Tweak failure....

hi,
i've been trying various tweaks lately and none of them have improved the sound - changed it, yes, but imho not for the better.

tweak 1 - carbon fibre X's on little brass cones. tried them under my power amp (as recommended) and under my pre. these cause everything to suddenly become 'nice'. things are smoothed over and initially things seem right but then you notice things are missing and it's all downhill from there.

tweak 2 - speaker stand filler - this robbed my speakers of a lot of their bass and 'air' (not that my system is dripping with the latter but what it had was diminished)

tweak 3 - rdc cones under the dac. something undefinable is 'better' or at least nothing is worse so they stay but they could go for 2 pins.

tweak 4 - attenuators between dac and pre. these did what they said on the tin and allowed me to use lots of my volume control however the music always seemed quiet, sort of muffled even at violently loud levels so they are now unused.

tweak 5 - sorbothane feet between speakers and stands. these seem to work ok. giving a bit more life and bounce to the sound. without killing off the air and image. they were also the cheapest tweak.

so 5 tweaks, 3 failures, 1 success and one draw.
if anyone wants any of the above mentioned stuff (carbon fibre doohickeys, attenuators or stand filler) they are welcome to it - pick up only though.
cheers


julian

 

what were the attenuators? I'm due for a bit of attenuation, in fact I've added to my attenuation worries, but that's another story.

 

I am sure you are wrong about the RDCs,they are shit,sell them to me for 2 English pounds

thanks

 

well i'm going to try the cabon jobbies under the dac so if they don;t shaft the sound i'll probably have a reshuffle wit hthe rdc's but at present i just can;t be arsed.
if i no longer use the rdc's at the end of my adventures you're welcome to them - as long as have to go to no effort to give them to you - beyond opening the door and pssibly making you a cuppa.
the attenuators were from e-bay, sold by a very nice bloke in a very professional manner. can't quibble about the construction or quality of materials but they just don;t seem to gel with my system - they plug into the dac's analogue out;s and i think the dac just plain doesn;t like that. ditton, if you want to give them a go you can have them but you'll have to pick them up as i just can;t be arsed posting them.
cheers


julian

 

You forgot to try Mana...

tweak 1 - 1 step.

tweak 2 - 2 steps.

tweak 3 - 3 steps.

tweak 4 - 4 steps.

tweak 5 - 5 steps...

Sky is the limit...

 

bd,
hmmmmm perhaps, perhaps not....
cheers


julian

 

When I've moved then there will be some very major and somewhat unexpected tweakery going on... watch this space.

 

have you tried the attenuator between pre and power?

 

As to the attenuators.....a lot depends on the quality...I've used these,plus a Creek and an Audio Synthesis passive pre at various times in my systems for this purpose...there's no doubt the phono type attenuators are a cheap solution to the problems of either input stage overload,or the volume control being right at the bottom of the range with some sources(notably CD),but there's also no doubt that things like the AS passives are way better,but at a price.

 

the attenuators are rca and naim is din. ideally i'd like a custom single xlr attenuator to do between pre and power but i'm not sure it;s possible. to be honest all i wanted was to be able to use more of the volume control's range but i can live with only using the first 1/4 of it tbh.
cheers

julian

 

Julian,your passing on of the RCds will not only be pain free it will in fact will be pleasurable.

Have you tried phase 7 Lack? I've also heard that going to phase 10 Lack is great but requires some hollowing out of the additional stages,this reduces vibration to less than a flea farting,BD I am sure can measure that,and i'm sure I could hear it.

Here is a picture of Phase 11 Lack

 

no saab, that's a picture of stumo's arse.
cheers


julian

 

I know,it deserves to be posted in as many forums as possible,if only to teach him a lesson

 

having met the guy, i couldn;t agree more.... although he seems to be quieter on the mooning front these days.
cheers


julian

 

shame,all Mana threads should eventually have a bare arse in them,Stumos is the best being incredibly ugly (not that I am an expert in this field!),although to be fair,I think he used unsharp mask set a tad to high