Nothing fancy. Just experimenting with home made tweaks before I make a purchase of tweaks. The results of cable separation added more transparency, spacing, air and staging. Power cables, interconnect cables as well as speaker cables are off carpet and not touching one another.
Here you can see the home made lifters on the speaker cables.
The boards are all from Dawns depot. I took a look at the maple boards offered by MapleShade as well as Timbernation which were absolutely over priced and said no thanks. I stained and glossed each board. They add dampening as well as a more natural sound to each component. The home made blocks under each component is to also help reduce internal vibrations/smearing of sound which leads a better definition and imaging of sound stage as well as more air and a more natural bottom.
The added weight on top of amp and preamp helps any vibration of components.
One of the best tweaks was the purchase of the Furman. I thought long and hard about this. I thought about Balance Power Technology, Shunyata Venom PS8 and a host of others. But the more I researched the Furman the more it was for me. Most of the others are really high classed fancy power distributors in this price range and really don't condition the dirty power or protect unless you pay much more. I live right on the edge of tornado alley so I need protection. And if we have appliances in the home as well as other factors, we need conditioning done to the power. And the Furman doesn't take away from the sound at all. One thing I like about it, it actually seems to store up power for amps when they need the extra juice for strong passage swings in the music. I heard an immediate difference in the way the system performs. I was really surprised at what the Furman was able to do.
This tweak was a freebie! This is the black discus tweak that really works! Added to everything the system does good. Trust me...you may need to get your free pair.
There are a lot of guys changing in gear left and right just because they aren't satisfied with the performance/sound of their system. I think one should really tweak their systems....they will be surprised at the perfomance thats locked up in their amps, just waiting to be released. I've NOS Valvo tubes as well as NOS miniture and rugged military tubes in the amp. I've NOS Tungsram as well as some rare NOS tubes I was asked not to mention the name because they are almost dried up, in the preamp. I did purchase a cheap Hubbel electrical outlet to see if it would add anything to the system and yes it did. So another more expensive audiophile outlet is on order. I will replace all the cable lifter with some more expensive ones which should be even better than the ones I made.
My system is sounding absolutely fabulous....nice transparent sound....not a syrupy tube sound like a Conrad Johnson and not a SS sound like some of the newer tubes amps out there. Once you hear it you know there are tubes. Excellent staging and depth! I can sit and listen for hours. Having a dedicated room helps to keep out ambient noise...I can hear every little detail.
I've still have a few more upgrades to go, but I'm in no hurry as its really sounding great. All caps in amp and preamp are Rubycon. Not the worst but still not the best. Black Gate was manufactured by Rubycon before they stopped production. The stock hasn't dried up as of yet. But I think I may shoot for something like Elna caps which I've heard so much about. I have a tech here in St. Louis which knows more about caps than I. He will have suggestions for me.
TT and phono amp will be upgraded. Phono cable will be upgraded..the electrical outlet will be upgraded And the speaker stands will be upgraded with a nice pair of Sound Anchors. And the lifters under the gear will be upgraded with Mini Still Points.All in due time.... But for now...I'm in audio bliss.
5 years have passed, and I am interested in an update! I have stumbled upon so many of these tweaks I had to doubleread this post ot make sure it wasn't my own. Very surreal.
I had some static electricity issues when I first got into hifi, where I would walk across carpet in a cold dry basement and touch my amp (Sansui au-717) to adjust the volume and it would absolutely scream static at me! It made me whince like I got kicked in the balls, but my equipment was fine every time. Just took a power down and power back on to work again. I then went on a quest to eliminate this problem. I knew it was static, and I knew cold and dry was the cause of bad static. As a renter in the basement I didnt really get to crank the heat, and cold air was leaking in, bringing dryness from the -20 degree air outside. My "solution" was to destatic the lines by "insulating" the speaker cables off the carpet with vintage glass insulators! lol. But it seemed to work! Sure, my receiver would still scream like an electronic demon from time to time, but the SQ was so much better, and I attributed it to less static electricity in my system degrading my signals. I think my science was a bit off on that one, but I still keep all of my cables off the ground with glass insulators from powerlines. Nowadays I think that I am reducing vibrations, and allowing all the electrical fields to extend equally in all directions by being 3-4 inches off the ground. I also lay insulators on their side when I need to cross cables, that way one is running an inch or two above the other when they cross, and I cross them at 45 degree angles. I would be interested to see your "cable separation" tweak, as I didn;t get to see the pictures and they are not longer available.
I have had some success with isolation and coupling in my system as well. I have Vandersteen 3a Signature speakers (93lbs) on soundanchors stands, which spike through my carpet and couple to the concrete pad below to dissipate energy. I can't say this is the ultimate voodoo for sure as it is all I know with these speakers, but I believe it to be good in principle.
I too also had/have a Furman Elite 15i. Its pretty entry level and gave me lots of details. It did sound a bit "thin". I was thinking of going to an Elite 15 PFI, but ended up getting very good deal on an older Transparent Audio Reference Power Isolator, which gave me the details I wanted without any compromise compared to what I had before, really cleared everything up without any steps backwards.
I am relatively young compared to a lot of Hifi people, clocking in early 30's. One of the best decisions I made (I think) was to Keep It Simple. For me that meant skipping the chain including Record, Record Condition, phono cartridge, Record player, record player stand, record player stand isolation and instead replacing all those complicated mechanical devices with a Chord Qutest DAC. In this sense, Im far ahead of most of you
This entire thread seems to be mostly talking about Isolating TT's..... So why not just ditch em? Jk, I know there is nothing more sacreligious to most of the people in this thread.
Even so, I have had great success, and am still experimenting with isolating my Amplifiers (Sansui Au-607dr, Sansui Au-607NRAii, Sansui Au-X901). As a proof of concept I have some vintage ball bearing isolators, and some modern Isoacoustic Orea pods. I have tried them a number of ways in the last month, but currently have a 3/4inch granite slab on my carpet, the Isoacoustic pods on top of that, a metal serving platter on top of the pods, and the ball bearing isolators between the serving platter and amplifier. I know, pretty ghetto to use a wafer thin serving platter, but its all I had
Thinking of going to a 1/2 inch maple slab, but need to consider that the 3 Isoacoustic pods hold 8kg each, and my amps are 18-19kg each, leaving 5kg for the wood. Could spend another $60 for a 4th pod and have 13kg for a wood slab. Would only need to be about 15x15 inches.
Thoughts Slippers? I notice you recommend some weight on top of the Amp. Would you recommend a lightweight alternative between the isopods and ball bearing product so I can put some weight bearing down on my amp?
Im also interested in hearing about your Black Discus tweak. The pics are now gone, so I have no idea what it was.
Merry Christmas