Astonishing CD tweak? Zanash do try this!

My limits are anything which requires any effort whatsoever.

What some don't realise is that those of us who mock may well have tried all this in a previous life - that we consider ourselves to be recovering tweakaholics.

I now stack kit on top of other kit, use no spikes, run step downs and Woolworths mains blocks and connect my speakers using connection blocks and crocodile clips. And I have the best system I ever have and enjoy more music.

All I am trying to do is save the easily led from the endless anguish and turmoil that results from sucumbing to the faith of tweak.

 

I'd say your attempting to persuade others that...tweaks can't possibly work ...

but I'd agree with the spike thing I've removed all mine

though using concrete blocks and crocodile clips sounds suspiciously tweaky to me !

I've still had no problems using the slight smear of hand cream on the none playing side....you just have to be careful you don't smear the stuff when you remove the discs.

I don't think I shall do many discs ....its messy and as uncle ants says ...asking for trouble....

A thin smear of hand cream does have an audible effect [in the magnitude of increasing the tracking weight of cart on an lp]....I have no idea why this should be ....It also suggest that there may be other things that could be used that are more cdp friendly....like the copper foil idea.

 

Fair point. Although China is just churning out the same old crap - it's just built by children chained to worktables inhaling noxious substances.

 

Yep. I'm also happy to tell grown ups that Santa Claus does not really exist and that there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 

For some folks though the hobby IS the tweaking that provides the entertainment, not sat looking at static boxes making noises.

I don't think there is much positivity for the hi-fi hobby on any level on any forum nowadays, they are mostly dominated by a tiny minority of semi-pro miseries just looking out for a squabble if they find one, or creating one if it isn't already there and heaven help the enthusiastic newbie if he/she dares to ask the wrong question. In the great scheme of things though the total population of forums is only a minority group within a minority group and is shrinking fast.

The industry itself is largely to blame for it's own woes over many years, because it has done absolutely nothing to promote itself as a pleasurable thing to do in your leisure time, apart from maybe Bang & Olufsen who used to advertise in some highbrow glossy magazines years ago and I think Linn and a couple of others have had a feeble dabble but none to my knowledge has EVER made that vital connection that shiny box = good noise. Another factor I think is return over investment in comparison with TVs etc. Buying a new hi-fi at £Xk makes some sort of sense if you have a music collection to begin with and are likely to use it every day for a couple of hours. However, if you are the sort of person who is glued to the TV night after night and sploshed out a tidy sum on a plasma, or out most nights pouring pints down your neck down the battle cruiser, then a swanky hi-fi isn't much use to you at all.

What is currently sparking the lack of new influx into the hobby, is also disgruntling the current crop of audiophiles and causing interpersonal friction on forums is the erosion of people's disposable incomes. When circulating cash in the economy is bouyant and plentiful, nobody really gets upset over how much anything costs, but just lately because of the lack of spare cash in people's pockets there is endless grumbling about how much things cost and calls of "rip off" are getting more commonplace. The influx of cheap chinese imports is also contributing to the demise and I think they too are doing the industry no favours, not because their products are/are not better per se, but they are being parasitic as ever riding on the back of the marketing that's already extant instead of creating new marketing initiatives for themselves in their own right - hence one reason it's cheaper.

 

hmmm. take a wander round a hi-fi show. how old is the average attendee? i'd guess late 40's. that's why the hi-fi industry is dying.
most times you speak to a manufacturer mentioning anything like hard drive based audio, mp3, flac or similar it illicits a sneer and immediate dismissal. trying to get them to play any music newer than 1987 (unless by a select few audiopile favorites) results in the 'eeewww' face a condescending shake of the head and ejection of the cd half way through the song you wanted to listen to. the industry is a dinosaur that needs to die and be replaced with something that will embrace all means of storing and reproducing music from the wax cylinder to personal radio like pandora rather than cowering in fear when something new comes along.
the reality of the situation is though that the industry has got lazy. cd players are mostly off the shelf items, as are amps, turntables just require manufacturing precision which is expensive but not difficult any longer. very few manufacturers can be bothered to invest in the expertise necessary to exploit new media possibilities because they can just keep ripping off the old customers with the latest re-casing of a sony transport, a psu and a pcb, with a suitable price bump to imply an improvement of course. ultimately they will run out of customers because they'll either wake up and jump off the treadmill or just die of old age (or from the toxic effect of too much hand cream).

