Tweaks you have tried which are detrimental.

Apogeelover

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2016
17
4
133
I tried a antistatic mat on my SACD player out of curiosity.The claim for this device;which consisted of several thin layers of antistatic plastic as used for packaging transistors was to improve the smoothness of rotation by eliminating static discharge.Infact the exact opposite ocurred when in use.The sound became less detailed and more smeared and sound stage focus was badly affected.To cap it all some SACDs started to mistrack.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
Hmmm Let me see. Top of mind are Vibrapods. Some change in sound, nothing groundbreaking but the worst part is they somehow leaked this weird liquid that stained furniture. Gross.

When experimenting with shelf materials many years ago I tried wood, acrylic, and granite. The granite wasn't quite thick enough so it rang and rang more with the combination of spikes. Sound was tipped up and harsh. Then my first bout with acrylic was not as bad but when I tried another type of acrylic, that was much better. MDF was flabby, hardwood okay, butcher block much better than solid hardwood. Went with differing layers but the guess work burned me out. I ended up with ready made passive shelves CLD with acrylic, sorbothane and bitumen coatings on the acrylics. Never looked back.

Volt reader. You know, the ones that look like 80's alarm clocks with the bright red numbers. Obviously does nothing for the sound but it did serve as a cause of audiophilia nervosa. Couldn't take the distraction so I chucked that.

"Power Conditioners" My first ones were nothing but glorified power strips with some caps in them. Made the sound gray and dull. No they weren't Richard Grays but come to think of it that would've been really funny in an ironic way if they were. Had another one for a second system that was made in China. Rolled off the top end and rolled off the bass. Maybe the designer thought making everything sound like Bose 802s was a good idea. It now resides with my Pioneer DJ rig which funnily enough benefits from its weird character.

Blu Tack. Talk about a crap shoot. Too much? Too little? Where to place them? Didn't have many options way back then especially with little kids running around. Saw the errors of my ways when I finally tried damping pads actually meant for monitors.

Lead shot. In my opinion still the best thing for mass loading stands, bird shot to be precise. So what went wrong? I had to send some to another province for a client and almost got arrested when the security dog sat on the box making the K-9 cop think I was shipping ordinance. I think that qualifies as making things BAD.

Steel Ball Bearings. Give me Tungsten Carbide or give me death.
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,471
11,368
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agree on Vibrapods and steel shot.

Vibrapods under gear blurred transients, reduced focus.

the Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack system was my reference for a few years. I tried steel shot in the hollow legs once and it deadened the sound. I tried various amounts of it but no matter the amount it was a bad tweak. my GPA rack was on concrete. possibly if it was a suspended wood floor it might have helped.

there are other tweaks where they worked in one context, but were a detriment in another context.

I used the original Shunyata Hydra in my system in the late 90's and it worked. then I installed dedicated lines and I found the system sounded better without the Hydra which seemed to add noise.

I used the RPG Skylines in the center of the wall behind my speakers and it was a help to imaging. then as I started fine tuning the room and treating the reflective surfaces at a certain point the Skylines made things worse. when I removed it everything got better.

you gotta listen....
 

thedudeabides

Well-Known Member
Jan 16, 2011
2,127
651
1,200
Alto, NM
Anything sorbothane. Softens sounds, deadens transients.
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,411
2,509
1,448
Agree here on vibropods...was excited to finally try them and returned them a few days later and fortunately got a full refund. Tried one of those CD Mats...mixed results and frankly would not now wish to mess up my Zanden Transport so have left it out.

Jack - you're experiments with shelves is interesting. my rack is 3 shelves of 3"-4" thick birch ply each...with 3" side walls that have steel rods that run inside the side panels from top to bottom (and have been screwed underneath the shelf to pull/compress all the wood pieces tightly together...and then the whole rack (400lbs) sits on top of a 1.5" thick slab of slate with felt pads underneath so as not to scratch the floor.

It was designed by an avid audiophile who specializes in custom kitchens. Honestly, i have never compared it to HRS or the mega frames which no doubt are awesome...but he finished his in piano gloss sapele matchbook wood so I cannot complain (and my wife is happy).

Have you ever experimented with dense ply? Just curious really.
 

YashN

New Member
Jun 28, 2015
951
5
0
Canada
the Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack system was my reference for a few years. I tried steel shot in the hollow legs once and it deadened the sound. I tried various amounts of it but no matter the amount it was a bad tweak. my GPA rack was on concrete. possibly if it was a suspended wood floor it might have helped.

Sounds like normal results to if you don't have seismic isolation in place: the mass loading then helps couple the rack to the concrete, hence any seismic vibrations will more easily go back into the rack and the equipment.

That's why seismic isolation is more fundamental. It can still be used in conjunction with mass-loading if needed too.
 

fas42

Addicted To Best
Jan 8, 2011
3,973
3
0
NSW Australia
you gotta listen....
Exactly. I've played with the type of things mentioned here, and got varying results depending upon ... everything. I've had good results with anti-static plastic, and Blu Tack - I couldn't live without the latter! The big trick is experiment, experiment, experiment - and learn to to hear when things are improving, rather than merely changing.

Anything which allows parts of the system to flop around, not be locked into position with respect to their surroundings is almost guaranteed to have negative impact, IME.
 

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