Show us your audio tweaks, mods and extras

[Rednaxela]

Blocks of solid oak as speaker stands.

 

[Martinvb]

Cast concrete stands to adjust height for near field listening and damp some vibrations.

 

[CleanSound]

Server rack cable highways mounted on my AV shelf to help hide and manage all the various cables. Looks super slick.

 

[Chr1]

 

[CleanSound]

Dedicated 20A outlet directly from the breaker panel using 12AWG Romex on hospital grade outlet (It's really a PS audio outlet that I got from the used market new for cheaper than a new hubbell from Amazon, but it's really a rebadge hospital grade outlet).

Power cables are wrapped on EMF shielding tape; I measured the EMF with an EMF meter and it made absolutely no difference

 

[CleanSound]

View attachment 336087

 

[CleanSound]

Electronics grade silicone, used to mitigate coil whine.

This thing is legit, it really works!

 

[fpitas]

Electronics grade silicone, used to mitigate coil whine.

This thing is legit, it really works!
View attachment 336104

Sure. Nothing new there, glad it worked for your problem.

 

[CleanSound]

Basement ceiling tiles with ultra low VOC/environmental friendly/impervious to sagging and flaking from humidity.

The groves are there to keep it's shape and form, it so happens to diffuse sound as well.

 

[Chr1]

Custom built boutique audiophile galvanic vibration isolation platforms. Very expensive. But worth it.

V thin memory foam underneath, subwoofer spikes @10mm depth into concrete.
(If I win the lottery I'd like the Roman marble versions obvs.)

 

[Somafunk]

Manhattan loft style living at its best ^

 

[Chr1]

Ecosse style...Tollcross: B&Q meets David Mancuso uptown.
But without a turntable.
Plenty of Flacs and RoomEQ however.


Good tidings/seasons greetings y'all!

My other small festive Christmas tweaks, "trees" in a jar...
tis the season to be jolly!

 

[MattHooper]

Alright, I'll play.

Since the OP asked about tweaks and mods, at the risk of being excoriated, I'll start with the only real "mod" I've tried: Tube rolling on my CJ amps.
I have a box of different power and input tubes, new and NOS, and it was a blast getting in to tube rolling.

My CJs originally came with GE 6550s and once those weren't available anymore I would just take CJ's advice and used the new Tungsol 6550s. (The power tubes tended to last at least 6 years or so). Though when my previous Tungsol died, I happened upon a killer deal for two matched quads of NOS Svetlana winged C 6550s. A lot of CJ (and other tube amp) owners were all about the newer, larger Tungsol KT120s and I tried them and....I don't dare go in to my impressions...but I'll say they ain't leavin my amps and here's a photo. (I also like, aesthetically, that they are even larger tubes than the 6550s...just for the more tuby look).

This is one of my Premier 12 monoblocks with the larger KT120 power tubes:

Secondly, and hopefully less controversial.......

The other way I tweak tends to be playing with acoustics - positioning of my stereo speakers, adjusting sidewall curtains for reflectivity, and a while back I started placing a curved diffusor behind and directly between my loudspeakers. This has friggin' revolutionized my sound, IMO. It seems to add more focus, liveliness and density to the imaging and sound quality.

Since my stereo speakers are pulled out in to the room closer to the listening sofa, and my home theater screen and L/C/R speakers are behind the stereo speakers surrounding the screen, that leaves my large center channel behind and between my stereo speakers. So I either place the curved diffusor lying on top of the center channel, or on the floor aimed towards me - different sonic effects.

Here's the brown curved diffusor laying on top of my (velvet covered) center channel:

View from sofa, between my L/R speakers:

Another way of tweaking the sound in the room, playing with increasing or decreasing reflective surfaces, is with the projection screen shown above.
The screen itself is far lager than in the photo, almost the entire size of the back wall. However, it is surrounded by a 4-way automated masking system of black
velvet. Using my remote I can adjust the size and shape of the screen, from all the way covered up by the black velvet, to all the way open and anything in
between. So I can dial in just the right amount of added reflectivity to get the sonic qualities I'm looking for, in terms of liveliness, imaging, timbre/tonality...

 

[CleanSound]

Ecosse style...Tollcross: B&Q meets David Mancuso uptown.
But without a turntable.
Plenty of Flacs and RoomEQ however.


Good tidings/seasons greetings y'all!

My other small festive Christmas tweaks, "trees" in a jar...
tis the season to be jolly!
View attachment 336363

Hey folks, this thread was meant to be audio tweaks, mods and extra, never thought it be about weed.

Maybe you guys can start a new thread for recreational and medical psychedelic enhancements during music listening?

 

[CleanSound]

Alright, I'll play.

Since the OP asked about tweaks and mods, at the risk of being excoriated, I'll start with the only real "mod" I've tried: Tube rolling on my CJ amps.
I have a box of different power and input tubes, new and NOS, and it was a blast getting in to tube rolling.

My CJs originally came with GE 6550s and once those weren't available anymore I would just take CJ's advice and used the new Tungsol 6550s. (The power tubes tended to last at least 6 years or so). Though when my previous Tungsol died, I happened upon a killer deal for two matched quads of NOS Svetlana winged C 6550s. A lot of CJ (and other tube amp) owners were all about the newer, larger Tungsol KT120s and I tried them and....I don't dare go in to my impressions...but I'll say they ain't leavin my amps and here's a photo. (I also like, aesthetically, that they are even larger tubes than the 6550s...just for the more tuby look).