 

I think you can take this a bit far, I've always been under the impression that having good hifi improves your enjoyment of music.
Speaking for myself I like to sit down and relax with some good music, if I have to smear lard on the cd and ensure i've got my left middle finger inserted in the soundenhancingsheepsass to my left it kind of defeats the object, but if other people want to do this then they are free to enjoy their interpretation of the hobby......
Stark raving made mind

 

not sure as it was THAT good!?!

 

A lot of truth here. The other factor in my view is a basic non comprehension as to who the potential market actually is. Where do most HiFi manufacturers advertise? In HiFi mags aimed at HiFi hobbyists, a small subset of the potential market who likely already own a decent setup. If they understood that the potential market is actually "people who listen to music" they might get further, but you don't see them adevrtising in Mojo, Q, Uncut etc. If you see your potential market as the very small minority of people who buy HiFi rags and who attend HiFi shows, you are pretty much doomed.

 

Hmm, well, up to a point. Apart from the major players like Naim, Arcam and Meridian, who do advertise in the non-specialist press, many hifi manufacturers are essentially small companies making niche products which would not be of interest to the wider public, and they would not in any case be able to gear up to producing for the mass market. They might be happy just getting by, making a living by selling a small number of units per year.

 

This is actually a totally optional thing......if you get a lot of fun out of using house hold bits to improve the sonics of your hifi.......nothing wrong with that???

If you DON'T get funout of it, I presume you will quicky cease doing it??


"anguish and turmoil"?????


edit...not sure as any one is too easily lead here.....if they are...... :

 

That's perhaps putting it a bit strongly.

IMO the world of hifi is divided into two sets of people; those who can't resist the temptation to try something out, however weird it may appear to others, and those who just want a system that will play music, reliably and well, with a minimum of user input. To the former group, the latter group are lazy, complacent and apathetic know-nothings, who would be better off using a micro system, whereas to the latter group, the former are a bunch of deluded obsessive-compulsive faffers-about, who can't sit still and listen to music without wanting to change something.

 

"the latter group are lazy, complacent and apathetic know-nothings"

....Most emphatically, absolutely not, Joe.

Horses for courses, thats all it is , pure and simple.

There most certainly IS that division....couldn't agree withn you more.....and I do some times think the latter half can be a little negative towards the former.

 

Indeed, it's like a born-again Christian discussing God with a devout atheist; they simply have no common ground, but the latter will want to save the former from his/her 'delusions'.

Notice how adeptly I straddle the fence!

 

For most of us a hi-fi system is simply a tool to play our music collections! I fear some of the industry has become distanced from this point and certainly fail to communicate it to potential new customers.

Tony.

 

I would go so far as to say I am a little bit taken aback by this summation ...is that what everybody thinks?.

I have just spent the last 5 mins trying to work this statement out. most of the non tweakers are clearly far more knowledgeable than myself.

 

...and theres nothing wrong with that...IMO anyway

...for my benefit can you explain this a bit more, Tony?

 

Yes mainly in lifestyle mags for the well heeled. Which would imply they see their market as rich people rather than music fans.

 

I think Joe is pretty much on the mark.

 

To some though it's a case of economics.

They aspire to having a top flight esoteric system but their pockets simply don't go deep enough, so they buy an affordable (to them) system and tweak here and twiddle there to a master plan in the hope/knowledge that one day it will sound as good as their aspirational system does. Nothing wrong with that approach either.