Cheap tweaks...What would YOU reccomend?

theaudiotweak, I had never thought of that, but it seems to make sense. I hope my back doesn't go out changing my records though.

My Polk LSi15 speakers are in a carpeted listening room (spikes attached). I have placed a 17.5" X 17.5" inverted ceramic floor tile under each speaker; I paid less than $5 for both tiles, tax included. The impact this tweak has had upon my rig is nothing short of astounding. I attribute this to the rock-solid stability the tiles have provided. Extremely cheap tweak -- give it a try if your speakers are in a carpeted room.

Check out the Shun Mook website that gives a few idea - ie stacking magazines in a corner behind speakers is a great bass trap.

Also try your hand at making some cables - the tnt audio website has a great step by step plan and diagram.

Lohan

understand what each componant is doing and trying to achieve.

- Sources turn Mains power into music - therefore noise free power means noise free music.
- Arcing produces RF noise - dirty contacts & switches make noise (use 'switchless' power points if possible. And clean plugs (interconnects etc) and trim bare wire 6 monthly.
- Household appliances often have motors/compressors in them and will squirt heaps of RF noise into the circuit and cause the voltage to drop. A seperate AC circuit with a higher gauge wiring and circuit breaker will help tremendously.
- The anal retentive can even determine which phase the neihbourhood is using and tap into a different one!
- Amps can transiently draw large currents, power conditioning can filter noise & fill in voltage drops. (A well made computer UPS can do these things / cheap too)

- ALL electronic componants are microphonic. That means vibrations will alter the signals they carry, ESPECIALLY in the presence of a magnetic field. Therefore items that isolate and damp resonances work miracles. Heavy shelves have a lower resonant frequency, that equipment is less sensitive too and is easily filtered by cones etc... These vibrations can come through the floor OR the air. Resonances in equipment also need attention.

- Magnetic fields come with electric currents, and exert a 'dielectric effect' back to the electric current. Hence cable 'dressing'/ or keeping weak signal cables away from larger current carrying cables or metal or carpet helps alot (air is the very best dielectric / thats why sitting speaker cable on styrofoam cups seems to work).
- Distance between componants helps too.

- Speakers are trying to accelerate & decelerate their cones at crazy speeds. As the speaker pushes the cone, the cone pushes back, therefore making the speaker as rigid as possible whilst isolating from floor borne vibration works miracles to even modest speakers. Tweaking screws couples the driver 'rigidly' to the cabinet. Spikes allow vibrations to travel easily through the point, but not back up. Wood is pretty soft, so standing a speakers spikes onto coins or a spiked stand (for floor standers a spiked granite slab is excellent)- standing a speaker on something soft would allow the cabinent to move and even store energy - a very bad thing.

- Acoustic relections that arrive in less than 11 miliseconds are 'evil', so damping first order reflections should be a priority. Hard parallel surfaces are bad as they encourage 'slap echo' and standing waves, break them up with hanging rugs or other treatments.

All these things can be done very cheaply and will elevate a modest system to greatness and allow great systems to perform on a par with their prices! ignore these things and great gear can sound worse than cheap gear thoughtfully set up! (I managed to inflict a nasty case of 'upgarde-itis' on someone with a $40k system vs my (then) $4k system!)
Some tweakery is 'theoretical' &/or 'smoke & mirrors' but your ears will tell you whether they are BS or real steps towards accuracy.

Clean up your power supply.
I discovered this last, but it should have been first. Get an electrician to run a dedicated cable from your switchboard to your power outlet for your analogue components (amp, power amp),and another for your digital (CD etc). The induction noise induced by fridges etc is amplified and creates background 'noise'. The changes for me included a bigger soundstage, more bass (even at low volumes), more black (quiet behind the music), and a general ease in the delivery. In terms of bang-for-bucks, this was the biggest improvement over new Transparent interconnects and Purist Audio Proteus speaker cables (the latter gave the best improvement but at a RRP of USD8000, they should).

Power Cords
Definitely work, it's just a question of which one, and how much improvement you get for the $. They often take 100s of hrs to burn-in, so see if you can borrow a few and listen to their effect. I have found the greatest improvement on my amp and pre-amp, rather than CD.

Power Conditioners
You can spend heaps on these, and whilst the good are exceptional, the others are VERY ordinary. (If you can't here the difference it is not for you, regardless of the hype.)
Bang-for-bucks: If you have access to a computer UPS uninteruptible power supply, give that a try to clean up the noise. The best are those which convert your power to DC and then back to AC. If you are drawing heaps of power, you will need one of suitable size, but I would recommend one of 1000kVA or better for amps or pre-amps. The small ones do a great job on CD players.

PS Rememeber it is about listening to your music, not your system.
Cheers