Fun Little Project for improving Dynamics

03-05-11: Mark3d
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance — that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spence

"There is a principle which is a bar against death, which cannot fail to keep a man alive longer — that principle is not jumping off the roof while flapping one's arms to make sure it doesn't work." Sebrof

OK,(crystal tweaks) I tried this very carefully over a 6 month period...I was really curious as to the effect (if there is any) on a dedicated audio system..My system had reached a pretty good level of resolution...but the nagging thought "is there more"?....Well, I won't bother listing the various dozens of applications and methods I used other then to say that..I kept careful records of this mystical journey and tried to be as objective as possible...I will say the preparation of the crystals was the previously shared soak in sea salt..then the isopropal alcohol,the rinse and soak in distilled water, the sun drying..and finally the suspending in mineral oil and spooning the prepared material into smallish polyethylene bags. I used my food saver(without vacuum) to heat seal the bags..I will cut to the chase and report my findings..The final tweak was the most clear evidence of an actual effect...I had used a combination of small rough crushed,small tumbled and mid sized tumbled amethyst in each bag...I taped a series of bags tightly around the circumference of my speaker cables close the speaker end.. The effect was decisive and conclusive... I now had to, or was able to set my attenuator 2 clicks higher to produce the same volume as prior to the tweak..In fact I could set it up to 3 clicks up without any discomfort or distortion.I checked this with an SPL meter. Now I had to determine if the change was for the better or to the detriment of my system...Was the amethyst suppressing the signal forcing that the attenuation be set higher or did the amethyst lower the noise floor to the point of Allowing higher settings with the benefit of greater saturation?. My conclusion is It's better...I am able to drive my speakers much louder than before without distortion and with much more inner detail air, ambient retrieval..and to my glory great specificity of performers on the stage...I'm hearing for the first time an aliveness and nuances on LP's and CD's that I've played 100's of times..."So there is something to it"....The only perceptible downside so far is that the system doesn't sound as good to me at lower volume levels..(particularly in depth of the stage)..This may improve with time..or it could be an unbeatable trade off?

Tweakyman, You've got to try a "baggy" on the IEC of a power cord thats where you will notice the most improvement.

I wrap aluminum foil around my PC at the IEC end. There is definately an improvement. The aluminum shields the IEC end of the cord.

Thanks Ozzy...I will try this and appreciate your suggestion..I'm hoping something will improve that (stage depth loss) That I mentioned..I don't always feel like driving my system at higher volume levels...Earlier in this journey I placed the baggies at the male 3 prong plug (wall) end,There was no noticeable effect to my ears so I removed them..