Conference hips::uk_audioo

    Isn't -.1 and the suggestions in the speakers note, and the suggestions
    about twisting the Linn belt all psycological?. If you are actually
    making these changes hen you've already convinced yourself that
    they're *bound to work*. Therefore you perceive the improvements
    you subconsciously anticipate.
    
    aren't you all spending too much time listening to the equipment
    and not to the music, which after all is the reason for it all?.
    I'll agree, cheap kit sounds cheap, but above a certain threshold
    the return on investment drops off dramatically. 
    
    Get what sounds right to you and forget it!. All this sensing deeper
    sound stage, and richer sibilants etc is just keeping the dealers
    in business as you search for microscopic improvements to an already
    good system.
    
    OK in a way <flame off>, but I discovered this trap a long time
    ago. I kept comparing what I had with what others had, kept yearning
    for a better turntable/amp/speakers. But eventually realised I'd
    lost the simple joy of listening to music for MUSICS sake, rather
    than to re-inforce my suspicion that this needed a tweak or that
    needed a tweak.
    
    Anyway, carry on tweaking but ENJOY THE MUSIC too.
    
    Richard.

    re .1....
    
    Well, if you'd read my later notes on the belt-twisting saga you'd
    have seen that I'd found it was tosh and that it was listening to
    music that convinced me. As to the the base note, there are sound
    classical electrical reasons why that should work, not
    psycho-mumbo-jumbo. 
    
    I'd agree with your point about wanting to hear a change being good
    for its own sake, but a *genuine* improvement will last, whereas
    a placebo will fade as soon as you listen to music rather than sound.
    
    As for lining dealers pockets, good system housekeeping - which
    is what the really effective tweaks are - is free.
    
    I agree with your general point, though; the music is the important
    thing. Only those things which give creater access to it are important.
    
    Dave
    
    

>    < Note 58.2 by BAHTAT::SALLITT "Dave @ ICI,0642432193" >
>    			As to the the base note, there are sound
>    classical electrical reasons why that should work, not
>    psycho-mumbo-jumbo. 

    What are they?. I can see the reason for twisting a pair and earthing
    at one end, you prevent intrusion of stray RFI. But why should adding
    an earth improve the audible performance of a system?. 

    Richard.

    re .last..."But why should adding
    an earth improve the audible performance of a system?"
    
    The signal earth in a system is usually commoned to the mains earth
    at one point only, usually at the turntable. The quality of the
    mains earth at this point, with respect to it's ability to hold
    the signal earth steady at anything above around 100Hz is variable,
    and depends on how close it is to the "proper" house earth and the
    quality of any intervening ring connections. Whilst below 100Hz
    minor dislocations in the earth path are trivial, from audio midrange
    upwards the earth path begins to represent a lot of capacitance
    and inductance, which allows it to pick up any radiated garbage,
    from refrigerator clicks'n'pops to rf signals, emitted either
    intentionally, (CB, etc.) or as interference (TV emissions). Running
    a seperate earth wire through will help eliminate this, but the
    longer the wire the more it acts like another aerial, hence the twisted
    pair in the base note.
    
    Inadequate earthing allows this gunge into amplifier circuits via
    the signal ground, where it appears across transistor junctions,
    etc., gets rectified and pollutes the wanted audio signal. Most
    audio *preamp* stages have sufficient bandwidth to allow this to
    happen; bandwidth is usually curtailed in the power amp, but by
    then the damage is done, as it amplifying a polluted signal from
    the preamp.
    
    It is particularly crucial in a phono stage, where the wanted signal
    is very low amplitude. But that doesn't mean that CD-only users
    can dismiss this; chances are that a CD-only system has components
    that are double insulated and therefore do not have a connection
    to mains earth at all, the signal earth being allowed to take up
    whatever gunge is in the environment.
    
    The more populous the area where you live, the bigger the house,
    the older the wiring, the more likely you are to benefit from an
    extra earth. And it costs peanuts to try it.   
    
    Dave

I decided to tweak my mains connections this weekend. I had a whole mess
of wires and cheap multi-plug distribution boxes so I decided to tidy up the
whole lot. In the interests of short cable runs I cut down all mains leads and
soldered them to the plugs. I did the same thing to a decent quality multi-plug
box and soldered that too. The whole thing took less than an hour.

After careful listening I can definitely say that this tweak has made no
difference whatsoever. But - I know why. It's the speaker cables you see, I
didn't solder the banana plugs onto the cables and I'm sure there is now some
kind of soldering wire synergy mismatch. In fact, listening you can hear the
music becoming muddled and confused since the path of the incoming electricity
was smoothed by the solder but when it reaches the speaker cables it sees a
mechanical joint and it gets all rough again. I'm keen to get home and get the
soldering iron warmed up again. I'll let you know the results.

