I'm a sad puppy.... or 'whats the best tweak you have done for least money?'

Posted by: andy c on 12 September 2003

OK,
so I lead a dull uninteresting life apart from my stereo... lol
I was sat listening to it today, and then realised I'd not stuck the bottoms of the picture's on the walls to the walls with blu-tac. I read about this whilst in my old house, and it did have a little improvement in treble clarity. I've just done it and its had the same effect!
My ears are playing tricks again me thinks.. or I've finally cracked up!
so, whats the most cost effective tweak you have done?

Posted on: 15 September 2003 by Martin Payne

quote:
Originally posted by Tim Jones:
2. Scrub the contacts on your mains plugs with Brasso. Works a little bit.

Tim,

I have to disagree with this one, too.

It works fine for a short while, but then the pins tarnish very quickly (because you have removed a layer of varnish). Once you have done this, you need to unplug and re-clean everything about once a month. Since my CDS2 isn't really on top form for 7+ days after a power down, this would be a very poor way to run things.

I use rhodium-plated plugs & sockets - no tarnishing.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne at Dial.Pipex.com

Posted on: 16 September 2003 by Sean Woods

Hello Andy

£ 0.16 (16p) that’s 8x 2p coins under the spikes of my speaker stands. I have thick carpet and the bass with certain artists was a bit too much this sorted out the problem.

Sean

Posted on: 16 September 2003 by stevie d

Hi

The 8p upgrade was completed last night. 8X1p under the spikes on my soundstyle XS122's. I blue tacked the pictures down aswell but that was free as my work stationary cupboard had a spare pack.

Cheers
Stevie

Posted on: 16 September 2003 by Tim Jones

The 'putting coins/philips screws/etc under the speakers and stands' doesn't really seem to work in my system in the long term. At first it sounds impressive, but gets very tiring, probably because it makes everything sound too edgy.

Does anyone else remember the "wrap your pre-amp up in a towel" craze?

PS Mike - rhodium sounds like a good idea...

Tim

Posted on: 16 September 2003 by prowla

quote:
Hi, Martin
It works fine for a short while, but then the pins tarnish very quickly (because you have removed a layer of varnish).

Varnish???

Paul Rowlands

Posted on: 17 September 2003 by undertone

The best tweek for the least amount of money..........buy a ticket to the Symphony. Get to know what real instruments sound like in a proper acoustic. When you get home, you will be better armed to know where you want to make changes. Tweeking is a road to nowhere if you have no baseline standard. How can you know where you are going if you dont know where it is? The reason most audiophiles get frustrated is because they spend too much time chasing their tails.