Cheap/Free Tweaks ($10.00 or less)

mfsoa · « **Reply #80 on:** 5 Mar 2007, 11:23 pm »

Long wall, necessary to avoid severe asymmetry.

Nels Ferre · « **Reply #81 on:** 17 Mar 2007, 06:03 am »

Hi All,

Everyone knows tht for best performance, all connections need to be clean. I found a great cleaner for metal connections. It is made by Eagle One, called Nano Cleaner. Its a paste designed for cleaning oxidation from and protecting mag wheels. I use it on the chrome on my motorcycle. It works great.

Tonight, I tried it on the connections in my system. Works great there as well.

You should be able to find it ar any auto parts store. Highly recommended at $5. aa

mfsoa · « **Reply #82 on:** 21 Mar 2007, 02:41 am »

Nobody ever tried glasses on vs. glassses off?

Maybe this doesn't count as a tweak, but it does change the sound.

anubisgrau · « **Reply #83 on:** 23 Mar 2007, 10:26 pm »

How's about laminated bamboo chopping boards as a support?

At my Chinese shop they are around $5 for the biggest size (35x40cm) that just fits under a standard size CDP.

I am tempted to buy some but would love to know if anyone has already tried them.

Thanks, Gordan

Imperial · « **Reply #84 on:** 23 Mar 2007, 10:37 pm »

You know, this may sound strange but... here goes.
If they are that cheap (5$ a pop), buy two and then place condoms between them! Not kidding here!
Unpack the rubbers (keep them rolled up though) and place them between the two bamboo boards , one in each corner, and voila!
That has gotta work!

I can't see how one could get it cheaper!

Imperial

Imperial · « **Reply #85 on:** 24 Mar 2007, 08:12 am »

Errr,

, good point.
Alternatively one could use the little plastic discs found in coke bottles, inside the tops you know.
Imperial

anubisgrau · « **Reply #86 on:** 26 Mar 2007, 09:32 pm »

why 2 chopping boards and why a rubber in between? any explanations?

is this meant to be a support for a CDP?

gooberdude · « **Reply #87 on:** 27 Mar 2007, 01:39 pm »

what about using those polymer/rubber vacuum tube damper rings instead of condoms? might hold up to long term use a bit better.

I bought a pack of 30 of these things on ebay years back for about $10, never used any of them.

honesthoff · « **Reply #88 on:** 5 Apr 2007, 08:57 pm »

Quote from: mfsoa on 17 Mar 2007, 09:42 pm

Take your glasses off.

Ah, my favorite one. Also, penny on top of my floorstanders.
As for the record sleeves/paper/cardboard tweak...tried them all and did notice an improvement. The best, however, came from squares I cut from 3/4" Homasote (a wood pulp sheet good building product I use in many of my jobs for sound deadening between common walls and floors/ceilings) and placed under my CDP.

Of course this maybe the best shock absorber ever:www.shockabsorber.co.uk/bounceometer/schock.html

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #89 on:** 5 Apr 2007, 09:27 pm »

tvad, et al:

http://www.tweakshop.com/BlackHolePods.html

This guys sells sorbothane pretty cheap already....$1.00 for the smallest dots and $5-6.00 for the larger ones. Fair pricing based on what I've seen in the marketplace.

He's only 35-40 miles north of me - I really should visit one day.

Quote from: tvad4 on 27 Mar 2007, 01:58 pm

You know, for less than $50 including shipping, a bunch of members could do a group buy on a 12"x12" sheet of sorbothane from mcmaster.com and cut enough "shock absorbers" to accommodate 10 or more platforms depending on the size of the absorbers. That comes to $5 a person plus the cost of first class mail.

yashu · « **Reply #90 on:** 12 May 2007, 06:21 pm »

I have heard of some people using a small bicycle tire inner tube between two boards... you inflate it only partway and supposedly it makes for some great vibration dampening.

I also have another good tweak, for bookshelves that you might be using on a desk for nearfield, or any speakers that might be a bit "light", you go to the hardware store and grab two nice bricks in a shape that will fit on top of the speaker, and you set a brick on each of the speakers to help weight them down and tone down some resonance. The heavier the better but you don't want anything too large. I suppose you could use iron or lead if you are able to get blocks of it. I put little stick on rubber or felt feet on the bricks so they don't scratch the cabinet, but this really helps give lighter speakers a better footing.

Here is another one of my favorite tweaks. You take some cheap old RCA cable... most people have tons of this crappy stuff that comes in the boxes of A/v equipment, or you could to go radio shack and buy some cheap RCA end connectors... anyway you take the connectors and you short them out and plug each shorted connector into every unused input on your preamp or pre section. One seperate shorted connector for each of the L and R input plugs. I have used this to completely eliminate input and channel crosstalk if you might have any on your line sections.

