has anyone else tried Lloyd Walkers latest tweak

One effect of putting a crystal, or anything with mass, on a tonearm or cartridge is to alter the... mass. This can always be expected to have an effect of some kind. So, on that basis alone, no wonder it is common to hear a "difference". Has anyone done the following control?: Take a pebble or something of equal mass and affix it where you have previously heard a difference with the crystal. Then play a record and listen. On other grounds, I have come to think that most low compliance LOMCs can benefit sonically from an increase in tonearm effective mass, compared to the effective mass of the typical modern high-end tonearm, most of which are medium mass, at best. Just a thought.

Rauliruegas
the transformation I heard was a profound increase in soundstaging, definition, bass [deeper and more articulate] and detail resolution all of which [I would say] is because of an improvement in the extraction of what is in the grooves. It seems at least two others have heard similar results.

Dear Perditty: Well you hear exactly what Walker stes in its site product information.

I'm not questioning what you think you hear but only asking if those improvements put us nearer to the recording or live event.You say: better and deeper bass definition. This is a serious and not easy improvement to achieve.

I think it can't go deeper, reading the Walker site he say that """ reduce static electrical noise at your cartridge and record while it is playing. """.

Reducing the static noise helps to have better definition: cleaning the overall grooves information the cartridge read it. That makes sense to me because the friction between the stylus/grooves develop that kind of static noise along the " room enviroment ". When we use the Discwasher static gun ( remember? ) to reduce static in the LP we can hear a difference.

Now, the subject here is that Walker does not explain yet : how it works to achive that static noise reduction and maybe this is why we could think that the tweak item is just another " snake oil ".

Other side is to know if the item function in the same way with any cartridge, I think that if there is a scientific foundation down there it must works with any cartridge. I don't know if is in that way and if not: why not?

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Rauliruegas, the only way to A/B the clock is to remove it entirely from the house or apartment, say on the back steps. Then listen to a favorite track to get an idea what the sound is like. Then bring the clock back into the room and listen again. Putting the clock in another room will not be sufficient to differentiate the sound.

Cheers, Geoff at Machina Dynamica

Dear Perditty: /Lewm: I don't know wich is the weight of those cristals but for a significant change in the cartridge/tonearm resonance frequency we need over 5-6 grs., cartridge compliance has much influence on that.

Now, we have to speculate because Walker say almost nothing about.

Other side could be that attaching the cristal to the cartridge body or to the headshell can function as a some kind of " damper " changing the frequencies where the cartridge body vibrate/resonate or the headshell.

The only way to know if really function is first hand experience, there is no other way but 400.00 for make that test is not in my " book ". Maybe in the near future I could find the opportunity to hear it in a friend's system.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.