Cheap/Free/Inexpensive Improvements in Sound Quality?

[D!sco]

More towards hardware, I feel speakers/headphones are the most important upgrade and most expensive. On the cheaper side however, a good vs bad DAC is maybe the most important part of the signal path.

 

[Robin L]

 

[ZolaIII]

Duble (two of them) hard wood doors between listening room and rest of the house or good mid priced IEM's.

 

[GXAlan]

If you run Windows, try DSEE HX processing from Sony. It’s free. Nothing to lose. Doesn’t require Sony hardware and will work with any USB DAC.

https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/MC4PC020001

What Does DSEE HX AI / DSEE Ultimate / DSEE Extreme Do?

Without a DSP called DSEE HX AI, audio seems blended with collapsed soundstage. Basically smoother vocals and transient attack is what DSEE HX already had, whereas ‘height’ is by AI… You could try out these audio players with some headphones and mp3s. It should bring out details - restore...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[escksu]

I used to frequent this website. Lots of tweaks!!

DIY and tweaking

DIY section: free projects and designs of various HiFi components: amplifiers, loudspeakers, cables, accessories, shelves, racks, stands etc. TNT-Audio - Internet HiFi magazine

www.tnt-audio.com

 

[atsmusic]

View attachment 144583

funny, but seriously, never put one of those in your ears. You can cause permanent damage.

 

[izeek]

Man, you paid to much. If your ever in need of this type of stuff, buy it here, a whole lot cheaper and various options. I keep a lot of spares on hand.

Pads - Equipment Pads - DiversiTech Pads - DiversiTech Equipment Pads - HVAC Parts - SupplyHouse.com

theyre cheap af. get both the sorbothane and the rubber/cork pads.
there is a real difference.
did not like the sorbothane under my towers. sounded mushy.
the rubber/cork sounded best and natural.
i also tried this with my components.
the sorbothane did fine under my pre but not the amps. go figure.
either way, they were noticeable improvement.

 

[izeek]

isolalting my speakers from the carpeted floor.
my towers sit on hardwood boards with rubber/cork pads under the feet.
my subs are on boards also sitting on isoacoustics iso2000s.
big improvement in reducing boom and floor resonance. big.
and components as well.
but the speaker improvements are most noticed.

 

[pozz]

I used to frequent this website. Lots of tweaks!!

DIY and tweaking

DIY section: free projects and designs of various HiFi components: amplifiers, loudspeakers, cables, accessories, shelves, racks, stands etc. TNT-Audio - Internet HiFi magazine

www.tnt-audio.com

To the OP. This is a joke.

 

[xaviescacs]

Placing the speakers in a free position and finding the best angle, in my case putting the listening position inside the triangle, not in the vertex. In summary, arranging my room to maximize sound performance and adapting the rest to this criteria. Buying a snake oil clable or a better DAC is easy, just put the money. Acoustics, in its most rudimentary form, is a different matter, it requires time and patience, but the rewards are there.

 

[escksu]

To the OP. This is a joke.

What? You saying you are a joke?? I dont talk to jokers so blocked.

 

[dasdoing]

stereo triangle.
seams to basic to mention, but I see steep angles all the time on audiophile pictures

 

[pozz]

What? You saying you are a joke?? I dont talk to jokers so blocked.

You posted a link to a page that's full of suggestions like:

Tuning elements in HiFi

Tuning elements in HiFi: tweaks, why they do work or why they don't. Mats, antistatic mats and the like - TNT-Audio, Internet HiFi magazine

www.tnt-audio.com

...the technically inclined, accept that the cables also influence the sound. But in my experience a significant proportion people have trouble accepting that the cables are as important as the fundamental components. ...

Now at every instance of energy conversion the signal can be subject to the introduction of distortion and loss of information. Also, noise can be injected into the system by the various energy forms in the reproduction chain being coupled into external energy sources. ... These energy sources, if coupled into the signal, will distort the resulting sound, and these sonically degrading interactions are those commonly addressed by the variety of accessories that are available to the music lover to tune their system's reproduction.

All of this brings us to mats. These tuning accessories take numerous forms. ... There are numerous synthetic and rubber mats that can be employed to dampen vibration within the fundamental components. We are all used to mats being placed on the vinyl turntable to optimize the mechanical coupling between the record and the platter. All these mats essentially act as energy dampers.

More strange are the mats utilized to affect the performance of CD players. I wrote about the Aurex mat recently which apparently addresses the problems associated with stray optical fields in the CD player (see Aurex review). Even more mysterious, perhaps, are the products from Ringmat Developments which act to optimize the phase information in the music. Both CD and vinyl products have been reviewed by Geoff Husband but I too have experienced the benefits of these components in my system which is very different from Geoff's and thus worthy of a second opinion and an update.

The bolded part is

Pure junk of the highest audiophile order.

 

[snaimpally]

Man, you paid to much. If your ever in need of this type of stuff, buy it here, a whole lot cheaper and various options. I keep a lot of spares on hand.

