There is a fiberglass brush, sold by Rush eraser in New York, that will polish metals to new bright condition. Using them on the AC (male) plugs on all your power cords, and on tube pins (obviously, only if you have tubes), will immediately improve performance across the board. If this polishing is done with the Rush eraser dipped into ART oil, the connection is enhanced even further. Cleaning with this same ART oil (no brush) on all your RCA or balanced connections is a big help too. Lately have been experimenting with Caig gold in place of the ART, but have not yet come to a conclusion. The Cardis "sweep" LP will do amazing things, if while the stylus is playing in the groove, you run the Aesthetix (Benz) de mag, or the older Audioquest De mag, connected to the RCA jacks of your turntable. A total time of about 30 seconds will de flux the cartridge to perfection. Texas Instruments makes a metal called TI shield, and if a section of it (about as large as your CD player) is placed between the CD, DVD or whatever digital source, and a preamp, amp or other piece of equipment that radiates magnetic fields, there will be an immediate improvement in the digital sound. If the source of magnetic noise is above and below the digital player, you will need a sheet in both locations. This last one is strange but completely true, if you can find a TRUE ground, connect a wire from it to the metal stand that supports your preamp, amp, turntable or digital player. (Probably between the stand and the spike near the floor?) If there are radio waves or other transmitted (RF) signals present, your music will have greater dynamics, more black (lower noise), and reduced brittleness in the high frequencies. I have actually heard radio stations clearly picked up by the shape of equipment stands. Often, the length of the frame and crossbars are the exact dimensions to become a perfect antenna for a signal, some miles away. The ground wire drains this completely, where changing cables, and experimenting with various other grounds in the system did nothing to solve the problem. Often there is a gain, even when the radio station is too weak to be clearly heard through the system. It costs nothing to try the last one, and it can be huge. Best wishes!
Snake oil and tweaks that work!
This is in no way intended to bring out argument but discussion of tweaks people have tried and have found success with. I know there are at least 50% of you out there that think everything in audio is snake oil, and you are initialed to those opinions. Please don't make this your battle field! If you want to start an opposing thread calling us nuts and getting in arguments please do, it might be fun to have both going. I want this one to be an informational for people who want to try things. I for one have tried a lot of the recommendations in Stereophile each month, most don't work for me, but I have found a few things that do work. #1 tweak: Speaker location. Even a 1/16" can make all the difference. I try to play with this about every six months. A dedicated circuit from the panel with 10ga. wire had a very noticeable improvement. Cables and wires matter, some have been good for my system, some real bad. We have plenty of threads covering this so lets no go there. The "Bedini Ultra Clarifier" works amazingly well for me, I know it's crazy but it works! The Cardas caps I got for X-mas really worked, they produced a more quite background, go figure. Black Diamond Racing "the Puck and the Shelf " have been great improvements, all the different cones I've tried change the sound, I haven't found one I would recommend. The Audio Prism Quiteline filters work great, but power conditioners and RFI/EMI ferrets did nothing. The last thing that has helped me is furniture location, I find if I move something only an inch it can help or hurt. I look forward to hearing others experiences.
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- 64 posts total
- 64 posts total