Cleaner Power: Resulting in cleaner sound AC coming out of your wall carries noise, a form of pollution that distorts audio and video reproduction.
Dirty power will end up in your speakers. Degrading sound quality. You will notice most of these tips deal with removing unwanted things , just allowing your system the optimum environment to do what it can more effeciently.
Your computer , refrigerator or any large appliance that runs or vibrates will add pollution to your line. A great way to suppress that is to buy line filters. Most people can easily find and afford a power center / surge protector & noise filter combo units for under $50. Monster Cable has quite a selection at stores like best buy, compusa & a varying level of noise suppression.
As well you can get the audio prism quiet line and that can be placed around your house on the wall sockets that create pollution , with your fridge and comp....Blocking out more pollution on the whole line. It retails for around 29 dollars a piece.
www.audioprism.com
www.monstercable.com
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Removing Resonance: Speakers, Stands, Wires: As with any home theater system , you look in the back and will see what looks to be a chaos. Not only that the speaker wire running down and away from your speakers might be touching a few things and the speaker itself. Then to top it all off , a bare speaker sitting atop a stand will also create more vibration , which will then goto your speaker.
A great product that takes away vibration and resonance. Is
DUCO Stik-Tak or Quake hold. Sold at ACE or HomeDepot. Place this between your speakers & stands to reduce vibration. Unless your setup came with rubber posts already....then watch the resonation go away.
Also make sure that your stand itself also has everything installed: pins , posts for whatever setup you have (carpet or tile). This will ensure less vibration and more pure sound.
Finally make sure your speaker wire isnt resting on the speaker chassis, that can vibrate on it , also creating some extra noise in the wire itself.
Redoing your wires so things are running away from power cables helps. Also this is where the monster power center comes in handy with its extra insulated power cable. Suppressing line noise that can run onto your other cables.
Duco Stik-Tak 2.29
Quake Hold 4.99
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Clean Connections: Keep things nice and polished
Having clean power-cord prongs actually helps transfer power.
Flitz Metal Polish helps clean and polish your metal surfaces. Oxidation degrades power. Even when a prong looks clean , its probably not.
By using this paste polish as per package instructions the simple task can really help improve transfer and some get "staggering results". More clarity , improved transparency. Everything becomes more apparent and more 3d.
This is deemed as the best low cost tweak an audiophile can do. So make sure you do not pass this over.
Im not sure about using this on your speaker cable and audio interconnects. But simply making sure they are clean of finger oils & dust and what not will be good enough. Maybe a quick swipe of alcohol would suffice...
I try to make sure when connecting my speaker wire connects. I try not to touch the terminals.
Flitz Metal Polish: 8.99
Maas Metal Polishing Clean: 4.59
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Vibration Control: Components & Speakers
All components generate vibration. At the same time external vibrations impact them. Becuase they have no where to go, vibration feed back into the components. The resulting frequency signature of these vibration will degrade the ultimate resolution, especially in lower quality components. Because these components are built at a price point and resonance control is often not a priority.
Any sort of reduction in this area will help. A spinning DVD in a dvd player , will sometimes create a lot of vibration if the DVD Disc and DVD player arent of good quality. The DVD player is a good place to start with reducing vibration. As its also providing your HQ visual & audio content.
There are a few ways & products that help reduce vibration in HT components. Adding weight is one. By simply making a component heavier , it makes it sturdier and less prone to vibration. It takes more weight to move an object. Therefore think of your vibrations as a motor. More weight will make it work less. Then by placing certain weights on certain spots will also help increase this factor as well.
You can add weight to anything and it basically gurantees better sound. Your speakers will vibrate less , thus better sound. Things will get high quality signal , less noise and distortion.
The lower quality the product and the smaller , the more it can use this. Now huge tower speakers wont need this as much as some bookshelfs. But almost any speaker is to benefit. Especially any thats made of lightweight materials & construction.
To be continued: Will Finish article later tonight....
Tips to getting the most out of your system.
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