Tell Us What Tweaks You Use That You Swear By

Gregadd

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Cheap Tweak

Here is the dumbbell on my CLS transformer.
 

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MylesBAstor

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Apr 20, 2010
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Thems some prehistoric DBs.
 

Gregadd

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Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
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I don't know if this is a tweak or not, but we use it when we archive LP's. Some of these have a very high surface noise and we don't like to use any processing to take out the clicks/pops. (Yes, we've tried Cedar/Algorithmx/Izotope).
For those few LP's that you just have to get that perfect recording from.... play it wet! Spay a mist of Discwasher or something. Just make it a light mist to cover the whole LP. Just make sure to clean the gunk out of your cartridge later!
 

MylesBAstor

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Pursuant to what you just said, Mike Lavigne last year was experimenting with a tourmaline hair blower on his vinyl with remarkable but temporary results.

Hopefully Mike will chime in with his findings

I also played the The Music Gun (TMG). I liked a lot of what it did, eg transparency, bass and detail, but for some reason, it also seemed seemed to compress dynamics. Tried calling the manufacturer but never heard back to see if I was doing something wrong (I did also try shorter/longer exposures but that didn't help the dynamics issues).

There's also a different version from Joe Cohen.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I also played the The Music Gun (TMG). I liked a lot of what it did, eg transparency, bass and detail, but for some reason, it also seemed seemed to compress dynamics. Tried calling the manufacturer but never heard back to see if I was doing something wrong (I did also try shorter/longer exposures but that didn't help the dynamics issues).

There's also a different version from Joe Cohen.


I guess one of the things which makes a tweak a tweak is that we usually don't have a clue as to the science or efficacy but this whole thing fascinated me
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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The $10.00 tweak.

http://www.a1nutrition.com/buy-similasan-ear_wax_relief/
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator

naturephoto1

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May 24, 2010
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I use a lot of Herbies Audio footers including the Tenderfoot and Iso-cups as well as Fat Dots, and Giant Fat Gliders:









But, what was most amazing was when Chris Brady of Teres Audio replaced the standard Still Points under the Teres Certus Control Box for my Teres Certus 450 turntable with the 3 expensive Marigo Mystery Feet during the turntable installation in April of 2009:



The first time that Chris made the change from Still Points to the Mystery Feet both of our jaws dropped at the same time and we just looked at each other. We swapped the feet several times each time with the same result. The improvement was stark and amazing. The performance of the turntable improved dramatically to the point that Chris thought that my Certus 450 sounded better than the $5,000 more expensive Certus 460. Chris decided not to build anymore Certus 460 turntables soon after that because of the performance of my Certus 450 (with the Mystery Feet), he did not have anymore Certus 460 turntables prepared, and because his material costs particularly for metals were escalating. Additionally after the demo in my listening room, Chris decided to replace the Still Points with the Marigo Mystery Feet for any Certus Turntables that were to be prepared, but reflecting the cost difference.

Chris Brady demoed the same performance effect with I think a Certus 440 when he shared the listening room with Soundsmith at RMAF in October. Everyone in the audience had the same reaction that we did.

Rich
 
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naturephoto1

Member
May 24, 2010
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I haven't heard the name Marigo in quite a while. In fact since I purchased his CD Tweak the CD Mats.


As for this CD mat tweak all I can say is Caveat Emptor

Hi Steve,

As to the Marigo CD mat, not even in the same league as an affect as the Mystery Feet. We have had some success more so with some rather than other CD/DVD/Blu-ray players with the Herbies Black Hole and the Millenium Carbon Fiber CD mats.

Rich
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Hi Steve,

As to the Marigo CD mat, not even in the same league as an affect as the Mystery Feet. We have had some success more so with some rather than other CD/DVD/Blu-ray players with the Herbies Black Hole and the Millenium Carbon Fiber CD mats.

Rich

well I have 3 of his newest version of the Marigo mats. Free to anyone who will pay the shipping. To me it was snake oil.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Another thought about "any" CD mats. I would imagine that "if" one buys into their efficacy he had better be certain that the transport might not get stuck first. I say that because for me, (I use the Playback Designs which is a front not a top loader), the mat would never load correctly because of a very narrow input for the disc to load and unload. Although the mat is thinner than a CD the overall increase in the loading height caused the disk to load off center. In fact once it got stuck. Fortunately I live blocks from Playback Designs partner and designer Andreas Koch. I took the player to him and he got everything apart with no harm done. Andreas who IMO is one of the brightest people I have ever met (Google Andreas Koch) and I got to talking about this mat that he just removed. I told him the philosophy behind it and he very politely gave me what I felt to be the better answer and I will leave it at that.

The few times that it did load and and I was able to listen to a few tracks of some of my demo disks I could hear absolutely no difference. But that's just me. I would be interested if any other members have used it and what were their findings?
 

kach22i

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MylesBAstor

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
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New York City
well I have 3 of his newest version of the Marigo mats. Free to anyone who will pay the shipping. To me it was snake oil.

My experience with CD mats is that they worked better with early gen digital gear as a bandaid to cover up digital's shortcomings than with newer digital gear.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
My experience with CD mats is that they worked better with early gen digital gear as a bandaid to cover up digital's shortcomings than with newer digital gear.


Thanks for reinforcing my findings but if one is to use them I would avoid a front loader such as the Playback Designs for fear the mat will get stuck and/or not load correctly
 

kach22i

WBF Founding Member
Apr 21, 2010
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1,635
Ann Arbor, Michigan
www.kachadoorian.com
Thanks for reinforcing my findings but if one is to use them I would avoid a front loader such as the Playback Designs for fear the mat will get stuck and/or not load correctly
This happened to me about ten years ago on my McIntosh CD player, the needledoctor took it back, no problem.

http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~sherman/
the mcintosh MCD7009 single cd player uses an aluminum cylinder the diameter of a compact disc, and clamps the cd to the cylinder during playback. this provides vibration-free reproduction.
 

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