My Top 5 Inexpensive Hifi Tweaks

hi there and welcome to a British warrior farm my name is Tarun and in this episode I'm going to examine my top five inexpensive high five tweaks now I'm gonna say from the offset I'm not a great Tweaker I'd rather spend my money on upgrading equipment than on buying gizmos but these fall into the general category of good housekeeping so I'm talking about stuff that helps reduce vibrations in your system and lower the noise floor so let's get started now those of you who watched my video on cables may have noted that when I spoke about speaker cables I recommended that you've got speaker cables that weren't shielded and the reason for that is that adding shielding to any cable increases its capacitance and you don't want to unduly increase the capacitance of a cable if it isn't necessary the reason it's not necessary on speaker cable is that your speaker is a relatively low impedance load it's typically for 8 ohms as a result the current that your amplifier supplies to the speaker is very high relatively high and the signal-to-noise ratio is high the amount of noise that you're picking up from radio frequencies which is RF or electromagnetic induction which is EMI is negligible in that kind of environment so shielding a cable is just going to be detrimental rather than beneficial when you're talking about speaker cables now what you can experiment with is adding ferrite cores so I've got they come in different sizes and shapes but there's some examples here I hope you can see those clearly and what you want to do is choose one that fits quite snugly and what this is really is effectively a magnet that you're clamping around one side and explain why you do one side in a second so you want a nice tight fit and you connect that on to one of your ends of your speaker cable now the reason you don't want to is that obviously if you've got two magnets in close proximity you've got magnetic fields that are interfering with each other the other reason is that these add inductance so if you get too much of this or too many of these on you'll get a little bit of high frequency roll-off but one of them quite snugly fit on should really have any real effect on the frequency range but what it does do is it provides a radiofrequency choke and it may also help with reducing a little bit of EMI as well so worth playing around with they're relatively expensive I think and get a pack of ten of them for about ten pounds just to be crystal clear you place one of these ferrite cores on one of the connections at the speaker end of your cable obviously do it the speaker end because the signal is passing from your amplifier to your speaker so what you're doing is getting rid of any RF that the cable may be picking up along that signal path I wouldn't put it on interconnects because your interconnects are likely to be already shielded so what you're doing is basically adding inductance for no added benefit if you've got captive mains leads you may want to try putting one of those on at the end of your mains lead where it goes into your equipment because it may or may not have a benefit at that point as well in terms of reducing RF and a little bit of EMI coming into your equipment I think it's beneficial to make some effort to reduce the vibrations in your system as well now that could be the vibrations that your equipment experiences your pre amplifier amplifier DAC turntable all your speakers and your subwoofer and we're talking about speakers first traditionally what was used as spikes I think still a lot of people I see tend to use spikes that's kind of this kind of arrangement where you have a spike under your speaker and if it's carpeted it goes straight through if it's not if it's on a wooden floor you'll see this kind of arrangement underneath where you've put something to protect the floor by having the spike going into this kind of metal disc now these are fine that's what traditionally has been used but they do not significantly reduce vibrations you're still effectively coupling your speakers to the floor I think the only time I would use these is if I had a concrete floor because that's so heavy and so dense that the vibrations that your speakers are producing aren't really going to translate to the floor if you've got a wooden suspended floor even if you've got carpet on top of it these spikes are going to excite vibrations in that floor and I think you're much better off rather than trying to couple your speakers to the floor to D couple of them decoupled them and with that regard I would use something like this there are fancy decoupling devices people like iso acoustics will charge you 150 pounds for four kind of isolation devices but these are what I used under Neath washing machines and they come in white black and I think you can get these for about five or six pounds for a pack of four they work pretty well in terms of reducing vibrations they're designed to reduce vibrations from washing machines and you know that they can vibrate significantly they may not have the extended frequency range in terms of reducing vibrations that perhaps you know the fancy audiophile solutions have but in terms of low frequencies which is where it's most critical reducing vibrations they work really effectively and I'm going to say there five or six pounds for a pack of four place those under your speakers on your subwoofer and decouple them from the floor and your equipment I would use something called support same that's what I think it might be pronounced Sauber Thane and these are about 15 pounds of pack of four and there are a lot softer than the anti-vibration kind of disks that you use for speakers but these work really well and it's known to be material that's very good at absorbing vibrations across the entire frequency range like say 10 15 pounds for a patter for worth sticking these underneath each one of your equipments it will significantly reduce the vibrations valve gear is known to be microphonic which means that the vibrations get translated into a audio signal electronic solid state gear less so but still good housekeeping to try and eliminate as many of those vibrations as possible over the years voice had a love-hate relationship with mains conditioners now more of hate than love if I'm honest and the reason is that I've always had them in my system for a few weeks and got rid of them just before I get into that I'll just briefly explain what a mains conditioner is so you can see here beside me it's normally a power strip which has a filter built-in and the purpose of the filter is to protect your equipment from surges so it could be a lightning strike or any other reason why you may have an electrical surge coming through your equipment and it also eliminates radio frequency and electromagnetic interference noise getting into your sensitive electronic equipment which has a benefit sonically so all good news that's thus far the problem is that they've always traditionally put a little bit of a stranglehold on dynamics you feel as if it sucks a little bit of the life out of the system I've tried a bunch of them over the years this one here is byte Aseema as TAC I M a and it's available here through Amazon in the UK for 35 40 pounds I'm sure it's available in other countries as well and this one doesn't tend to be too intrusive it seems to have a lot of those benefits without a loss of dynamics I've tried it in all three of my systems so that's my Hegel and exposure with the pro axe in the main system I have tried it with my technics vintage amplifier and celestial speakers that you see here beside me and my audio lab and PSB set up in the bedroom and in each case why I'm noticed is that the noise floor seems to have shifted down that means that tiny little details pop out of the recording much more easily it's as if you can hear a little bit further into the recording and there's also a little bit