[TJHUB]

In the sense of "profound" tweaks or upgrades, it would be that interconnects, speaker wire, and power cords *can* make as much of a difference as they do for me.

I recently went from being rather dissatisfied with my setup to having the best sound I've ever had.  I accomplished this by simply changing my speaker wire to BJC Belden 10awg.  Then I purchased some Pangea power cords to have nothing more than shorter power cords that look nice, and the sound changed for the better.  These are "profound" to me because so many claim these things can't be audible.  Well they are very audible to me and made my system something very special to listen to.

 

[revrob]

I also had a Cary 306/200 CD player and a friend had the Modwright Transporter. One night we spent around 3 hours going back and forth between the Modwright and the Cary. IMO they we very close in sound and the only edge I gave the transporter was convenience.

My Esoteric is better than the Cary and I have doubt that the squeezebox could match the performance of my player. Everyone has a preference and I respect that. I thought about selling my CD player and buying the transporter but I have decided against it. Instead I purchase the squeezebox as a compliment to my system but not for serious listening.

In the end it's the music that matters most and how you enjoy. Obviously this is not only subjective but also very personal.

Peace,
Steve

[ctviggen]

I also had a Cary 306/200 CD player and a friend had the Modwright Transporter. One night we spent around 3 hours going back and forth between the Modwright and the Cary. IMO they we very close in sound and the only edge I gave the transporter was convenience.

My Esoteric is better than the Cary and I have doubt that the squeezebox could match the performance of my player. Everyone has a preference and I respect that. I thought about selling my CD player and buying the transporter but I have decided against it. Instead I purchase the squeezebox as a compliment to my system but not for serious listening.

In the end it's the music that matters most and how you enjoy. Obviously this is not only subjective but also very personal.

Peace,
Steve

It's definitely a personal matter.  For me, that means having everything ripped and being able to call up a song or CD at will, without leaving my seat and hunting through tons of CD cases.  I had a better experience with the SB though, it bested everything I had at the time (although the CDP was quite close).

As for a profound tweak, room treatments helped more than anything else. 

[revrob]

Bob,

Thanks for your response. Everyone has a preference. Maybe I am too old school at 52 years but I do appreciate today's technology. CDs may go the way of vinyl and then be resurrected. This is great dialog, I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and opinions.

Peace.

[Stu Pitt]

In addition to the room and proper placement, cleanliness has been my single biggest tweak.

Its amazing how much better vinyl sounds after a good steam clean, scrubbing, and vacuum cleaning.  A good stylus cleaner is essential too.

I clean my CDs with Pledge Anti-Static.  A bunch of us at Ecoustics did this and everyone had great results.  They ranged from subtle on new CDs to component upgrade like on dirtier discs.

I also check my connections every few months for oxidation.  A little isopropyl alchol gets rid of somelight stuff, and some Caig De-Oxit works well on more serious stuff.

I haven't tried the high dollar specialty stuff.  No desire to spend that much for probably not much if any difference.

[eclein]

Very neat to see all the different things people say profoundly affected their sound!! (spelling of previous is questionable--I'm old)
 Bi-amping for the first time ever was like hearing music for the first time ever...I haven't stop listening to my music via my SB since last
Saturday--like being a kid on Christmas day!!!!

[warnerwh]

Easy: Room Treatments

[Stu Pitt]

Another oldie but goodie -

If your speakers are bi-wireable/bi-ampable and you're not using both sets of binding posts, relace the brass jumpers with snippetts of your speaker cable.  Far better than the stamped brass ones, and probably far cheaper than the pre-made jumpers.

Replace the the brass U shaped jumpers on integrated amps and receivers with either short interconnects or something like the jumpers by Audioquest.

Neither is profound or revolutionary, but worthy none the less.  And can be inexpensive.

[helixgrad]

No question about it. The Aesthetix Io phono stage ugrade which is called the Eclipse is an upgrade that has blown me away. I never thought my system could sound like this. The key to the upgrade is the new case for both the main unit and power supply(s) plus, most importantly, the change to the very expensive Stealth Caps. Jim White has created a state of the art phono preamp. I do not use a line stage.

[Stu Pitt]

A very profound and free tweak I was shown by a dealer a while back -

Try reversing the polarity on your speaker cables.  Switch + and - on one end either the amp or speaker end.  Make sure you do both speakers, or they'll be out of phase.

I was auditioning a pair of speakers in a shop that sounded a bit too distant and bass heavy.  The dealer switched the polarity, and the soundstage came closer and the bass lost its flab.

I've tried it on every pair of speakers I've sat down and auditioned since.  Sometimes the difference is profound (good or bad), sometimes its subtle, sometimes there's no difference.  I guess it comes down to if the speakers were wired in phase or out of phase.  It probably also has to do with the recording.  Its basically like a phase reverse switch on some components.

My current speakers sound best when wired the right way.

Try it out.  It doesn't cost anything and can easily be undone if the differences aren't favorable.

[Scottdazzle]

Getting a VPI record cleaning machine rejuvenated my love of vinyl as medium of choice.  I had switched over to cd's because of my annoyance with surface noise on records.  I had always brushed my records with a Discwasher before playing and still was bothered by background noise.  The VPI drastically reduced noise on all records.  Then I upgraded the turntable, cartridge, and phono preamp. Vinyl nirvana!