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Audio Tweaks - Collection (Ascending)
  

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The Tweaks Collection

Total tweaks posted: 348

This collection, growing since Oct. 1998, has been made possible by the kindness and generosity of audiophiles around the world. Here at Audio Tweaks we whish to thank all of you for your time and willingness to share.

Please note: 
Ref# - is the tweak unique identifier and not a counter. The gaps in the Ref# account for tweaks that have been submitted but not posted. Tweaks typically left out of this list are those submitted incomplete.
Cm - is the number of comments posted for the tweak.
 
Ref# Cm Tweak Description
     
24Build yourself a component rack
35Stuff dacron pillow batting into the ports on your ported speaker to tune the bass response
41Get the Digital Gear away from your tuner
5Cheap tube damper for input and driver tubes
63Ground your metal rack, reduce noise
73Pluse transformer for Digital
8Component isolation device
91CD spinner and magnetic field source used in combination with a tape demagnetizer
10Isolation device
11Contact cleaner and preservative
121Fill freezer type Ziplock sandwich storage bags with sand and sandwich between two pieces of MDF
16Fill gallon bags with play sand, place on top of CD players, amplifiers (away from heat-dispersion fins!)
171Granite plate
181These are little metal cones, put them under your speakers and you will have midrange galore, esp, guitars and vocals
19Coil spring mounting of speaker enclosures
20210 pair telephone wire as speaker cable
22Improved contact
2322 inch thick poly foam tubing placed around speaker cables
24Marble slab subwoofer platform
25Large bubble wrap isolation for CDP
26Cheap tonearm wrap
28Item is a clear plastic-like material in the form of a washer. It has a tacky surface
29Nothing to upgrade? Then upgrade your AC cord to this
301Damping feet for CD players
31Change the capacitors and resistors in the cross-over in your speakers to better types
321Mount these to your speakers and low frequencies are enhanced.
33Separate dedicated AC lines for amp and digital components
35Damping for equipment racks and speaker stands
373Use plumber’s teflon tape on your small input tubes for vibration control
38Reduce resonance of wood component racks
39Close doors to listening area
41Construct Maple sand Box for equipment support
43Warm running water & a thin film of soap rinsed well in the same exotic running viscus fluid cleans CD's as well as the high priced spread
45Different soundimage in surroundsystems
48Poor man's seismic sink
491OHP covers
501Black Diamond Racing cones, The Things and The Pits…
511Find correct polarity of speakersystem
521Put (drinking)-straws in the bass reflex port in your speakers
54Effective, low cost, easy to make and use record clamp
551Inexpensive, but effective acoustic panels
56The system configuration solution for the pure audio versus home-theater dilemma
572Great way to hold speakers down to stands
58Putting marble/granite slabs of different thickness underneath the spikes of the amplifier improves soundstaging
591Securing bookshelf speakers with "Blue-tac" on stands
60Placing a piece of "Mpingo Disc" on top of the CD player's spindle position
61Foam mattress pads on your wall
622Wooden boxes filled with #8 lead shot
63This tweak takes the harshness out of cone tweeters
65Lift chokes off pc-board
661Use plastic 35mm film containers on power cords, interconnects and speaker cable to cut RFI
67Use spiral cable wrap to damp resonances of tonearm
68Use to damp vibrations
70Remove your grill cloths
71Clean up your home's AC line
721Remove the damping from reflex speakers and insert a V shaped brace running top to bottom (2"x2" approx.)to break up standing waves and add speed to bass
74Speaker placement greatly affects bass especially with Legacy Focus speakers
76Applied to ac electrical contacts
771Slate under the spikes of the speaker stand
79Cones
81Direct rca to rca connection
82Improved DIY AC neutral to ground EMI/RFI filter
832Improved AC hot to AC neutral EMI/RFI filters
84The best tube damping rings
85Adding wings to A7 to get better image and lower in bottom octaves
86Rewiring from the terminals to the diaphragm. Taking out the inner screen
871Replacing the 12 volts DC power supply with two car battery
88Throwing away the OP amps at the output of the dacs. replacing them with tube
892More of a repair for dented dust caps in speakers or tweeters themselves than a tweak actually.
90Phono cable dressing for suspended t.tables
91Glass panel tweak
924Half racquetballs to dampen components
932My tweak is about equipment damping, instead of buying Shakti Stones or Bright Stars, I put block of marble at the top of each of my component so vibrations are damped and somewhat minimized
94Outboard power supply
