Topic: Free Audio Upgrades

[pfife]

greetings.  I was perusing the Winter 06 Mapleshade mag/catalogue, and they have a number of free audio tweaks.   I was particularly interested by the one about almost all speakers on stands being too high... so I began sitting on the floor, and its a night and day difference (for the worse... but easily remedied with a better source than analog out of a computer....  ) - I'm hearing much more detail than I ever did by sitting on the floor.   Thought you guys would be interested in this one, as well as the others.

Quoted here, but there are more hyperlinks if you go to the real version of the story at the provided link.

Cheers!
Pfife

http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/freeaudiotips.php

How To Do Listening Tests:

Pick two or three one minute selections—longer will overload your audio memory. Make sure they encompass the instrument timbres and dynamics that mean the most to you. Always listen to exactly the same selections in the same order, before and after each tweak or change. After 25 or so of these tests, you'll be surprised at how precisely you resolve small sound differences.

Free Audio Upgrades:

• Almost everybody sits way too far from their speakers, that is, 8' to 10' or more. Try a low chair (or floor pillow) 5' away. You'll hear a phenomenal increase in clarity, bass impact and soundstage—roughly like spending 100% more on your speakers.

• Nearly everybody sits too high. The "tweeters at ear level"rule sounds logical but fails when tested. For a test, sit on one or two phone books: you'll hear an amazing new warmth and fullness in baritone voice, trombones, tenor sax, plucked bass—and a far more natural treble balance.

• For much improved bass and huge soundstage, put your listening chair or sofa right against the wall behind you. Move your speakers in to 5' in front of you and 7' or more apart. No room treatments will yield this much bass improvement.

• Lift all speaker, power and interconnect wires 8" off any non-wool carpet or plastic tile. Use string, wood, cardboard or 20 ounce Styrofoam cups for temporary props. You'll think you've pulled horse blankets off your speakers. For a more civilized-looking solution, see here.

• Remove your speaker's cloth or foam grill. Snip off any plastic phase ring in front of the tweeter. You'll hear as much as a 100% improvement in treble.

• Almost all small speakers are on stands that are way too high (24" and up)—and, all too often, too flimsy. Want to hear how much bass and warmth your speakers are losing? Try 'em on the floor, tilted back with a wood or metal block under the front. If you're on carpet, lay down a heavy plank or cutting board first. See here for even better sounding solutions.

• Speakers on stands or shelves MUST use feet, but never soft ones: no rubber/plastic feet, Blu-Tack, Sorbathane, etc. For firmer bass plus clearer mids and treble, try speakers on three hardware store wood plugs or buttons. See here to get 2-3 times the effect.

• Ditto for all CD players, amps, power supplies, etc. If the wood buttons aren't high enough, try three wood blocks (3/4" or so), to raise components off their rubber/plastic feet. You'll hear an instant bass-to-treble upgrade. Of course, stacking components is the worst of all worlds: you're failing to drain vibrations and forcing the components to share vibes.

• NEVER use speaker cables shorter than 8'. Amazingly, 4' sounds much worse than 8'. Contrary to common belief, shorter interconnects (2 m or less) and longer speaker cables sound WAY BETTER than the opposite—based on extensive head-to-head tests.

•For seamless subwoofer sound, use only the speaker cable input, not the RCA input. In addition, connect the two main speakers directly to the main amp output, not to the subwoofer's output. Always fire the subwoofer driver left or right, not at you or down into the floor. Set the crossover at the lowest possible frequency that doesn't leave a bass gap. You'll be amazed at the overall transparency you gain.

• Contrary to manufacturer hype, subwoofer placement is crucial. To get clean bass attacks, subwoofers must be precisely (±1") the same distance from your ear as the midrange driver. Corner placement always leads to boom. Also, subwoofers sound much cleaner on cones than on spikes or rubber feet.