HumanMedia · « **Reply #91 on:** 15 May 2007, 04:14 am »

OK here is my contribution, which I discovered last night.

I have a reasonably old house and the ground post where the house's ground is attached is accessible and exposed to the weather. As such it was corroded with debris, rust and paint all over it. Ive had an intermittent buzz in a preamp which the manufacturer said is related to ground, so I thought that it couldn't hurt to clean up my house's ground post/connections.

I unscrewed the connector and filed the post back to clean metal, and did the same for the connector and the wires into the connector. I cleaned all surfaces with DeOxit, then with isopropol alcohol. Then I used a mallet to bash the post another couple of centimeters into the ground. I applied conductive silver grease to the surfaces to be mated and screwed it all back together. To stop the connection from being exposed I applied a large strip of heat shrink around the connection.

I was immediately disappointed as the buzz was still there, which is the whole reason why I did all this.
BUT something I wasnt expecting, is that it seemed to have had a noticeable improvement on the mids and highs of my sound. Everythings a lot smoother and crisper. The difference was greater than most interconnect changes.

If you dont have corrosion or oxidation on your ground post connections, this may not do anything for you but if you do, then a bit of effort and about $2 of conductive silver grease can make a great improvement.

weirdo · « **Reply #92 on:** 23 Jul 2007, 12:34 pm »

A connector cleaner/conditioner that seems to work is "Conducta-Lube"
which as the name implies is a conductive lubricant for model train brush contact with track current. It is about 7 dollars for a squeeze bottle with a neele tip. I used it for my semi-annual contact cleaning. I cannot attest to sound improvement. You can never tell if it is conditioner or removal of film from the connection points that makes the slight improvement. For what its worth. Its a cheaper option than the whiz bang connector cleaners which are not inexpensive anymore.

HiFiSoundGuy · « **Reply #93 on:** 28 Aug 2007, 08:59 pm »

Take some teflon tape and put around each of your fuse holders and the whole glass part of the fuse and on your ac plugs and on all wiring inside yor gear. This clean up alot of dirty ac power!............ aa

HiFiSoundGuy · « **Reply #94 on:** 29 Aug 2007, 05:10 pm »

On this teflon tape tweak I only used teflon tape from WalMart...brandname.. Oatey thread seal tape with PTFE Teflon $1.00 This stuff is hard to get because they sell it as fast as they get now!

HiFiSoundGuy · « **Reply #95 on:** 3 Sep 2007, 07:06 pm »

Here's another cheap great tweak....use hook- up wires to replace those binding posts on your speakers and amps.......

DanTheMan · « **Reply #96 on:** 3 Sep 2007, 09:51 pm »

Quote

Here's another cheap great tweak....use hook- up wires to replace those binding posts on your speakers and amps.......

Or just go hardwires to everything. Everytime I hardwire something, it makes a big improvement. I think it was Matt who first mentioned this to me. Get as much brass out of you signal as possible and replace it with copper. Usually free tweaks. Other things I've done for free is uncoiling old inductors that are no longer being used and use them as braided speaker cable to replace MegaCable braids. Made a noticable improvement. Not as big as going from megacable to magacable braids (AKA the MegaBraid), but an improvement in detail. A little loss in frequency extension though.

DanTheMan · « **Reply #97 on:** 5 Sep 2007, 05:23 am »

$1.07 tweak: wrap teflon (PTFE plumbers tape)tape around any plug connector that has a screw on housing. I mean imbetween the threads, or any of the parts of the outer ring that touch the inner ring. $1.07 should do every connector you have of this type.

weirdo · « **Reply #98 on:** 12 Sep 2007, 01:17 pm »

The yellow plumbers tape is easier to work with because it is heaver gauge PTFE ( Mil Spec T27730A) to be exact. I am going to try that. Whats to loose.

I am goint to try to line the inside of the wall outlet plate with PTFE also. A little glue and PTFE tape layer should get the job done. Might cut down some EMF. Might not work at all. Wife and cats will be entertained.

I saw some rubber amplifier/speaker bumpers that look suspiciously like my favorite acoustic treatment, hockey pucks ( .89 Ea. Dicks ). With a cutting gig and a Dremmel tool or router, the edges of the hockey pucks can be treated to look downright archetectural....well a little better anyway. One of these days these tweaks will have a significant impact and then we will seem less flakey.

Tweaker · « **Reply #99 on:** 11 Oct 2007, 08:44 pm »

Self adhesive felt pads around the tweeters can make a significant improvement not only to imaging but the overall sound in general. I have to give credit to texendo for this idea mentioned in another thread. I have two dime sized pads on each side and I'm really blown away by the improvement. Here's a link to a company that sells a huge variety of dots, squares, and strips:
http://www.durofelt.com/image_12.html