Pads - Equipment Pads - DiversiTech Pads - DiversiTech Equipment Pads - HVAC Parts - SupplyHouse.com

Thanks for this link - bought a bunch of different sized pads.

Later, I came across this:

https://www.amazon.com/Turntable-Equipment-Tuneful-Cables-Audiophile/dp/B076DGD3X2?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

They are re-selling the cork isolation pads that cost $1.20 for 4 from SupplyHouse for $12.95!

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Bluefin-VPRC-200-Rubber-Cork-Anti-Vibration-Pad-2-x-2-x-7-8

 

[MaxRockbin]

Isolation is not quite as easy a fix as using stuff like this. Isolation using basically a damped spring - like rubbery or corky material - depends very much on the weight of what you're putting on them and the frequencies you're trying to damp. Sorbothane has all sort of info on this relating to their damping products. You will get much better results with the right hardness.

Since this is a thread about cheap damping, I can tell you something that ABSOLUTELY WORKS: Get a board and put it under your turntable or other equipment. Then get four small tire innertubes. Like this: 6" inner tube
Put the innertubes under the board - partially inflated. You can adjust the inflation according to the weight of your equipment.

Put a laser pointer on top of your turntable and point it across the room - as far away as possible. You can see the difference in vibration.

My previous hobby was photomicrography. Dampening vibrations down to tiny levels is critical.
If you work at it, you can really knock down the vibrations a lot and get some nice results.

 

[sleepyboy69]

You posted a link to a page that's full of suggestions like:

The bolded part is

Pure junk of the highest audiophile order.

Hey @pozz, I agree with everything you say BUT

Since I agree with you, I would like to know if there are any personal recommendations on this sort of thing that you would suggest.

IMO the cheapest it gets is to DIY acoustic panels (even though it is somewhat expensive), what do you think?

 

[pozz]

Hey @pozz, I agree with everything you say BUT

Since I agree with you, I would like to know if there are any personal recommendations on this sort of thing that you would suggest.

IMO the cheapest it gets is to DIY acoustic panels (even though it is somewhat expensive), what do you think?

Thanks.

Not sure if I posted this earlier on but the cheapest thing is probably reading the books. Besides understanding how the devices work, your hearing sharpens as you learn more about what's happening around you.

But this thread is more about the tweaky variety of things.

I guess solid stands for small speakers, if you have the room. Adjustable height is always good. Usually expensive, though.

Switch to balanced connections forever. Ground loops are a persistent problem and this will get you out of most of them.

Instead of buying mass market cables buy those from pro companies (usual suspects: Belden, Canare, Mogami). Ruggedness and dependability go a long way. Stick to IEC power cables. For any cable purchase, buy something reasonably longer than you need.

For me, the Brickwall/Zero Surge/SurgeX power distributers have proven their worth over the years. Power's gone out more than a few times and it's nice to know there's a well thought out buffer in between. Again, expensive.

Always consider level when planning your system. The lower the total system gain, the lower your noise floor. Helps with picking gear.

Keep your audio junk organized with velcro (for cables) and dedicated cases/boxes (other things). Bags for headphones suck, but a nice case goes a long way. Larger pro cases for electronics are good too.

I've not really found damping material for speakers useful. For turntables, some level of vibration control should be built into the unit. That said I do use foam under my (small) speakers. But as a kind of prophylactic. For towers I would expect good feet or a good base as part of the design.

Obligatory mention of EQ: figure out some way to get it into your system.

Obligatory mention of subs: a good low end is magic. However integration is nowhere close to easy and requires a measurement mic and EQ.

For speakers, if you're considering buying acoustic treatment, consider buying better speakers instead. Don't underestimate the power of smooth directivity. Bad or highly variable vertical directivity makes for a difficult time listening. Great speakers alleviate a lot of problems.

If you do buy treatment, you might start hearing problems you didn't hear before. Especially muddy stuff happening at lower frequencies where the absorption loses effectiveness. So worth thinking systematically about the entire room, not just getting a few panels, and getting thick panels.

DIY is cheap in cost but expensive in skill and time. It's also pretty easy to DIY stuff but have only the most rudimentary idea of how it works, and give yourself the wrong impression of its effectiveness.

Between aesthetics and performance, choose performance. Usually it's fairly easy to get both right with some research.

I think that's about it. I guess most of that stuff isn't actually about making some audible impact, but rather setting up your buying decisions so that you don't have to tweak.

I apologize for the rambling style of the reply. I was thinking about how I've set up my system and stuff I've done over the years.

The advice will definitely push your spend upwards, but for good reason in my opinion.

 

[sleepyboy69]

Awesome. Time to get into the books then.

 

[Ron Texas]

Get a UMIK-1 Microphone ($100). Download REW and learn how to use it. Apply the results with either Equalizer API, or your playback software.

 

[Dal1as]

Research and having an open mind. Both are free.