Audio/Hi-Fi Tweaks under RM100/USD33/GBP20

Guys & Gals,

We've all spent quite a bit of money on our hobby, but as usual, the ones you probably remember are the ones with a lot of sweat gone in and very little dough/$$$ on, in which the results clearly speak for themselves.

How about a few ideas here for the nicest sonic improvements you have experienced under RM100 / USD33 / GBP20?

Cheers

Two glasses of wine and a beautiful chick sitting beside in an empty apartment.

All less than RM100.00

Mana ada begitu murah...

Except the chick is your girlfriend la. haha.

No, it's his pet chicken (male, so it's a cock actually)

Chicks (not eagle OK....too fierce) who happens to be an audiophile and don't mind not spending for the sake of music.

OK OK she loves sex and music.

Make it a bottle of wine to get the mood right.

All for less than RM100.00

Will RM100 be enough to change to those blue/pink lightings that is used in fish aquariums? Guys...I mentioned fish ok...not the ones found in Bangkok! Are those LED?

The following below, sufficient to accommodate the OS and software at around RM65 can be installed in a dedicated computer player. Big jump is SQ plus lifetime warranty from Kingston.



+

Good idea.

OS as in W7 and media player into the SD card?

VS126 wrote:Good idea.

OS as in W7 and media player into the SD card?

I am using a stripped down XP and cMP + cPlay which utilised 1.6GB. W7 might have issues with DRM.

A bit serious here. OK there's 4 main areas to improve (quick and cheap)
1. Electrical isolation - less spurious noise and good ground.
2. Sound/vibration isolation
3. Electrical connectivity (power or high level signals) - clean terminals. first rate wires.
4. Electrical connectivity (low level signals) as above
If you can sort the areas above separately and logical as possible, you're on the way to audio nirvana.

Areas like proper grounding of the equipment. I find that speakers need hard footers whereas sources like players and also the amps (They usually are on the same rack anyhow) seem to sound better with soft footers (like wood). Am not sure what the theory is behind it but it has to do with dispersion of vibration.
Some advocate solid and heavy support, others lightweight. I tend to prefer lightweight but it should be rigid though (that is a contradiction there) but lightweight has less stored energy.

Will report on other tips later. Note, the above refers to equipment placed on hard floors that we get in this part of the world - different if your equipment is placed on the carpet.

tycham wrote:

VS126 wrote:Good idea.

OS as in W7 and media player into the SD card?

I am using a stripped down XP and cMP + cPlay which utilised 1.6GB. W7 might have issues with DRM.

I am using i3 with W7 and JRivers 15 with latest upgrade

You think the 4 GB SD Card will work? Thinking of getting the SSD 120GB but if this works, saves me a lot of money for beer.

Thanks.

VS126 wrote:
I am using i3 with W7 and JRivers 15 with latest upgrade

You think the 4 GB SD Card will work? Thinking of getting the SSD 120GB but if this works, saves me a lot of money for beer.

Thanks.

I just bought the adapter and waiting for it to arrive probably in 3 weeks time. I had used an 8GB SSD(now using 30GB SSD bought earlier) which works well in my system(H55M-UD2H Mobo & i3-540 processor). Storage is external HDD via e-SATA with separate 5V power supply.

It can work for the 4GB CF but I read somewhere it is slow. You have to check how much memory W7 is using to decide on the size of CF.

Destroyed by adrian4454 himself.

Congrats, you are very brave to attempt all these tweaks.

Spoiler:

But one day, there will be some guy who in the quest for "better sound", will take your suggestions only too seriously and get their asses fried in the process. Its not that they do not "takut mati", but some could be "tak kenal maut" or "tak perasaan mati". They just don't understand the risks.

Lets hope it won't come back and haunt your conscience if that ever happens.

Spoiler:

On a side note, if you're really serious about this game, stop wasting time with cheapo tweaks and fiddles. Take the plunge and get yourself some decent gear and enjoy the music. Isn't this what hifi is all about?

A kancil with a 660cc engine (apologies to owners of Kancils for using their car engine as an illustration), although fun and zippy on the occasion, can only do so much no matter how you want to super/turbo/NOS/hyper-charge it. Once it's put side-by-side with a V8 engine and then you will realise that no matter what you do to a Kancil 660cc engine, it will *never* ever be in the league of a V8.

takut takut~~~

Guys, I am going to lock up this thread. This is because I am seeing an alarming trend towards messing around with the house electrical system and this is extremely dangerous, not to mention illegal. My strong advice to those of you planning/thinking of tinkering with the house electrical supply from TNB, GET a ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR to do it. DON'T do it yourself unless you have a wireman certificate from TNB.