more refinement and extension at the top end the high frequencies and without any real perceived loss in dynamics so for once I've come across a relatively inexpensive mains conditioner which has many of the benefits that are associated with mains conditioners but not the drawback so I think it's worth checking out and I think people's mileage just generally does tend to vary with these kind of devices so you may or may not experience the same things what I can talk to you about is the three systems that I've tried and the experiences have been positive so I would recommend trying this mains conditioner out from Tassimo what I use alongside my power strip mains conditioner is a parallel mains conditioner now have a couple of these devices here first one is from Cosima the same people who make that main strip power conditioner that I spoke about earlier now just to be clear I have no association with this company they don't know me from Adam I've never spoken to them don't get paid for recommending this stuff I just happen to find that a couple of their devices seem to work really well so what you do is you plug this into a spare power socket right next to where you plug your power main strip where you have the rest of your equipment so this goes in the spare socket the strip goes in the socket next to it obviously all your equipment is connected to the strip and there's this one from Tassimo say about 40 pounds off Amazon that one this is 100 pounds here in the UK and that's from iphitus and AC purifier works I think in a similar way this is an active mains conditioner and essentially what it does is it works similarly to the way the noise cancelling headphones work it kind of monitors the signal the noise coming off the mains and puts an inverted signal in to reduce the noise floor I find that these work pretty well now again your mileage will vary based on your equipment I've tried this out with all three of my setups and the results have been fairly consistent in terms of opening up of the soundstage increased resolution micro dynamics and micro details pop out a little bit more clearly and much more fluid and kind of extend it top end so I've been really impressed with these devices and the I Phi one is a little bit better than the Tassimo one but it's also two and a half times the price and I think these are actually even more effective than the main strip so if I was going to start I'd probably start with the power device first because I think the improvement is more dramatic than it is with the main strip power conditioner from Tassimo that I spoke about just a moment or two ago few weeks ago I produced a video on cables where I spoke about speaker cables and interconnects I didn't mention power cables and a few people pointed that out in the comments section I think essentially the same principle applies to power cables that applies to speaker cables and interconnects at the end of the day they are all carrying an electrical signal and my conclusion in that video was that in order to get a well engineered cable with good electrical properties you don't have to spend a fortune you can buy speaker cables and interconnects from companies like Belden lap van Dam for interconnects for 40 50 pound speed cables for five to 10 pounds of meter and I would extend that argument to power cables as well now the biggest criticism of power cables is that essentially what difference can it make changing the cable in the last meter and a half run from the power socket your equipment when you've got reams of it around your home that aren't fancy and I just regular cables well my answer to that is that when you've got cables running around in your home circuit they effectively are in a relatively low noise environment because there aren't many other cables in proximity now depending on how much equipment you have at the back of your hi-fi rack you may have a lot of cables in close proximity to each other you'll have power cables for each of your pieces of equipment you'll have speaker cables you'll have interconnects potentially all interfering with each other so I think it's sensible and prudent to pay some attention get rid of the cheap generic stuff that you get given to you for free and have a nice shielded cable with good quality conductors of a decent gauge and reasonable terminations on each end and again as I mentioned with speed cables and interconnects you don't have to spend a fortune so to illustrate that point this is a generic cable that you get IEC connector here three pawn ones sometimes you get the figure of eight ones but that's a standard one I'm just basically shorten this one because we're using this as a short run and that's what you'll get and if you compare that this cable from lap pull that out I'm sure if this comes across clearly maybe I'll post some pictures up you'll notice that the lap cable is an awful lot thicker and that's because it uses two and a half millimeter conductors the insulation is a lot heavier and there's a braided shield around the outside so all in all the construction is far more substantial than the generic freebie cable that you get now this cable from lap retails for around seven pounds of meter so it's not particularly expensive I purchase it from a company called mains cables are us MCI you know UK and an alternative is the Belden one nine three six four which again is around seven pounds of meter again very substantially built two and a half meter conductors good insulation a foil shield around the outside as opposed to a braided shield and that's probably the only real significant difference I use fairly generic connectors a three-point plug on one side and Martin Keizer connectors on the other side no soldiering involved just screw them in and all in all you can produce one of these cables for a one meter run for about fifteen pounds if you want to have it built for you you can have them done for about fifty sixty pounds there's quite a substantial saving if you want to do it yourself disclaimer here only try and do that if you're comfortable with how to wire up a plug and connect the shield essentially the shield needs to be kind of terminated along with the earth connection on both ends and you need to make sure that the shield doesn't gain contact with any of the other conductors so if you're not confident doing that yourself probably better off spending the 50 60 pounds of games someone else to do it but as I say if you are comfortable with wiring the plug in connecting shield to the earth on both ends then you can save yourself quite a bit of money and produce one of these cables for 15 pounds now these tweaks that I mentioned from the ferrite core at the end of your speaker cable to the isolation pads under your speakers and your equipment the mains conditioning power strip the parallel mains conditioner and finally the shielded power cords all fall in the area of tweaks and as a result in isolation I'm not saying that one of these things makes a huge difference to how your system is going to sound but all these little improvements add up and there is an accumulative effect I think that these fall into the area of good housekeeping and you know that once you've taken care of these things that your system isn't going to be adversely affected from vibrations and you've eliminated the source of electrical radiofrequency and EMI noise coming in potentially upsetting sensitive equipment they're on the list because they're inexpensive and I think they're worth giving a go and having a try so hopefully you've found something beneficial from this video if you liked it please hit that like button please share it if you like my approach to hi-fi please subscribe if you haven't subscribed already thank you to my 6000 subscribers out there this channel has already grown way beyond my expectations so we'll see where it goes from here and for today for now a British audio file signing off