95A fast and easy way to set up your speakers for good bass response
96Secure your minimonitors or other stand mounted speakers to improve bass & imaging
97Damping vibration in lower priced cd players to improve performance
983Improve your imaging in spite of having a TV between your speakers
1001Adding a 3/4" glass panel to the top of the CD player
101Do-it-yourself RFI detection
102Even if you don't have static, you'll want to use this awesome contact cleaner/protector
103Separate Digital and analogue Supplies to regulators and run digital (5V) regulators from Nicad Batteries
104Cones made of Aluminum outercone in which steal inlay is shrinked. space is filled with bitumen-like material
10510kg Steal block for use with acoustic balance cones
106Rope platform for audio components
1071In addition to painting the CD edges green, painting the CD tray and the inside of the chassis cover would also benefit from the green paint effect
108Installed two cooling fans in an entertainment unit to reduce heat generated by six components.
109Outboard Power Supply/ transformer
1101The ultimate no-cost speaker stand
1122Speaker Enclosure Deadening
113Connecting two identical conductors in a single path
114DeoxIt and Pro-Gold are contact cleaners which also improve the conductivity of all the (electrical)contacts in your hifi setup
115Using Belden coax cable as speaker wire
116A platform to reduce the vibration of a CD player or source
1171Coins on top of speakers do wonders
1191Solid core, house hold industry, mains cable as your power cords
1201Coins placed under the spikes of speakers or stands
121Tighten the screws on the units of your speakers from time to time
122Use shorter runs of speaker cables
123Eliminating first reflections in listening room
125Speaker setup
126Remove build up of static charges on the surface of any cable as well as CD's
127Tweeter anti-diffraction rings
128Chimney flu linner speaker stands
129Tracking weight
1302 in. thick square concrete slabs on top of my subwoofer
131Small metal cones under front edge of proac tablettes
132Suspending your speaker wires off the floor
134Near field monitoring
136Changing power cord connections to mains
1372Erosion of the edge of CD
1381MDF sand Box
1391Hospital grade power outlets
140Setting up speakers with string
1412Correct Polarity using a Digital Multi Meter
142MDF Speaker Stand
143Blue tacky puddy like substance provides great damping and coupling to speakers
147Speaker cones or spikes DRAMATICALLY increase not only BASS response but soundstage and imaging!
148Got my speakers "off the ground" and moved the horn tweeter to ear level made a WORLD of difference!
149Use a sound pressure meter to help place speakers (and integrate a sub-woofer) by balancing all of the frequencies.
151Switch components from left to right channel.
1551Ferrite rings
1561Rec-out preamp connection
157Basic reinforced Aluminum cone
158Shortcut the unused INPUTS to the preamplifier (No, not OUTPUTS, please, unless you want to make some damage!)
159Mounting bypass capacitors in your speakers network.
160Position cd-player and preamp away from power amplifier.
161Home made power cords. Amazing!
162Short-out unused inputs of your preamp
163Replacing rectifiers of power supply. Incredible!
1641Marble support table. Wonderful!!
165Replace your current speaker wire with Home Depot 6 gauge stranded electrical wire.
166An improvised RoomLens
167Using 3 natural quart crystal balls inserted into wood base for the equipment support.
168Use between pre-amp and subwoofer to eliminate bad effects of long interconnects on sound quality
1691Using this interconnect between transport and d/a converter
170A cylindrical open-cell foam piece of tubing used for insulation of water pipes
1711A sheet of .125" damping material with a viscoelastic adhesive backing
172A polymer damping sheet with a concentric circle design on one side-supposed to eliminate internal standing waves
173Poster hanging putty
174A static discharge device, similar in effect to Versa Labs' "Zap", which retails for $40.00.
177Homemade speaker and component support.
1781Damp amplifier cooling fins
179Short the unused inputs on your pre-amp.
180Upgrade the mains supply
1821Brasso Metal Polish can be used to clean any contacting surfaces (e.g. bare speaker wires, phono plugs e.t.c.).
183Big do-it-yourself ferrite rings for eliminating EFI in power/speaker cables.
1843Heavy felt tweeter rings for smoother detailed treble
185Cheap way to improve readability of scratched cds.
186Purchased stanley door stoppers from WallMart and placed under amp and turntable for isolation.
1873Amp on-top of cd
188Run the demagnetizer over the CD for before each play.
189Quad els on target stands.
190Equalize audio to match your hearing!
1921Use inflated rubber tubes as seismic sink of CD or turntable players.
193Cheep method of damping bass standing waves
1944Isolating Stones