Sorry.

Fellow moderator WongKN,
With due respect, this thread should not be locked, as it is not about power tweaks per se. We are looking for generally very cost-effective tweaks or solutions.

Hi All,

The title is all about audio tweaks, not wine, women, or changes to your power infrastructure that poses risks or goes against safety regulations. Why clog this thread up with noise? Sorry for being direct here, but...

....There are countless other ways to get more audio bang for your buck, so for the benefit of those really interested, please stick to the ones that really matter.

You are the Man, F..g

We keep to the topic.

Something a lot of us begineers can learn alot. Especially when our resident HiEnd guru Mugen and Joki have time to chip in.

BTW Mugen, you moved to Jinjang, so no more Teh Tarik sessions at Kota Damansara?

Seriously, after a few beers or glasses of wine, my medicore system always sounds like a million bucks.

Anybody else have this kind of experience?

Well, as long as the original objective is met. The diversion to talk about other stuff, even tokkok is OK but for me personally I will draw the line when it comes to talking about risky stuff. DIY is a great way to enjoy hifi but not when there is are risks involved. If the topic is kept to the original intention then fine. Or else I will attempt to lock again and of course it can be unlocked again and we ding-dong on this la.

Ok la ok la.. To keep the general well being of human race and to stop mid-life crisis happening sooner than it is due. I decide to blank off my version of less than RM100 tweak suggestion.

Sorry to keep you guys worrying and putting much un-rest over this matter. Hope life return to normal and knuckle showing moment stops.

Without going into knuckle showing perhaps a bit of elbow grease (i.e almost free and good to my ears at least):

* occasional clean up of your connectors, i.e spades and RCA's and even your power plugs.
* run through demag CD/degausse disc (Densen DAC Magic, I think Sg Petani Amanda was flogging off @RM60 at KLIAV2010, Cardas)
* fuses: HIFI tuning fuses (@USD39 not quite RM100 but almost there)

Btw, bro, VS126 u and CT Seong not same person meh... using same AVATAR i.e sharing and using same body ... Must be the wine..
Mugen, m running a development down your turf in Jinjang man... join u one day

Good, thanks to adrian for toe-ing the line and apologies to admin for the hard stance. It is crucial to establish this understanding up front.

No apologies needed. We are all doing things in good faith man...

adrian4454 wrote:takut takut~~~

what happened?

zeebee wrote:
Btw, bro, VS126 u and CT Seong not same person meh... using same AVATAR i.e sharing and using same body ... Must be the wine..

No lah, not the same person. I better change my then.

Yeah, must be the wine.

It's passed now. Adrian recommended some tweaks in good faith and with sincerity but some members actually PM'ed me and asked me to check carefully against safe electrical practise which I did and after consulting with those same members, felt that it is indeed risky and highly not recommended, not to mention illegal in some cases. For e.g. a DB board is either MCB or fuse and you can't mix both because the mounting system is different and the wiring scheme is different as well. So what was recommended would require a very skillful electrician, one with a wireman certificate from TNB, definitely not DIY and strictly speaking not in line with the original intention of this post which was very thoughfully started by the admin himself. I just felt we needed to establish a firm guideline now while we are relatively young so that we have a good foundation to grow in the future. I thank the admin for supporting me. And for re-starting this thread again as it is indeed a very good thread.

Now, back to sharing.

I like your avatar, WongKN

Anyway - here are a few free or cheap tweaks.

- Have a TV between your speakers? Try throwing a heavy towel over it.
- If your system sounds bright, and you have a hard floor - try a rug. The thicker and plusher the rug, the better.
- Find your first reflection point and put some pillows there. Acoustic foam is better.
- Try throwing a towel over your CD player. This blocks more light from entering and may improve the sensitivity of your laser pickup.
- Rearrange all your cables so that power cables and signal cables are seperate. If they must cross, try to cross them at right angles.

... and the most obvious one of all: an afternoon spent experimenting with toe in and speaker placement is never wasted.

Hi Guys,
Fot those who has read it before I can delete, I would like to explain further before ppl starts fearing that I maybe preaching on making Nuclear warhead ..

The mounting is the same DIN Rail. And the Circuit Breaker is industrial grade. It is compliance/certified by few International Standards.
If you are care to bother, it is not certified by Sirim for the matter of fact..

