Curious Audio Advice - 07/12/05 05:47 PM
Audio Advice from the Mapleshade Handbook for Good Music and Good Sound
These gems are pulled directly from the Summer '05 edition of the above named handbook/catalog.
Anyone else find any of this advice curious, to say the least?
These gems are pulled directly from the Summer '05 edition of the above named handbook/catalog.
- 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.
- Nearly everybody sits too high. The "tweeters at ear level" rule sounds logical but fails when tested. For a test, sit on one or two phone books: you'll hear an amazing new warmth and fullness in baritone voice, trombones, tenor sax, plucked bass--and a far more natural treble balance.
- 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.
- 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.
- For seamless subwoofer sound, use only the speaker cable input, not the RCA input. Always fire the subwoofer driver left or right, not at you or down into the floor.
- 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.
- If you have bi-wirable speakers with brass jumper plates, replace the terrible-sounding plates with bare, unstranded copper wire. If you bi-wire, separate the treble and bass cables by 1' or more; bundling wires will ruin most of the bi-wire advantage. Bi-wiring is worth doing only for cables with limited bass and treble.
- 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.
- 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.
- Weight on top of speakers, amps, CD players, transformers, turntables, and power supplies can tighten bass, clean up treble, and clarify midrange detail.
- too much weight, wrong placement, or wrong materials seriously degrade potential improvements. Don't use lead, sand, concrete, brick, stone, corian or damped laminates. Of course, brass is still best; next iron, then wood.
- 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.
Anyone else find any of this advice curious, to say the least?