195Put a bag of shot on your amp, if possible (don't block air holes) and especially on your CD player.
1962Air pillow (hemorrhoid cushion) I call the asphalt pillows.
197Shelves can be improved upon by a sandwich of plywood and cork.
198Look in the ads in hi-fi mags and design your own speaker and equipment stands
1991Adding new connectors to your amp.
200Replace all the ceramic capacitors with WIMA red ones (No MKS). or Siemens styroflex
201Play Densen : DeMAGIC CD
202Install a special power group only for your audio installation
203A demp the chassis with MDF blocks 2 inch square
205Place all cabling off of the floor using styrofoam cups.
206Put a resistor of 20-50 ohms parallel to the tweeter.
208Entry point of each rca plug (pref WBT) should be overlayed w/ shrinking Teflon stuffed w/ wool felt
209Speaker/IC line supports...cones/rounds/polys/squares/trap'zds
210Cones/Trap'zd's/bullet shaped anti-resonant weights for speakers/electronics
211Compound Bias for tube power amplifiers. Not just fixed OR auto Bias, but both.
212Vitalizing most tube amps by modernizing the driving-section.
2131BI-Amping your system...eliminate the crossover in the speaker
214Ohm that unused digital output!
2151Very cheap, very good sounding homebrew speaker cable
216Inexpensive vibration damping for preamp or cd cabinets
217Set your spikes in screw heads
218Use drink koozies to prop your wiring off the floor.
2192Elevate your listening position to get your ears at the same level as your tweeters.
2202Use an isolation transformer without plugging your equipment into it
221Cover all the internal sides of a speaker-cabinet with car underbody sealant(type of silicon).
222Put folio paper under components.
223Foam ring around tweeters.
224Put eggboxes of commercial damping panels in critical areas to cut reflected energy at listening position.
2251Damping(especially metal- and ceramic dome) tweeter's high-freq. Resonance
226Use a sheet of EAR ISODAMP, about 30 per. and cover the top and bottom of the chassis with it.
227Some use tennis balls, but for those of us with limited space "squash balls" work better for component isolation.
228Use nylon bolts instead of spikes on hardwood floors.
229Terminal and contact cleaner with electro-magnetic properties to enhance electrical connectivity on gold surfaces
230Vibrapods are great but can't be used with spikes unless you have some kind of cover for them.
231Economically challenged tube traps
232Gold connector cleaner and conditioner-sealer
2331Anti-static spray in maximum performance bottle.
234Keeps speaker cables from touching the ground.
235Damping of CD transport mechanism
236Bitumen damping of CD cabinet
237Lifting speakercables off the floor
2381Bike tube under CD player/amp
239Back wall resonance deadening.
2401Digital equipment in separate a/c zone.
241Internal contact enhancement.
243Switch cycling
2442The Nordost Eco 3 Antistatic Spray prevents static charges to build up on your equipment, your cables and even your records and CD's!
245Vibration isolation platform.
247Skipping CD's
248Speaker setup
249Arrow heads and hardwood as resonant control
2503Rap power and interconnect cables with tin foil.
252Reducing 60Hz line noise or "hum" on your system.
253Air dampening/isolation device
254An isolation platform placed on top of components to reduce EFI interference and better the effectiveness of isolation platforms.
255Place superglue over crystal clock, stabilising it further
2561Single most effective improvement/repair to a CD.
257Silk Cloth to Suspend Cables and Interconnects
260Replace speaker terminals and wires to crossover with some decent (solderable) speaker cable soldered directly to crossover, spades to amp
261Speaker damping without fibreglass,etc.
262"Spikes" for speakers, racks, et al
263Replacing cheap wire with higher quality copper.More punch,and higher definition
264Positioning spikes for optimum sonics
2653Improve CD sound quality instantly
2664Very cheap CD mat
267Best Solid Silver loudspeaker cable on Earth
268Plants in the neighbourhood of your turntable.
2693Biamp and biwire your loudspeakers if possible.
270Place layers of bubble wrap under component shelves to achieve air based isolation.
271Perfect sound staging
2721Cheap CD Mat
273Neoprene washer substitute.
2742Amazing roller ball isolation device for CD players
275Component isolation
2763If your Television is between your speakers, throw a blanket over it when listening to music.
277To extend the IC's life and dampen created HF
278Oak drawer knobs from DIY shop used as equipment feet.
279Just try the tweak, and you never forget
280Low jitter, high accuracy replacement CD clock module
281Solder wire ends to prevent fraying + improve connections
282An isolation platform for your turntable. Probably works well on CD players too.
283TUNED THOSE BUDJETS TURNTABLES
284Reduce front baffle loudspeaker diffraction losses