What isnt really safe is when you open the DB Box or when you dont really know anything about the DB Box. Or to cancel off the Residual Current Device (RCD) where you got yourself a dedicated grounding earth of your own. All these are dangerous to kill you.

Then again, before you start stoning me, do note that all the lovely high end or better than high end power cord... yes, those US plug version. How would it be qualified to use under our BS1363 13A plug? Though some look like it can stop a bullet. but some of them arent been certified, or in compliant with International Standard. And also it doesnt come with fuse.

Now we often think we are pretty safe when we have MCB in our DB box, do you know that after years of not tripping the MCB switch, it will get potentially stuck to that position? that's very dangerous. Just imagine your US plug anaconda thickness power cord having a short; no fuse to trip, ur MCB got stuck too; and your RCD hasnt got it own common earth to detect leakage... this is a case of waiting for any of the wire to mild... certainly not the power cord..; fire or either the victim got cook to charcoal.

I am sharing my findings and bit of my knowledges here; not trying to boost some credits of what I did is safe. I know my potential hazards. It is right for you guys to get me thinking into taking off what I suggested, because not everyone know the hazard and DB box like I do. And not everyone has the same set of steady hand to do this. (Not boosting myself here either) , Yes, in the right context, this is hazardous.

Later on, I will recommend safer one... but it got to do with opening your equipment.. again potential hazard, is this acceptable? guess not ah

Adrian,

I understand what you are getting at, to me power is the most important thing which many have overlook.

Almost everything depends on yr house power.

I used to think like a lot of forummer does, how can 3 or 4 feet power cord helps while current have been travelling for miles b4 reaching yr home.

Trust me, power cord, conditioner, hifi fuses for equipments, MCB, earthing and all those relating to power issue are, if not the most important to good sound.

Maybe Adrian, you cld come down and fix some of our power issues.

BTW, where are the good food located in Melaka? Ivan the Eagle is keeping mum.

Hi VS126,
There are greater sifu out there la. I am just a commoner.. I am still on a long path of discovery and error. Recommended good foods to Eagle before... he should know. Anyway, I can PM you too
in GPS coordinate, though.

Everything has a potential to change sound, because hifi in this age still pretty analogue. Case like what Meridian is trying to do now on their complete system; is trying to reduce the analogue related gremlin.. it will see greatness in the future... not possibly on higher fidelity; but to tickle down the tech to cheaper alternative. Imagine a RM5k system in the future; play as good as the 1/2 million buck system nowadays.

adrian4454 wrote:. Imagine a RM5k system in the future; play as good as the 1/2 million buck system nowadays.

It is all wishing thinking.

You can't go against the law of Physics.

Amplifier OK, Class D amps are catching up fast, some surpass even class A/AB.

Source also catching up fast, already Media Players are better and more compact than CD players.

But to play Big Scale, you still need big floorstanders with big woofers to move air.

Just a saying la.. doesnt mean exactly happen that way.

The principle of speaker movement still heavily relying on what has been discovered 100 years moving coil magnet.. New movement emerge and some got better than this.. Who knows.. there will be a breakthrough in the future. We need to look at 100 yrs from now..

Provided we dont get nuke by meteroid yet by then..

adrian4454 wrote:Hi VS126,
Case like what Meridian is trying to do now on their complete system; is trying to reduce the analogue related gremlin.. it will see greatness in the future... not possibly on higher fidelity; but to tickle down the tech to cheaper alternative. Imagine a RM5k system in the future; play as good as the 1/2 million buck system nowadays.

adrian,
what is it Meridian is doing ....what technology to reduce analogue gremlins?

Hi Carz,
Not really something special that Meridian is doing, since we are audiophile, I have thought you can read it out from their latest products or website.

They are doing digital source till speaker. Basically, the speaker is connected to the source using something look like an Ethernet cable, fed with digital streaming data. "Theoritically", it reduce all the analogue related problem from our conventional approach.

Nothing new, been done by others before. Just that they have better brand image, advertisement power and powerful RnD strength to drive this to new height.

Occasional cleaning of RCA, spks connectors and terminals is definitely helpful but system needs to "run in" again after such cleaning is done, to restore the "enough-run-in" coherent sound.

Placement of hifi equipments at the side instead of placing them in between spks helps in relatively much better overall sound, but one needs relatively longer spks cables.

Successfully clone OS & Media Player to this Compact Flash drive. Cannot find 4GB so settle for 8GB.

SQ no different from that of a SSD. Boot time to player is 47seconds which is ok. But loading files to drive is extremely slow. Shutdown is also very slow. Maybe should realign the partition. Let's see....