Dave WOOD

After reading .4 I decided to get my trusty soldering iron out again.

I bought a pair of crocodile clips from the local electrical shop and got
an old mains lead and stripped out one of the cables. I then soldered the 
wire to the clips and then connected the earth on my amplifier to one of the 
feet on my Target Audio table.

So far, I haven't noticed any difference whatesoever, but I know what's wrong.

It's the cable you see. It was just an old bit of mains lead and not a proper 
Audioquest cable. I shall certainly be looking around for something better this 
weekend.

Dave WOOD

    So .5 being entered on April 1st was a coincidence then ?
    
    Graham

I was reading up on tweaks last weekend and came across something I found very
unlikely. I suppose you've all heard of the green pens but I hadn't and with
my curiosity up I decided I'd have to give it a try. I'm all for cheap tweaks
like the ones I've already tried, soldering the mains plugs up, earthing
properly, spikes etc. so I thought there was no harm in trying the green pens.

I went out and bought one from the local newsagents, it was the highlighter
type and on returning home I carefully placed a 1cm band round the playing
surface one of my favourite ie. well known CD's. Into the player it went and
down to listening. Was it clearer ? Well it's hard to tell with these things
since the very fact that you're listening harder will probably mean it sounds
more detailed. I tried another disc, this time an AAD one and low and behold
it sounded fabulous. What a difference in clarity, clear as a bell. I tried
more and more noting that the difference was best on either AAD or ADD. Maybe
it's was something to do with analogue ? 

After re-reading the article on how it's supposed to work I decided to try a
variation on the green pen tweak which I recommend you all try. The green is
supposed to stop the laser light straying and cuts down on unwanted
reflections inside the player. This makes the lasers job easier and the error
correction code is used less often leading to a clearer sound. I thought that
this would probably be also the case in the listening space so I decided to
use the pen on my ears to cut down on room reflections. I went to the bathroom
and carefully coloured the front and back of each ear until they were well
covered. Going back into the room I can only say that the effect was stunning.

Dave WOOD

    Dave, you should try sending a photo of yourself, Green ears and all
    into one of the HiFi mags - it's got to be worth a free subscription !
    
    G.

Well, with the very cold recent spell and having to stay in the house a lot I 
decided to try a new tweak on my super system. (see this note string for the 
others).

My system support is the Target type and only the top shelf, for the CD, is 
spiked. The other shelves just sit on the steel and are in no way damped and 
in fact can rock a bit as the shelf is not 100% flat. This is because I've got
wooden shelves and not glass.

So, off to the local DIY emporium I went to try and find some small anti
vibration pads or something that I could sit the shelf on within the support.
Unfortunately, after hunting all over the place for carbon fibre or something
else appropriate I ended up empty handed. I thought about cork or cork inserts
so I went to look at what was available but instead found some of those rubber
washer things that are used to seal the tops of certain beers (Grolsh for
example). 

I bought a big packet and rushed home to install about five of them under each 
corner of my amplifier shelves. Using one of my best known discs I very 
carefully auditioned the new sound.

I can definitely say that this modification has made no difference whatsoever.

But, I know what's wrong. The amplifier somehow knows that it's sitting on some
cheap rubber washers and is now deliberately trying to pick up the vibration
from other sources. I think the only way to get round this is to isolate all the
furniture in the house and I shall be getting stuck into this job as soon as I
go home tonight. Luckily, I have a very large bag of rubber washers. 

Dave
    

    Instead of placing your entier household contents of cheep rubber
    washers, simply invest in some "expensive" rubberwashers (Linn do
    some*) and make sure that your CD player knows about them :-)
    
    Rik
    
    * Although I've no idea if its possible Linn do actually make a rubber
    (or somesuch) washer assembly for the LP-12 it's called the Trampolinn
    (well it would be wouldn;t it). I've no idea if it's adaptable to CD
    players (I'd expect not)...

On the designer's advice, my speakers sit on small stands/plinths, maybe 6"
high, strongly built from MDF. These stands sit on spikes on a concrete
subfloor. 

Again, following the designer's advice, the speakers sit on four tap washers on
the stands. Because I listen almost exclusively to CD's, I had a devil of a job
finding digital washers in place of the conventional analogue washers (how often
have you seen a digital tap?). Plumbers' merchants just did not seem to
understand. And I have _still_ not tracked down a source of supply for digital
sand to fill the plinths.