• If you have bi-wirable speakers with brass jumper plates, replace the terrible-sounding plates with bare, unstranded copper wire. For a jumper that's much better yet, see here. If you bi-wire, separate the treble and bass cables by 1' or more; bundling wires will ruin most of the bi-wire advantage. Bi-wiring is worth doing only for cables with limited bass and treble.

• For any separate power supply: listen, then turn it 90 degrees, turn another 90 degrees, etc. One of the four positions will sound way better (due to non-uniform transformer leakage). In addition, separate power supplies are even more vibration-sensitive than the components; see here for the solution.

• You can't believe the extra harshness and grunge you hear due to home appliances "poisoning" the AC power with electrical noise. To really sweeten your sound, try turning off every fluorescent and halogen light in the house, as well as air conditioning, oil burner, electric stove, dimmer and CD boombox; unplug every surge protector, digital TV, computer and U.P.S. (because they all have "sleep" modes). No power conditioner and AC filter stops this "poisoning".

• Weight on top of speakers, amps, CD players, transformers, turntables, and power supplies can tighten bass, clean up treble and clarify midrange detail.

• Too much weight, wrong placement, or wrong materials seriously degrade potential improvements. Don't use lead, sand, concrete, brick, stone, corian or damped laminates. Of course, brass is still best; next iron, then wood.

• The right way to add weight is one (or 1/2) pound at a time. Listen, then add one more. Eventually, one more will deaden everything. Remove the last weight, then move the weights around to find the sweet spots.

• Weights are much more effective if you've replaced rubber feet (or no feet) with wood or brass footers.

• To audibly improve any cheap interconnect, use a razor to carefully peel the thin plastic insulation off the braided metal you'll find underneath. Split 2-channel interconnects and separate the two by several inches. Cut heat shrink and plastic strain reliefs off the back of RCA plugs and remove their metal barrels (if possible). Amoung generic wires, choose the skinniest for best sound.

• For speaker, AC and wall wart power cables always split two-conductor wires and separate by at least 6". Don't forget to keep all wires off artificial fiber rugs and de-static them regularly.

•Never bundle wires, no matter whether AC, speaker or IC. If you must run wires parallel for more than a foot, separate them by 6" or more. Wires that cross at at 45 degrees or more can touch without any sonic degradation.

[BobW]

Some ideas are decent, some just plain insane, but at that price, why not try and see what you like?
Mapleshade sells some things which I view as "over the top", such as cable lifters and thick wooden blocks to place gear on.

But, as always, if it sounds better to you, that is what counts.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

Have any of you guys tried cable lifters and had an audible result?

[poorlyconditioned]

26. Smoke.

Probably the only one that really works .

  Richard

[pfife]

26. Smoke.

Probably the only one that really works .

  Richard

[Gutbucket]

The audiofile tweako bent turns me off, but I must admit, Mapleshade makes some outstanding recordings.

...I was particularly interested by the one about almost all speakers on stands being too high... so I began sitting on the floor, and its a night and day difference (for the worse... but easily remedied with a better source than analog out of a computer....  ) - I'm hearing much more detail than I ever did by sitting on the floor... 

To take this to an extreme, I took some speakers outside and placed them on the ground around the edge of the swimming pool (it's Florida).  The sound across the pool was very clear and clean without walls around and the low end was pretty strong with them at ground level, but when i got in the pool and submersed at the sweet spot until my ears were just at the water boundry (eardrums at 'floor level') the sound was amazing.  I never heard those speakers sound so good before.  Perhaps due to the +6db boundry layer effect in action?

[Daryan]

Some ideas are decent, some just plain insane, but at that price, why not try and see what you like?
Mapleshade sells some things which I view as "over the top", such as cable lifters and thick wooden blocks to place gear on.

But, as always, if it sounds better to you, that is what counts.

I can't resist...   Go to the store or online and buy footers for your washing machine.  They will look very similar to the "blocks."  The cable lifters supposedly eliminate static buildup getting into cables from the carpet on your floor.  I haven't tried them, but the arguement seems to make sense to my non EE self.