This is one of my Premier 12 monoblocks with the larger KT120 power tubes:

Secondly, and hopefully less controversial.......

The other way I tweak tends to be playing with acoustics - positioning of my stereo speakers, adjusting sidewall curtains for reflectivity, and a while back I started placing a curved diffusor behind and directly between my loudspeakers. This has friggin' revolutionized my sound, IMO. It seems to add more focus, liveliness and density to the imaging and sound quality.

Since my stereo speakers are pulled out in to the room closer to the listening sofa, and my home theater screen and L/C/R speakers are behind the stereo speakers surrounding the screen, that leaves my large center channel behind and between my stereo speakers. So I either place the curved diffusor lying on top of the center channel, or on the floor aimed towards me - different sonic effects.

Here's the brown curved diffusor laying on top of my (velvet covered) center channel:



View attachment 336443

View from sofa, between my L/R speakers:

View attachment 336444

Another way of tweaking the sound in the room, playing with increasing or decreasing reflective surfaces, is with the projection screen shown above.
The screen itself is far lager than in the photo, almost the entire size of the back wall. However, it is surrounded by a 4-way automated masking system of black
velvet. Using my remote I can adjust the size and shape of the screen, from all the way covered up by the black velvet, to all the way open and anything in
between. So I can dial in just the right amount of added reflectivity to get the sonic qualities I'm looking for, in terms of liveliness, imaging, timbre/tonality...

Very nice theater room! Would love to learn more about your room treatment and how you tweak it.

 

[MattHooper]

Very nice theater room! Would love to learn more about your room treatment and how you tweak it.

Hookay....

I've gone in to some detail spread across other threads but since I can't be arsed to find them I'll just give you the quick version.

You can see some details of my room in this post. Pictured are my Thiel 2.7 speakers, but right now I'm using Joseph Audio speakers in their place.

How big is your listening room?

When we did a large gut remodel of our house one of the requirements was a dedicated listening room. But even when you can essentially start with a blank sheet, if you are on a budget, you still have restrictions like the overall foundation footprint or the requirement of an egress window. So I...

www.audiosciencereview.com

It was retro-fitting a home theater system in to an older home, which also allowed for a separate 2 channel system, represented by the Thiel speakers pulled out near the sofa. The home theater speakers are covered in black velvet, to blend in with the black velvet screen surroundings. The room was designed with an architect and the input of an acoustician. If you look at the last image in that post you can see part of the built down ceiling structure. Instead of hard material, it's actually a frame covered in taught, dark brown velvet. This material is excellent for absorbing light so it doesn't reflect back on the projection screen. And it also provides some "ceiling cloud" effect for controlling the highs. Plus there are large sections of absorption/bass trapping built in the front and back, as well as some hidden in the corners of the room. I like it all out of sight.

As to tweaking acoustics 'n such. First, since I have some limitations in how far back I can move the speakers, because the right speaker would block the entranceway, I have the sofa on big sliders, so it's really easy to slide back and forth to dial in a desired seating distance.

I had a custom, thick, brown velvet cover made that hooks on to the fireplace beside the Left speaker, to kill the higher frequency reflections from the tiles. It works perfectly for this. As well, I have a slection of big, thick, brown velvet curtains that can be pulled across any part of the side (and back) walls. You can see one curtain partially pulled out by the fireplace here:

Then from inside the room facing the entrance, you can see the same type of curtains on the side and back wall corner (pictured with Joseph Audio speaker):

So I can modulate the sidewall reflectivity depending on where I place, or how thin I bunch up the curtains, and there's a curtain I can pull across the entranceway which also affects the sound. With that corner curtain pulled back leaving the room open to the hallway, the sound is more spacious and lively, the more I pull it to close the entrance, the more precise and intimate the sound, and the fine details of the recorded acoustic tend to predominate. Same with modulating the other curtains.

Then as I said I use the curved diffusor sometimes between the speakers. And I can adjust the reflectivity of the wall behind the speakers with the masking system.

It's really quite amazing how precisely one can dial in the sound character with these options. My ideal is to be enveloped, and to hear as much as the recorded acoustic as possible, rather than overwhelm it with room reflections. So I'm often cutting off some side wall reflection. But if I add the curved diffusor in the middle of the speakers, then I get this "best of both worlds" effect - I maintain the audibility of the finest recorded reverb/acoustics, but it also sounds more open and airy and lively - so it's like seeing right in to the recording space to live players kind of thing.

Works for me, anyway.

 

[egellings]

Ecosse style...Tollcross: B&Q meets David Mancuso uptown.
But without a turntable.
Plenty of Flacs and RoomEQ however.


Good tidings/seasons greetings y'all!

My other small festive Christmas tweaks, "trees" in a jar...
tis the season to be jolly!
View attachment 336363

Nice tone controls!

 

[norman bates]

12" Concrete formers, or sonotube, used to scatter room reflections on rear wall.

 

[norman bates]

1/2" f10 wool felt, absorbing baffle edge reflections.

 

[Uribo]

For the convenience.