- Brian

(Actually, the speakers do sit on ordinary tap washers, and the stands should be
sand-filled but are not. We have just had the sitting room extended, and I am
waiting for decorating, etc, to finish before these things finally get set up. I
am looking forward to trying to detect a difference with/without sand filling:-))

(follow on from .-1)

- and I still have scope for tweaking - should the speakers stand on four tap
washers, and be equally supported at the corners, or on three, to guarantee that
they do not rock? And if so, how should the three be arranged to minimise
movement in reaction to bass speaker cone movement?

- Brian

Excellent. Another tweaker.

Well, I can definitely help with the digital sand as I've already put 
considerable thought into the subject. What you should do is to try and find a 
scrap merchant for PC's or any computer or peripheral where you can track down
PCB's. These should then be ground up to be used as the digital sand. Obvious
really, but the best ideas are often the simplest. 

Since the PCB contains silicon chips. ie. sand & digital, you should certainly
find that the sound of the CD player will have a synergy with the sand and 
produce a smoother more happy sound.

Absolutely.
Dave

I decided to carry out another simple tweak this weekend.

My system is supported on an audio rack which is spiked. I've been reading up
in the magazines recently that all supports should be carefully set up so that 
they're absolutely level. This is particulatry important for turntables where
variations can result in mistracking but is also relevant to CD players too.

So off I went to the local DIY shop for a hunt around for a small spirit level.
I found exactly what was required for about $5, a circular spirit level aimed
at levelling cameras.

Back home, I placed it on top of my CD player and found that in fact it was 
considerably skewed. So, out with the lock nut spanner and after 10 minutes 
fiddling I had everything perfectly flat and level.

I loaded up one of my favourite disks for an audition.

After careful listening I can definitely say that this modification has made no 
difference whatsoever.

But, I know what's wrong. It's me you see. I don't think I'm perfectly flat 
and level while I'm seated in my sofa. I'm going to try and rig up an apparatus 
which clamps my head in a set position, flat and level with my ears exactly at 
tweeter height.

I'll let you know the results.
Dave WOOD
    

    Dave,
    
    try a swing arrangement, but suspended from a single point. That
    should make it easier to ensure your'e sitting at the correct angle.
    
    Incidentally, has anyone ever tried this with a turntable or CD player
    ? To me it seems the obvious way to isolate the source from any
    vibration which may be coming through the floor...
    
    G. 

I had the Hi-Fi shop round the house last Friday for 'speaker positioning'. 

Since I've bought quite a lot of stuff from the same shop they've been
suggesting this for ages. I was sceptical since I'd carefully read the owners
manual and have followed the positioning advice in it. Anyway, a couple of 
guys came round and spent two hours (really) moving my speakers around to try 
and find the best position. 

What was interesting was the way they were able to easily hear differences
while they'd only moved the speakers 1cm. The way they worked was to start off
40cm away from the wall and move in 2cm at a time until they were too close
then move 1cm at a time then 0.5cm until they were happy. They did this first
step with no speaker toe-in at all. Once the ideal position was found, 29cm in
my room, they started to toe-in/out until the image was best. I ended up with
28cm and 30.5cm. Once this was done they started on the distance between the
speakers. This was much less critical and in fact they barely moved them from
where I'd placed them in the first place. 

I'd never embarked on this exercise myself since my speakers weight about 25kg
each and they're spiked and sit on a tiled floor which I don't want to scratch.
They had these plate things though which they put the spikes on and allowed
them to easily slide the speakers around. I think I've seen them in magazines,
called 'spike feet' or something. I've also seen those plasticy things that you
use for sliding around heavy furniture in the DIY shop - maybe that would do.

Anyway, why am I telling you this ? Well this did make a difference to the 
sound. It sounds much, much more natural and the voices are more real. I 
definitely recommend that you make the effort to try this. I'm sure most of us
just place things without this experimentation and there really are cheap gains 
to be had here.

Dave
    
ps. Lastly, and just out of interest, I asked them what they thought about
my system. They said it was OK, but that I could do really much better with
a Linn Karik which they seemed to believe was the very best CD player available.
Anyone got one ? 

    Yes, I've got a Karik/Numerik and to my ears it is the best CD player
    about.
    
    As always, try before you buy - I've been happy with mine - which I've
    had since they first came out.
    
    I'm considering selling the pair for a new Karik/Numerik so that I get
    the new PSU + chages for the Karik III (Mine is a Karik I).
    
    No idea what it's worth.
    
    Rik