What’s Your Best ‘Tweak’?

@Dan5 @frenchrooster
Fat chance :laughing:

“…yeahhhhhh…”

Imagine hearing that in a darkened room :scream_cat:

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Thanks Simon,
I finally got around to dressing my cables

I’d put it off because I knew it was going to be an absolute PITA.
My Custom Design (Tokyo iirc) is in an alcove, access to the back of the system is very awkward.

Spent a couple of hours on my knees, and on my back, unplugging, dressing and reconnecting.
TT interconnects are dressed neatly.
I managed to isolate brain from brawn.
Burndy is now hanging free space.

Wow…what an unbelievable difference.
Every apect of SQ has improved, some more dramatically than others.
There’s no hum when I use RP8 as source and have the Stax energiser switched on.
Tidal quality means I can actually listen to it actively now
Upgraditus is under control for the moment at least

I’ve been been listening for over a week now… I’m not to have a bit of experimentation with speaker positioning this weekend.

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I picked up a s/h Powerline for the SU and it’s turning out to be a pretty good tweak at s/h prices. Another layer of music revealed with warmer bass more detail.

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Ok, this has been said before, but I’ve just done a full cable unplug/plugin and gave my speaker cable plugs a really good clean (including inside the speaker terminals, which had never been done).

I also did the best cable dressing I could do given the restricted space I have.

So these things have, without doubt, made my system sound a whole lot better, but I also did one other thing that I am sure has had an effect. Since I did them all at the same time though, I cannot say which one had the greatest effect.

That last thing was to move a wine cooler fridge, that was sitting on the other side of a stud partition wall from the system rack, away from the immediate area. It is still plugged into the same mains ring, but I am convinced it was having a major effect on the sound when it was so close to the system. Everything is better, noticeably, since it’s been moved. I’m just not sure the cable attention alone has made this much difference.

I may be wrong, but it may just be worth checking what’s behind your system’s closest walls.

Just saying…

Has anybody tried powering down the fridge while listening ? I should try.

My winning trio would be:

  • Listening position (crucial!)
  • Speakers position (a few inches can make difference)
  • Finally room treatment
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FR, I actually didn’t think of that because I had already moved it before I heard the difference and because of other things, I’m not really able to move it back. I guess I didn’t think it was affecting things until after I moved it.
It may have made no difference and the improvement is all down to the cable cleaning/dressing.
Either way, I’m much happier now.
I like your thinking though. Thanks.

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@Vlanibet how was the Shunyata compared to the Powerline??

I was not completely serious, however some say that the fridge is the most nasty component in a house.
As for cleaning and unplugging, I agree 100% with you. Great effect.

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sad to say frenchroster often I turn the fridge off for serious listening sessions.

more than once have I gone to get the milk at breakfast and realise I had forgotten to turn it back on afterwards…

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NDX2 - Set ‘auto standby’ to ‘never’ in the app.

G

I do it all the time for serious listening sessions. I just turn the thermostat to zero. I wouldn’t swear there’s an audible difference in terms of mains pollution, but there’s no door between our living room and kitchen, and the sound of the compressor kicking in is a killer. The challenge is remembering to turn it back on afterwards. Before I settle down to listen, I usually move some object from its usual location to jog my memory afterwards.

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If you have mains pollution I recommend looking into a DC Blocker (I use Supra). It removed DC on the AC grid which is a normal problem started by machines, compressors, LED lights, dimmers etc. It helped me out a lot. My rig is now dead silent.

Several tweaks altogether.

  • Inert filler inside speaker stands
  • Isotek Initium power cable replacing the generic one, which came with Uniti Atom.
  • Pro-Ject Damp-It’s under every equipment prone to cause vibrations.

Never had a individual tweak which alone would have turned the world around, but those small ones altogether… Well, buying Uniti Atom was one real game changer, but not really a tweak or particularly cheap :slight_smile:

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Adding Loki tone control…cheaper than room treatment…lol! Not just for Naim, use one on my Sugden too!!

My listening rooms acoustics and my hearing are a bit suspect, so it gets me back to Audio-nirvana.

Took a metal Rod of 40cm and hung two spanners at the end of it and used this to tighten the bassdrivers (quite a LOT!) to the correct torque. One spanner for the tweeters.

The maths checked out nicely, one screw squeeked a bit.

The result? Like a new set of Ariva speakers :slight_smile:

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So that is what the balance control is for…

I once used silicone / rubber pads to prevent speakers from slipping off a shelf, but the pads partially dissolved the finish and permanently marked the speakers…

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Listening at 3am in the morning.

Not only a time when the house goes to sleep, but all the other houses on the street go to sleep.

A time when your own negative self survival systems goes offline.

A time when your own creative positive brain booster goes online.

A time where your perception of time is somewhat skewed from a lack of bolstered up muscle memory.

A time that is, within a hair whisker - of achieving that moment of Eternity.

Gets you to think more practically about what’s listened. You don’t want to upset the neighbours.

Amen.

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Is the correct torque for Arivas in the manual?