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The Most Audiophool Thing You Own

pseudoid

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...All this was before I saw the light and came over from the Dark Side (literally true with the CJ stuff), and embraced solid state....
replace first word with "after" and the second one with "to"...:oops:
 

pseudoid

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My tube equipment can pick up radio signals as the tubes can act as antenna and demodulator, particularly for older 3G cellphones.
Sometimes, getting to the innards and looking for weakened ground connections may become an easy... errrrr... de-rectification... of the problem. ymmv, especially with older tube hw.
ferrite beads on cables can be considered snake-oil by some, but their cost make them like an insurance policy...
 

H-713

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If the tubes are being used for audio purposes, why worry about UHF (VHF, too) performance? In an audio app, that performance will never be required.
See my original post. I mentioned that I have a few rather desirable Tek plugins that have been molested by audiophiles who stripped them of tubes, minus a few Nuvistors.
 

H-713

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Sometimes, getting to the innards and looking for weakened ground connections may become an easy... errrrr... de-rectification... of the problem. ymmv, especially with older tube hw.
ferrite beads on cables can be considered snake-oil by some, but their cost make them like an insurance policy...
Snake oil? Ferrite beads (or sometimes 3" cores...) on cables are a NECESSITY in some environments. It's "snake oil" until you have to figure out how to keep an "audio" amplifier stable right next to a 150 kW 13.56 MHz RF power supply.

Oh, and FWIW, going balanced doesn't solve this, because none of these inputs have great CMRR at frequencies > 1 MHz.
 

egellings

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I think that in home stereo settings, an RF source as powerful as that is unlikely to be in the vicinity. For low level RF interference, the ferrite beads could help; I have had success using then to rid my setup of interference from an antenna farm only blocks away from me.
 

Boris Badinov

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Aside from my tube buffer, I also purchased a pair of outriggers for my tower speakers but never installed them. Similar to these:

outriggers-m50-2.jpg
Can you tell me where you got these? Also, are they supposed to be specific to your speaker, or more of a universal fit? Thanks
 

DonR

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Can you tell me where you got these? Also, are they supposed to be specific to your speaker, or more of a universal fit? Thanks
I purchased them about 11 years ago from someone who no longer makes them. they were semi-custom, made for just for my series of speaker. I think there are generic ones available though. The cost should be $100-$200 a pair.
 

Boris Badinov

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I purchased them about 11 years ago from someone who no longer makes them. they were semi-custom, made for just for my series of speaker. I think there are generic ones available though. The cost should be $100-$200 a pair.
Thanks, appreciate your reply. I just found some very close to those and come in different widths for different sized speakers. Now to measure my old QA towers (shaped like the 3010s).
 

ryanosaur

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Great thread...
Seems like low hanging fruit: I too bought Outriggers for some of my gear.
From Soundocity in OR.
Rather than attaching directly to my Speakers, I used them to make platforms for all of my Bass Cabinets (2 for the Phil 3s and 2 for the Subs). The platforms are poured concrete from a custom fabricator that does architectural and interior design work. I was able to choose some rejected countertops from their Boneyard, they cut them to size for me and sealed up the presentation side, drilled holes for me to epoxy threaded inserts into the slabs. Outriggers are mounted to those.
The concrete is pretty inert, has lots of aggregate in it. (The stuff with less aggregate rings when tapped, these don't.) Thus I have 4 inert platforms coupled to my floor, and my bass cabinets are decoupled from the platform.

Beyond that, no fancy cables or other things. This was my "splurge" for audiophile (phool) bling. I make no claims about it doing anything to "tighten" my bass or anything like that. All I will say is that on my suspended wood floor, once I installed these, the mechanical vibrations conducted through to the structure of the house were lessened significantly. Strong wavefronts will still shake the house, but i do not feel vibrations coming up through my seat the way I did before. *shrugs
Oh...
And they look cool. :D
 

pseudoid

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The concrete is pretty inert, has lots of aggregate in it. (The stuff with less aggregate rings when tapped, these don't.) Thus I have 4 inert platforms coupled to my floor, and my bass cabinets are decoupled from the platform.
Are you nominating these complex concrete blocks as worthy Audiophools candidates or something?:oops:
 

Robin L

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My personal peak of Audiophoolery: To the right, a Bybee quantum purifier, vintage 1998. In the center, a Stax SRM T-1 tube energizer/amp with the OTL tube design also energizing the high voltage electrostatic "Earspeakers". Both pairs of those, worn out and long gone. Inside the SRM T-1, I replaced all the passive parts with more expensive stuff and wiring everything up with the really snakey and oily vAN DEN hUL COPPER CRYSTAL wire [18 guage], coated with a thin layer of easy-corroding silver. MIT "multi-caps", Vishay resistors. This Bybee quantum de-rugulator was originally lashed to this black box just bursting with the most "hype" little bits and dongles.

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!



IMG_20220317_120053691.jpg


To the upper left, my personal salvation from the snares of an expensive silver-clad copper crystal habit.
 
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egellings

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Mine was Athena Polyphasor, a passive device. Amp outputs connected to it via one set of jacks, and the speakers connected to another set. Thing was expensive, and I thought it helped render the spacious characteristics of the sound better. It was all in my head. I was luckily able to sell it to a true believer who rhapsodized over the improvement it made in his setup. I could not tell any difference there, either.
 

egellings

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When I see the word "quantum" in any product ad, I avert eyes and move on.
 

pseudoid

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