Most Insane Tweaks Thread (1 Viewer)

[John Garcia]

I thought that was the other way around...amps as low as possible. :rolleyes

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Clear proof that the Tweaker Freak is hearing exactly what's inside his head, no more and no less: if all his tweaks were as good as he says, he would have run out of room for improvement long ago. Over time, they clearly lose their efficacy, which is a mark of psychological dependency. It's just the same way as with drugs addicts.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Doug,

Scott Oliver, Jonathan Atkins, and Hank Frankenberg would be great people to ask this question to. They have all shared some wild stories of extreme tweaks.

Speaking of which, where have you been hiding out? No one has seen you at any of the Austin gatherings in a long time!

If you are interested we are having a get together over at Jonathan's on May 18th followed by a midnight screening of Star Wars III.

 

[Doug_H]

Nils

New house, new theater & no time have kept me away for awhile. The new theater hasn't set up as well as I would have liked and is driving me insane.

Unfortunately my son's B-day is the 18th so as much as I would love to get in on this one I will have to pass. With a little luck I may be able to make one in June though.

 

[Richard Patrick]

My teflon tape tweak is the real deal!

 

[John Garcia]

Are you for real? Care to explain HOW it helps? Teflon tape around your tweeter, from a realistic standpoint, would do little or nothing at all. I know the idea is to reduce edge diffraction, but FELT that can be bought for about $.20 is what is commonly used for this, and typically ONLY for speakers that are looking for tightly controlled dispersion such as THX cert speakers. Tape around the driver frame, well that one has no basis I can even think of.

 

[Richard Patrick]

Your right, Felt is commonly used around the tweeters to reduce edge diffraction but I found out by using teflon tape, (in a square) around the tweeters does a better job than the felt and also sounds more real sounding. The same with the woofers, you get closer to live sound like this. Another thing that makes thing sound more real is to cut holes in the back of your speaker cabinets the same place and same size as is on the front of your speaker cabinets. After that put some (foam used for mattress toppers) in the holes in the back, if you want more bass just use a thicker foam.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

Admin Note: I have had a few complaints that things might be getting personal in this thread. Please keep all comments on the topic of tweeks and NOT about people.

Some of you might want to edit your posts a bit.

 

[Chu Gai]

John Dunlavy was issued US patent #4,167,985 for the use of felt. You should consider making a post over at rec.audio.tech and perhaps Mr. Dunlavy will reply.

 

[John Garcia]

If you cut extra holes in any speaker, you destroy the caibinet alignment that was the designer's intent for the drivers. That's like "Speaker Design 101". What you are doing is changing the tune of the cabinet, and especially if you have a driver designed for a sealed application, the effects may be very detrimental.

I'm curious what speakers have you tried this on? Do you design your own speakers? With all this knowledge you've gleaned, I'd expect someone to start their own company with all these features designed in because there's an advantage over the competition (I would, anyway).

We can discuss this via private mail if you like.

 

[Chu Gai]

Oh come now John, the drilling of holes to alleviate pressure and improve the overall health of individuals is well documented and is known as trepanning. No reason to think it wouldn't result in an audible change in one's speakers.

 

[Alf S]

Folks let me show you the receiver Tweaker Freak is using to hear all these fabulous amazing sounding tweaks...this can be confirmed by the Tweaker himself as he's told many other forums this is what he uses.

I introduce to you the amazing Sony STR-V5 (sorry for the image size)!

 

[Jeff Gatie]

I tell ya Chu, I need a system sounding that good like I need a hole in the head (buh duh bump!).


Thanks, thank you...I'll be here all week!

 

[John Garcia]

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Huh. Instead of creating an infinite baffle with spare mounting holes plugged up with sound-deadening material, why not just buy a pair of old Wharfdales? Those would do the trick just fine. They were filled completely with sand. NOTE: be sure you have a floor sturdy enough to handle several tonnes of dead load.

 

[Chu Gai]

What he has as his receiver or amp doesn't matter to me as long as it's working well. If all you need on a given day is 50 clean watts, then whether it's that Sony receiver giving it or some Jeff Rowland amp, so what?

The thing with tweaks is that they're usually cheap to do. Now whether that's because they don't cost a lot of money, which is relative, or time, they're pretty easy to implement. They make us feel like we're doing something. They make us feel or believe that by the very virtue of having done them, that we are somehow more of an audiophile than the next person. They demonstrate that we care more as if all the caring in the world is somehow going to fix the world's problems.

People tweak because they're also fundamentally insecure. They measure their equipment against what other people own, what they see at Hi Fi shows, what they read about, what they'd only have if they had the money. No one wants to be told "Hey, you've got a Marantz CD player? Man, I had one of those, it was a piece of shit. Now I've got a Mark Levinson player. That my friend, is a player!" So to protect themselves, they tweak. Whether that tweak was home made or store bought isolation feet, a gold plated fuse, a 'blah, blah, blah' power cord that was bought on audiogon, cables from some obscure place, RCA connectors that we just replaced with Cardas ones, a few Jap or Chinese resistors and capacitors that we replaced with ones costing several tens of dollars, etc.

So now, we've somehow protected ourselves from that 'friend' who has negatively criticized what we own. We can shoot back and say, well you haven't heard my Marantz with the Auricaps, hybrid silver interconnects and the tempered brass isolation feet, have you? And we've done it. We've stopped that friend dead in his tracks just as sure as one of those 'Tractor Rays' stopped the starship Enterprise in deep space. He's dead and now we're safe from having our equipment criticized. We've stopped him because he's also a tweaker. Even though he bought that Levinson and spent ten times what you spent, he's also insecure. That's because he's got friends who bought a CD player that cost 5 times what he spent. And that person's got friends who bought an outboard DAC that cost what your new car cost. And so it goes. An army of people who tweak. An army of Emperors with New Clothes. An army of people who walk around claiming that they can hear deeper into the music than the next guy and we want to be part of that army even if it's an army of one.

So, a lot of tweaks just don't do anything other than to prove we are fully capable of licking our own balls just like our dog does. What I find dangerous and damaging in all of this, is that someone will actually go out and take drill with a key-whole attachment and punch some holes into their speaker. They'll change the sound, that's to be sure but they will forever ruin their speakers. For someone to advocate this is reckless and irresponsible. If you want to drill holes into your head, have at it. Just don't go around advocating that others do it. Have a beer or a cafe latte and do what millions do. Listen to some music, after all, isn't that why you bought the stuff?

 

[VinhT]

Outstanding.

 

[Richard Patrick]

You know, I was skeptical about some tweaks too until I tried them.

 

[Shane Martin]

Oh please. Nice Theory(as usual) though.

 

[Chu Gai]

Well, I could've tossed in obsessive/compulsive disorders also. The audiophile interpretation of that is something along the lines of trying to improve one's sound. So which speakers will you be drilling first? Maybe you don't want to use teflon tape. Head on down to a good plumber's supply store and you can get teflon rope in a variety of diameters. Just think of all the designs you can make around the drivers. It just boggles the mind.