Channel: A British Audiophile

Views: 367,422

Rating: 4.8138614 out of 5

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Id: Dtb88_hbCFQ

Length: 19min 21sec (1161 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/PuddingPiler]

Here are my picks for inexpensive (or free) Hifi tweaks that, unlike these suggestions, will actually make a difference in your listening session. I hesitate to call this video "snake-oil bullshit", because everything this guy is suggesting has a basis in reality - his tips just won't make an audible difference.

1. Limit your exposure to loud noise as much as possible before your listening session. Fitted earplugs, when worn frequently and appropriately throughout the day, will do more to enhance your evening listening than even many non-snake oil improvements.
2. Clean your listening environment, and set it up in a way that is aesthetically pleasing to you. Unless your eyes are closed, your surroundings will have a big impact on your mood and perception, and an organized, comfortable space will greatly enhance your session.
3. Eat a good diet rich in vitamins and minerals. Some vitamin deficiencies can negatively affect your hearing by a surprising amount, and there's more reason to believe that the addition of a folic acid supplement or multivitamin to your morning routine will do more to improve your listening long-term that any of the tips in that video.
4. Enjoy an adult beverage or legal psychoactive substance while listening. Kind of like tubes or subjective EQ these can objectively degrade your hearing a bit, but the change in perception can hugely enhance your listening experience. A dram or two of good whiskey or a pinch of cannabis can do more to increase your enjoyment than thousands of dollars of equipment upgrades sometimes, and it can be fun to listen to some of the same tracks at the beginning and end of the evening to see how a little intoxication changes what you hear.
5. If you're the type to hop on the forums either before or during listening, then throw some positive reviews of the gear that you're using into your reading list. Other people's positive impressions and observations will help you to appreciate your gear and notice its strengths. This will improve your subjective perception of your own equipment and just a couple of minutes of this can help prevent upgraditis and G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome) from completely tempering your fun.

[u/iH8usrnames]

The best advice I have is learn to listen. Educate the ear before buying a solution.

I know a person with a 10k system and 5k in albums who does not understand stereo imaging; actually cannot discern any of it. Only hears left and right.

[u/Shckr57]

The two changes I have made to my setup that made a discernible difference was to place some isoacoustics stands under my monitors because I have them on my desk and to use thicker gauge audio cables.

[u/Flak-Jakket]

Just watched this last night as a matter of fact. Specifically because of the iFi Purifier. Was curious if they do anything substantial.

[u/[deleted]]

Is this you? Whoever it is is good on camera. I wish more people on YouTube could speak in a normal and natural conversational tone like this guy.

[u/KoeiNL]

The best tip I can give you is something you can do for free: listen to new gear only in a double blind level matched setup. That will save you a lot of money.

[u/GalacticArachnids]

None of these will make any discernible difference.

[u/KrazyRuskie]

Inexpensive snake oil