Tweak.
Don’t Tweak.
It’s all good.
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It must be admitted that, effectiveness not withstanding, some tweaks do sound ridiculous.
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Many here may remember street rodding of the 50s-60s
First came the flathead v8 with 3 deuce carbs higher flow
manifolds, headers. Iskendarian cams, Edelbrock and so
on each of these providing either incremental or synergystic
speed/performance gains…
Then came the overhead valves and all the hot rod street
soup ups all looking for that highly sought after tenth of a second…
Well home audio is in many ways the same thing…
Some enjoy out of the box…others enjoy “low hanging
fruit” easy tweaks…yet others love to delve deeper…
or climb higher heights seeking another level of “thereness”
to the music…
As for me…I’m a tweaker loving the benefits of “low hanging fruit”.
waymanchen mentioned Vmax’s ongoing journey adventure with
tweaks and upgrades…
But really it is both you guys helping the rest of us get places
with our gear…Thanks to both of you.
Would I ever climb those heights …probably not…As I’m just
plain ole happy with my gear listening to tunes…Yet obviously
there are improvements still there to be attained.
So tweak on my friends…your reports are enjoyable to read
and informative as well…
Keep up your good work.
Best wishes
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Ok so…the gumption to swap out the Purple with the M1 in my JC5 listening to
the Sonny Rollins track in question…
Preamp and P15 both running Purple fuses.
The sax vs whoopie cushion…to me sounds like a blatt on the sax which with the
Purple in the JC5 amp is dry on the bone…while the M1 allows for meat on the bone
but still sounds like a blatt to me 
However having said this…the M1 does bring a fuller presentation vs Purple…
So we are Blessed with what we got either way…
Bets wishes everyone!!
Here’s another little tweak that really works for me. I put a Ifi Purifier 3 right before going into the Matrix 2 and it actually clean the sound a little. My brother told me he tried one right before his streamer/DAC and he heard some improvement there, so I just bought another one to see if it also helps the sound further.
Thanks for trying. I am not sure Ai get a blat but I have no sheep to compare it with. The M-1 note is closer to same song played in high rez Qobuz to my Sony Noise reduction ear buds. It sounds more real than the purle in my router.
The two purples one in P20 and one in Router was better than the split purple M-1 but still behind the two M-1s.
$300. USD for a Audio Magic “Masterpiece” M-1 fuse
$100 MORE then a S/R “Purple” fuse
Is the M-1 REALLY 50% better sonically then a Purple fuse ???
If we the Audiophile consumer continue to buy these “new and improved” fuses there will be NO end.
Next will be $400 then $500 for a F _ _ _ ing fuse.
We ARE better then that !!!
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I imagine that speakers play a big part in whether someone hears "blat’.
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I agree that is a big part of it. Especially the type of speaker.
I agree speakers and room acoustics, cables wires, RF absorber, sorbothane isolation and fuses. What intrigues me is the seemingly insignificant and cost effect ways tweaking can entirely improve how the entire system sounds. Way cheaper than electronics , speakers or cables and incredibly impactful.
Sometimes I wish the tweaks did not improve. The ones that fail no improvement or degradation, I never share. But it feels good to help others and find out if there’s commonality of improvements between similar but different systems. When a tuning ring changes and improves a cable designer product they spent years improving in significant ways that they can hear too and get excited about it. Why not share with others here?
I work in an industry where everything matters in a integrated sophisticated state of the.art product. The specifications are eye watering but when one supplier doesn’t follow one step and total system reliability and performance matters. I often get assigned to fix and investigate issues and work with chief engineers and executive of the company that screwed something up. You gain appreciation that sometimes nothing is too small not to tweak or learn how to control its variation in manufacture or design. So it takes patience and willingness to look and think differently about the finish, materials of what is still in spec, but is not working. Then how to improve it with design of experiment methods.then talking with others to find that break through. If that thought process is foreign.to you or seems implausible don’t berate it. After a while you develop skills in problem solving and ability to find solutions quickly and systematically.
Sometimes iI ask myself would I like my system without the tweaks. If I hadn’t heard better that could be yes. But when you like it better than a system at 20 or 30 times price. Or hear something better you can ignore or learn how to improve what you have through physics and engineering.
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It’s a blatty sax subject…
Yeah speakers have a lot to do with whether you hear a blatt on the sax or a whoopie
cushion…
Ain’t it all fun…
Best wishes
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Ridiculously good sounding, you mean! (Typed in my best Wayne Campbell voice imitation)
Some look at it as a $300 fuse waste of money! If you look at as $300 for a substantial performance upgrade it’s a downright bargain!
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Yes I .d take that 300 fuse over a thirty thousand dollar preamp in an upgrade and probably hear as near a significant change for better. It is hidden and no visual bling but the excitement it brings in A P20 powering a whole system. But your system needs good bones elsewhere to hear a difference. But would be interesting on a 1500 dollar system to see what it would do.
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Years back when I had Dennon separates, a Denon POA 2200 (200wattts/channel and a
PRA 1100 preamp) custom fuses were not known to me. wish I had known.
My thinking is that in all probability there would have been a similar improvement
with fuses as we have now.
My speakers at the time were PL Hart’s design through Harman’s Infinity line…the Beta50 towers.
Cheap entry level…amazingly very revealing and able to show off the impact of a P5
and Nordost Red Dawn xlr ics, and Red Dawn speaker cables.
So Vmax indeed it would be interesting…perhaps if someone here happens to still have
a vintage 80’s integrated or separates…to give it a go and see what happens.
The results would be surprising…better than anticipated probly.
Best wishes everyone
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There are so many of you to thank I can’t list all your names. I have been reading about the various tweaks, and I’m taking advantage of all of your experience and making whole system tweaks. One of these is I just put the gold lion 12au7s into the BHK pre. Fantastic.
I have ordered the RF shielding for my p15. I also have one of the M1 fuses for the P15, but I want to wait till the gold lions are completely settled in. Then the P15 pc upgrade. these whole system SQ tweaks are making my system sing. So thanks again and happy tweaking.
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The majority here are open minded and welcoming. Enjoy squeezing out more performance the rewards and self satisfaction are for the hearing better music. If you’re needing help on absorber or shielding please ask it is a cost effective learning experience and protecting our audio circuits from the digital age noise of last 20 years is low hanging fruit to make your system sound better. Most audio companies only worry about passing emission requirements and have ignored susceptibility from sources outside the box they designed.
Those manufacturers that have figured it out charge and arm and leg for their cables and shielded products though the materials are cheap the R&D is not.
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3 M-1s + 3M absorber sheet and tuning ring on P20 + anti vibrating dampening plug tweaks… after a few days…
I’m playing The Waterboys Fisherman’s Blues album and it has never sounded so realistic and engaging, it seems all is perfectly balanced now. Audiophile nirvana?
I don’t want any more tweak or upgrade (for a while)! It’s a pity (ah ah ah) within 3 days I have to turn the system off for 2 weeks. Let me enjoy every single track meanwhile.
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Wait, did you try my wine cork trick yet? Just kidding, I replaced some corks with the sorbothane discs (not all), the music is even more alive than before. I placed one Orea plus a couple disc/of disc/rings to support the power cord (just outside the plug) at PST, and the SQ improvement was obvious.
There is never an end to the tweaks I am afraid.
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The only corks I will manage with for the next weeks are the ones of some good Napa wine bottle! Cheers!
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