Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Tweaks or Fiction?

Yesterday I spoke with a guy (online) who says he is and has been a sound engineer for 23 years. Works for a major recording studio of which I won't mention the name for it is well known and he also is a distributor of their audio equipment. He sent me a couple of links to his websites, looked very impressive and legit.

I was bragging to him how good my system sounds. Told him about my room treatments, receiver, speakers and my SACD player that I had rebuilt at a lab in Wa, which I still think is the sweetest sounding player I have ever heard.

He said sounds great. Maybe I can help you improve it. He first asked me what kind of speaker wires I was using. I'm thinking Oh No he is going to tell me that I need those wires that cost more than a new car. I told him what kind of wires I had...not cheap..about $500 for all the speakers. He said throw them away and go down to your local hardware store and buy simple bell or thermostat wire and you will immediately hear a big improvement. He said if you can split the wires it will sound even better. Also he said if there is any gold plating on the speaker terminals to sand it off. Says gold speeds up the signal at the speaker and causes distortion as well. Also says that speaker wires have to be at least 8" off the floor, especially if you have carpets made of synthetic materials. That these materials build up static that will distort the signal. And of course all other wires, interconnects and power cords should be 4" apart if possible. If for some reason they need to touch it should only be at a 45 degree angle.

He then asked me what kind of power cables I was using. I told him that I had several Analysis Plus cables, not cheap at all. He said get a saw and hack off the ground lug. Experiment with rotating the prongs in the socket and I will hear a tremendous improvement in sound as well. I told him there was no way I was gonna cut my cables for that. He said as a initial test that I should disconnect the ground wire in my ac outlet, which by the way is one of those 24kt gold things, and I could hear the difference before mutilating my cables.

He said never ever place your components on glass shelves. Even if you are using vibrapods like I am it will cause a harshness to the sound. He recommended layered maple shelving.

I have not done any of these things but sure am curious. People sure have some strange beliefs when it comes to audio.

Any thoughts?

INCOMING!!!

Bren R.

Now I know why some of my CDs sound so crappy... he must have been the janitor cleaning the split cables at that company.

Seriously, the guy was pulling your leg.

Good one, BrenR.

JKP, tell your friend the following: Risperdal, one milligram, twice a day. He'll be as good as new in a few weeks.

I don't believe any of that stuff would cause a noticeable improvement in sound for me in my room.

I was expecting the usual raft of controversial theories but at least this one was fresh. Humerous, even for a relative newbyte such as myself.

Tweak or Freak?

I still think he may be onto something, especially with separating the wires, interconnects and power cords. Reason I say this is that recently I upgraded my Sub and because of its size I had to put it in a diff location in the room which was further away from the receiver. Since the sub cable I had was too short I ran down to Best Buy and bought some new cheap sub cable. I had the most god awful hum in my speaker afer that. I ended up buying better cable with a shield on it and the hum was gone. So, obviously there must be alot of magnetic fields or induction or whatever the term is coming off of the other cables.

Staying away from power lines or crossing at 90 degrees was also good advice but it's almost like he threw it in there so you would believe the rest.

I'd like to see how he separates all 6 channels of your analogue interconnects from your SACD player and keeps them all 4' apart. LOL

I suspect trolling at play. heh heh

Ya know? I try to keep an open mind about stuff like this. In truth, since I've never personally tried to any of these "tweaks," I cannot say that none of them would have any affect on a system's sound quality.

BUT! Before I would start cutting up my wires, suspending them 8 inches off the floor, and sanding the gold plating off my terminals, I would certainly require some documented measurable proof that any of these "tweaks" would make a difference and, if the difference was measurable, that said measurable difference is, in fact, audible.

However, I'm happy to report that all my equipment is on wooden shelves, not glass. OH OH! I'm in trouble. It's MDF, not maple.

Jeeze, you should know better!