is “more.”  You hear how tweaks interact, by living with them over time.  When you have listened enough to be familiar with the resulting sound, challenge your ears by removing or repositioning a tweak.  The possibilities are endless.  This exercise can also work when you are getting the itch to spend more money… frequently we can learn to improve the sound, and be content with the pieces we already have.  The problem is that many are inclined to “throw money at a problem;” this may take less time and effort, but there is no assurance of success… is there?

I use Roon DSP to tweak my sound in several rooms with acoustics ranging from not bad to problematic.

Turns out my toughest room is the family room that is open into the kitchen and the rest of the first floor. I’ve tried many gear combos over the years all not fully up to snuff. Currently run Bel Canto c5i to Sonus Faber Concerto Domus. Not bad, but I apply a convolution filter I created for room correction then an additional 5 eq corrections to get things just right. 3 deal with highest and lowest frequency adjustments. Then I like a touch of ‘pierce’ boost 4-6 kHz. Then a speaker adjustment for timing since I do not normally sit dead center. That does it!

So depending on need, assuming a single filter counts as 1 tweak, I do as many as needed. Have yet to not apply any.

Same for headphones. The canned convolution filters for each apply multiple filters in combo as well.

All in Roon DSP if you want to call that a single tweak. 😉

OP:  Most of the tweaks that you mentioned are for cleaning up the AC power.   I'm a firm believer in clean power as being the foundation for good SQ.   

In my experience, too much AC filtration - or a mismatch of different types of filtration - can alter the SQ to be thin and analytical - perhaps even fatiguing.    Sometimes, different types of filtration can work great together.    Auditioning them is the only way to know.   A money-back trial period is a wonderful thing.  

The majority of power conditioners cause more harm than good - or for everything they do good, they do something else bad e.g reduce noise but limit current. stacking power conditioners only makes things worse. In some cases, just tightening the connections in the circuit breaker box and the sockets - with the mains disconnected of course - will make more of an improvement than a power conditioner.

Thanks for the awesome replies! Great great, insightful points all! I enjoyed reading every single one. Especially the ones referencing “spending more money” and “buying stuff”-still LOL on that one @mapman 😂

You know, it’s never ever that I’ve felt there was an issue or something didn’t sound right, it’s the disease of audiophilia, ‘could this gadget actually improve what I’m already hearing/loving’? So that’s what always tempts me. And in the cases of the Puron and the ADD Symphony, that would be an absolute YES!

But like I said originally, it just occurred to me that indeed @sgordon1 “is sometimes less is more in this case”…

Again loved all the responses. Thanks for taking the time to weigh in…