A large part of the fun involved with being an Audiophile (not my favorite way of describing myself but hey ho!) is tweaking, taking an already fantastic product and utilising ingenuity in order to improve its performance – in real world terms you can improve the performance of your system in many different ways with many different budgets! Okay, you may now be thinking I sit at home twisting banana plugs left and right in order to gain some perceived improvement and you wouldn’t be far wrong: well, I did do this but found no effect (maybe marginal)! Now placing my mains block on a solid mahogany plinth – that made a huge difference and again with the mains plug placement – both cost effective, the latter is free but offers great results. One thing I have to stress is buy good quality components in the first place but nearly all components can be improved upon with a little Hifi magic!
Cables
Cable construction is something that intrigues me, litz, solidcore PFTE insulation for example – all of these things can have a direct effect on sound and when choosing a cable to match your system some prior thought is a great idea! If you are looking for a brighter presentation then extruded silver over copper is a great place to start, the layer of silver on the conductor increases brightness and pace but retains the warmth and thump of copper – solid silver cables should be used in the highest of high end systems only for the best re
sults – ideally for analogue systems, turntable tonearm cable for example where signal transfer is highly important! If your system is overly bright or digital-sounding the warmth of copper will work a treat!
Now on to cable tweaking, I will not let any of my interconnect cables touch each other, higher end RCA cables will come in a separate pair (not conjoined) there is good reason for this, the best form of insulation is air – free floating the use of separate cables will allow this. In my own personal system I use Black Rhodium’s Illusion Diva DCT – this cable is solid core and therefore offers super fast transient transfer and it is bendable thus holding its position, this means bridge between amp and phonostage is floating and each side (red, black) are separate! Trust me it makes a difference!
The Illusion DIVA, tightly wrapped to counteract RF, solidcore and featuring the Eichmann Bullet Plug!
Key Cable Tips!
1) Choose a cable applicable for you needs, based on you current soundscape
2) Avoid the cable touching any other cables in the system
2) If possible the cable should float freely in air, if this is not possible use small cable lifters, you can make these yourself – different materials have different properties – I use wood (solid Mahogany on my mains cables for example as I love the warm natural and neutral presentation on vocals!
3) Call Audio Affair if you need any further tips!
4) The same process associated with interconnect cables should be applied to Speaker cables also (Mains is little more complex!)
Isolation
A biggy – isolation can make the difference between a fantastic system and a jaw dropping, awe inspiring system, we have already mentioned using homemade isolaters above for your cables but when you are putting heavy equipment (and valuable to boot!) I recommend going for a manufacturer built isolator, a couple of reasons for this 1) The tolerances are a lot finer and they will all be identical 2) Hours of testing and technology have gone into designing and testing them! Okay so the basics of isolation, you have a HiFi rack – this means some isolation is in place, each unit has its own separate shelf, great start – we are talking tweaking though so how can this standard isolation be improved upon, one great way comes from that ultra, crazy high end cable manufacturer Nordost, introducing Sort Kones:
The TC Sort Kone featuring Titanium post and Ceramic bearing, high end materials for a high end sound!
Nordost offer four different types of Sort Kones based upon their specification, all of them use a post resting on a ball bearing – this means contact between the two is minimal and unfixed – placing this underneath you kit such as a turntable will herald great results, with improvements in dynamics, weight and placement evident!
Isolation such as the above reduces vibration – this is integral to great performance, unwanted vibration can negatively affect the components inside you kit! Sort Kones are not the only product on the market capable of upgrade you existing performance and you don’t have to spend the earth, I got great results running Quadraspire QX25 under a Icon Audio HP8 headphone amplifier, bass was tightened vocals where edged ever so slightly more and an inky black background prevailed. As mentioned earlier I isolate my mains blocks on solid mahogany, give it a go at home – if you like it see what Sort Kone’s could offer you!
Key Isolation Points!
1) Get it further isolated – just being on a stand is not enough isolation!
2) Choose applicable isolation products, i.e. Speakers will require a more stable isolation than lighter units such as CD players.
Mains
Although cables, and could have been put earlier under the “cables” section, I decided to give mains cables their own section, electricity is the lifeblood of your system and therefore extremely important – upgrading those cheap and nasty out of the box cables can be a day and night upgrade – improving background noise floor and definition, you can even support them with isolation devices like me if you are so inclined, I recommend it!
The Supra LoRad, an quality cable with entry level price – you cannot go wrong adding one of these into your system (or even the kettle!)
There is a lot to be said for mains filtration – good and bad, some can really make you system sparkle and perform to its optimum, if you go to far then it can sap the life out of your system, this was evident when I plugged two well know purifiers into each other and ran them inline for my CD player (from my experience sources are a little more susceptible to this sapping than amps) from the offset of Norah Jones Seven Years the acoustic guitar had lost its spark, its balance definition this equalled not an enjoyable experience. When I took the same setup to my amplifier it had far less of an effect but one sounded better than two! Yes I have too much time on my hands, there is always time for Hi-Fi
Mains Key Points!
1) Change the out the box cables – this doesn’t have to cost the earth, check out the Supra above
2) Go easy on the mains filtration, too much can strangle your sound – experiment (turn things of first though!)
3) Avoid your mains cables touching any other cables or kit and lift from ground wherever possible
Obviously isolating cables and raising them of the ground can be seen as madness by those not interested in Hi-Fi, oh well – we all need a hobby!
Tuning Your Source
So once you have your isolation place, your mains cables and you think all is in place, think again! Further mods can be added to your source in order to improve. Of course you have the standard upgrade etc. such as cartridges but in real terms this is not cheap – there are mods out that allow you to improve your sound such as turntable mat:
The Cartridge Man Music Mat, a sublime bed for your vinyl to sit on!
An improved turntable mat bridges the gap between platter and stylus, very often the platter can impart unwanted noise into playback, this can negatively affect reproduction leaving you disappointed. Chuck on the music mat, up the arm (Vertical Tracking Alignment) and there go, better noise floor, improved dynamics and augmented enjoyment!
If you are feeling over tweaky then you could try attaching a new lead to your turntable, I did this on Pro-Ject Debut upgrading the standard cable to a Van Den Hul BAY C5, the difference was day and night – I only however recommend doing this if you are 100% sure and the necessary safety precautions are observed – I or Audio Affair can except no liability for any damage to turntable or person involved or any other auxiliary equipment. Apologies, I have to say that!
Conclusion
I could not imagine owning a Hi-Fi and just listening to it, I like many of my customers like to extract the best from the system – this said I find I have to reign myself in and remind myself to enjoy it as much as play with it – I recommend you do the same! There are many other tweaks available out there which can offer similar and improved performance on the items we have discussed, just give a member of the team a call, we are here to help!