2851Put ball bearings in three Vibrapods and place turntable on it.
2861Remove stock (hard plastic) feet from your CD player
287Laser alinging your speakers, perfect alingment!
288Home made, non-shielded (Not needed and only degrades the sound), low capacitance solid silver interconnects.
2892Homemade Richard Gray Power Station power line filter.
290Flour in ziploc bags rather than sand.
291Vinyl flooring as great panel damping.
292Zerostat to render cd's static free.
293Use chapstick it fix a scratched cd.
314Inexpensive high quality interconnect wire for thoes that make their own interconnects
315Air Isolation of components!
316Rollerblocks
3171Tennis Balls for Excellent Dampning and Better Air Circulation
318BassLine, an acoustic enhancement invention for improving sound from bass reflex speakers.
3194Three evenly spaced PVC tubes behind speakers to tune them
320Solid-Tech
321Use un frozen medical gel pads for vibration control
322Place thin piece of mortite strategically on cd transport tray so that it doesn't interfere with the opening and closing function.
323Resonance damping of bass and midrange steel baskets with car repair "steel plastics"
3241Short circuit the digital out from your cd-player when not onnected to a separate d/a converter
3261Apply FunTack to caps, ICs and transistors.
328Speaker/speaker stand isolation platform
3292Use pieces of a thick neoprene mousepad to decouple speakers on stands
330Get your ears tweaked
331Use your chimney for amazingly true bass
332Better alternative to expensive HiFi stands.
3334Make your own awesome solid silver interconnects and cables
334Superior version of MDF (medium density fiberboard).
335Improved stability, vibration damping, focuses speakers
337Neat dampeners
338Stand speakers on a cutout piece of 1-2 cm thick polystyrene, the same size as the base of each speaker.
3391Clean all copper contacts like equipment plugs,valve pins,fuses.More current to your system.
3401Cd cleaner that really improves the sound quality of budget cd players.
3411Stabilize the voltage supply on IC in CD player, DAC, OPAmp etc. to improve leading edge of music pulses.
3425Use Brasso polish to make scratchy CD's like new again.
345Pirelli bi-wire cables, strands not solid-core, as speaker cables.
3466Aluminium honeycomb footers.
347Driver dampening on speaker cabinets.
348Upgrade caps resistors in speaker crossovers.
351Clean Your Clock - quick tweak to improve the clock performance in your CD player.
3521Vibration control platform.
3543AC outlet
3554AC plugs
356Subwoofer tweak
357Children's toy flotation tubes...
3583Video and Audio improvements in Home Theatre System
359Turntable Tweak
360Hockey Pucks (as equipment feet)
3621Twist your interconnect cables into "twisted pair"
363Cheap AC line noise filter
364Component isolation (substutite for graphite blocks)
365Buckwheat Pillow Vibration Fix
366Vibration control for components, $15 rollerblocks
367Wall panels - Effective and cheap
3693Silicone resin used inside cabinet for maximum clarity
371Boost your subs directly at 30 hz For hearth shaking effects
3722Mass Load Device
3731The speaker attachment to improve sound
374Acorn nuts under speaker spikes
3761Twin inner tube damping device
3773Put ferrite beads on your speaker cables
3781Checking AC field around your cables
3791Audio Spectrum analysis, home theater room optimizer
382Anti-Resonance Platform for audio components
383AC Line Noise
384CD Base
3857Amazing speaker tweak
3871Zobel network calculator
388Inky black contact enhancer liquid
3901Focus Rings
3918Bass Tune your room
3921Reducing "digititis" glare of CD
393Styrene foam cylinders [as cable separators]
394Make ground plan for DAC chip, easy way to improove S/N
395Voltage regulation
396Cheaper Supplier of Lead/Steel Shot
397Dampning inside CD player
398Dampening CD player chassis/housing
399CD player platform
400Replacing spikes on stands
4011Cheap mains conditioner
402Stylus replacement shure m75, m91 etc
4031Turntable isolation via holographic setup principles
404Leaving your equipment switched on
4051Isolation platform
4061Fix the popped in middle part of your speakers for free
4071Clean up bass response on sub-woofer
408Contact treatment
4101Concrete blocks above AND below the sub!
411FM performance
4127Freezing your cds
428The Space Harmonizer, a new unique resonant platform
429Digital to Analog Sound...the Easy Way!!!
431Speakers setup on carpet
433Effective, cheap, very affordable and easy to install.
4341Tighten the screws on your speakers in the speaker cabinets.
435Damping Material
438MDF Shelf Treatment
439Change your existing basic outlet with a commercial grade outlet
440MiHorn/Focus Ring Alternatives.
441AC outlet
442Anyone use Quietcoat?
443The wonders of blu-tac on my Rotel rcd-1070 cd player
444Equipment Isolation
445Dedicated mains


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