The next best Tweak ???


There have been several postings at AA about a new tweak from the mind of a gent named unclestu that I would like to share with Audiogon members.

I really don’t know why it works or how it works.
This tweak will cost you about $10 bucks but hold on to your hats...

unclestu discovered that the Ground Control (that was designed by Bud Purvine and sold by AudioPrism)design could be improved on.

You will need to make two sets for your speakers.

What unclestu came up with is to take a 6V Lantern Battery, add a 1000uf Electrolytic capacitor across the top springs (+ to + and - to -) connect a wire to the negative side of the battery and then attach the other wire end to the negative post on your speaker.

I have also made a couple that I plug in to my Preamp and Amp. Those were made with RCA’s ground on the wire end and I used 9V batteries utilizing 9V battery clips.

I've got to say, big improvement across the board, Soundstage, bass, mids, treble. But the most dramatic change is in the dynamics.
128x128ozzy
The tweak is using only the negative side of the battery because of the electron flow.
But, I really dont know if it matters because all I have used is the polarized caps.
Thanks Ozzy for your help. I have implemented this on my system. I have the 6 volt system on my Legacy Helix speakers and had to make a special rig since the speaker is quad amped. It took a while to figure how to do all thee speaker terminals for each speaker but I got the job done. I also made the rig with the nine volt batteries one for my Perfect Wave DAC and one for Ref 3. The tweaks make a subtle but worthwhile improvement. I believe it lowers the noise floor which lets little subtle details escape from the background. Voices seem silkier and more natural.
Soundstage seems to be wider and deeper. It is funny that one can hear the system improve as the caps charge up. I'll bet there is a break in period as well.
For those who have made the devices for the speaker terminals on your amps, did you use 6 volt or 9 volt? Does one find the same improvements? I wonder is this tweak could be implemented on my server and power conditioners as well? Any ideas?
For the small amount of change and investment in time this tweak pays off handsomely.
A friend with a very high Rez system did the tweak for his speakers with great results similar to what we've found, but it did not work well with his Gryphon preamp or Theta Gen 5 DAC. The tweak shut down the soundstage and the system sounded constricted. So this tweak may not be for everyone.
Again thanks for all the ideas and descriptions of this tweaks virtues.
SGR
Sgr - Thanks for your post. Appreciated your comments about sonic improvements on what looks to be a very impressive system.

A question for you and Ozzy - My speakers are bi-wired. I'm thinking to use a short jumper between the negative terminals of a given speaker and attach the lead from the neg. pole of the battery to the middle of that jumper. Seem like an OK approach?

Thanks in advance.
Ghosthouse, I think it would be ok. You can always make two units for each biwire connection.

I am using a 10k 50V Cap on my speakers and I think the 6V lantern battery works the best on my speakers.

I just added another set (of 10K 50V Cap attached to a 6V Lantern Battery) to the negative side of my speaker spades via alligator clips at the Amp end. Adds even more snap with the units attached to both ends of the speaker cable.

I also have been trying this tweak on my HD Cables boxes. To these boxes it seems the higher the voltage the better. Right now I am using a 14 V battery to a 10K 16V Cap via RCA's.
Sgr, I have noticed that the tweak works best on the speaker cable. The RCA hook ups are more hit and miss. Meaning on some components the soundstage improves ,and other equipment it doesn't.