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Almost everyone sits way too far from their speakers, that is, 8' to 10' or more. Try a low chair (or floor pillow) 5' away. You'll hear a phenomenal increase in clarity, bass impact and soundstage--roughly like spending 100% more on your speakers.
If I sat that far I'd be sitting inside a wall.
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Remove your speaker's cloth or foam grill. Snip off any plastic pjase ring in front of the tweeter. You'll hear as much as 100% improvement in treble.
Sure.. if the grill is made of wood.
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NEVER use speaker cables shorter than 8'. Amazinglyh, 4' sounds much wordse than 8'. Contrary to common belief, shorter interconnects (2m or less) and longer speaker cables sound WAY BETTER than the opposite--based on extensive head-to-head tests
They make cables, right? More length = more profit for them. So.. duh as to why they put this in their advice.
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Contrary to manufacturer hype, subwoofer placement is crucial. To get clean bass attacks, subs must be precisely (+/-1") the same distance from your ear as the midrange driver. Corner placement always leads to boom. Also, subs sound much cleaner on cones than on spikes or rummer feet.
Most sub manufacturers stress subwoofer position constantly.
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You may not be into stero gear. But if you enjoy listening to music, sometimes you must wonder whether your speakers sound good enough. Startling as it may seem, you ought to be just as concerned about your audio cables. I've heard $2000 speakers with off-the-rack wires that sounded worse than little $100 Radio Shacks with good cables.
M80tis + VTF-3 with real cheap wire off partsexpress > cheap radioshack speakers.
Again, they're obviously trying to sell their more expensive cables.
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Just like your speaker cables, the wires that hook up your CD player to your amp (the interconnects) can make as much or more difference than your speakers. Everyone suffers from culture shock when they first see the weird cellophane-like sleeve wrapped around our two thin ribbon wires. But the fact that our wire is forty times thinner than conventional wire and has 100 times less plastic is precisely why so much more music comes through. You hear more bass, more treble, more quiet details, more slam on the attacks--just those things that make music more exciting, more emotionally gripping.
Science, blind listening tests, and common sense say otherwise.
Less music comes through since they're so thin which is why they sound different. Different != better. In this case, different = distortion.
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Weight on top of speakers, amps, CD players, transformers, turntables, and power supplies can tighten bass, clean up treble, and clarify midrange detail.
Thanks a lot - I'll be sure to rest dumbells on my new receiver. What kind would be better though? Cast iron, the ones with plastic black sides opposed to all metal? What weight, also? 20 lbs, 35 lbs, 50 lbs? Should it be a certain percentage of the weight of the piece of gear? I'll try 20 and work up from there, and report if I hear any differences.
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too much weight.. seriously degrade potential improvements.
Wait a second! The guy just told me to rest my max-out benching set on the amp, and now he tells me too much weight will degrade performance?
Try to make up your mind, which myth is it?
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Don't use lead, sand, concrete, brick, stone, corian or damped laminates. Of course, brass is still best; next iron, then wood.
This is good advice. Try to avoid sandmade cables, concrete CD players, brick receivers, and stone speakers. This is a pretty common newbie mistake due to the high availibility of these products in brick & mortar stores.
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To audibly improve any cheap interconnect, use a razor to carefully peel the thin plastic insulation off the braided metal you'll find underneath. Split 2-channel interconnects and separate the two by several inches. Cut head shrink and plastic strain reliefs off the back of RCA plugs and remove their metal barrels (if possible). Among generic wires, choose the skinniest for best sound.
I'm too busy laughing at the last comment to respond to this one.
Thanks for posting, pm.
