Accessories that seem to work
I know I've spoken out against outlandish 'snake oil like' accessories but there's no running away from the fact that some accessories are truly useful. Here are some of those that I've tried and are well worth considering.
Vibrations and resonances affect hifi equipment more than you think. At your normal listening level, put a finger on any component and chances are that you can feel vibrations. This may come from the music itself, from motors inside the component, mechanical resonance from transformers or outside sources like traffic. Properly coupling your equipment reduces these vibrations and often has a positive effect on the sound. There are a few ways to do this. You can spike your equipment, mass load it or decouple the component with a soft material like sorbothane. Speakers in particular really must be spiked to obtain good performance. To prevent damage to wood floors, I put coins underneath the spikes. After spiking, you will immediately notice a perceived drop in bass. You will realise after prolonged listening that the bass is not reduced, it is just tighter and more extended with less 'boom' or looseness. Those of you with speakers without spike holes, fret not. There are commercial solutions to this problem, usually in the form of 'stick on spikes' or spike kits which can be attached to your speaker with some drilling. Those who are using stands will have the additional problem of coupling the speaker to the stand. Some stands have top plates with holes that provide for spikes. I don't particularly recommend spiking the top plate due to safety reasons. A bit of blu tack is much safer. As for components, coupling appears to have a greater effect on CD players, tube equipment and record players. Spikes and cones then to sharpen and brighten the sound while compliant materials appear to warm and soften the sound. If you don't believe in this or don't want to try some of the expensive hifi cones out there, a plumb line weight works quite well. I had quite a bit of difficulty finding one with a flat top but look hard enough and you will find them. They are very cheap too. A set of three small cones will be slightly more than a tenner. Some people have tried making their own air suspension supports out of semi inflated bicycle tubes with great success. I haven't tried this so tell me if it works well. For equipment that doesn't have to be level like amplifiers, you could try squash balls. As for mass loading, increasing the mass of the speaker cabinet or stand tends to deaden vibrations. If the cabinet or stand allows filling, it is well worth the minimal expense. Just don't take the short way out and steal sand from the beach. It's illegal and will corrode your stands to bits due to the salt.
Power conditioning
This is quite an expensive one to try as the more expensive models from Power Wedge or Tice are nearly $1000. I have no doubts that power conditioning has an effect on the sound. What I'm not so certain is whether the change in sound is beneficial. For the cautious audiophile, it makes sense to protect your equipment against power surges. A nasty surge could cause a fair amount of financial damage to your system. Cheap surge protectors are sometimes incorporated into extension blocks or mains plugs. These are quite cheap to try, about $30-50. However, these invariably use MOV for protection which wear out after a while. You may eventually be left without protection and not even know it. I'm not rolling in cash so I use a APC Back UPS 250 computer uninterruptable power supply to protect my source equipment. This one tends to fare well enough for low current components. However, my valve amp is left plugged into the wall. Most power amplifiers will show noticeable degradation in sound when connected to a power conditioner. For the Singaporean on a budget, try the line from Castle, available from Kingsley. Basic models start from $100.
AC power cords, speaker cables and interconnects
I have absolutely no idea why an AC power cord makes any difference to the sound. It makes a difference on my system. I made a pair by myself out of Audioquest Type 4 speaker cable and added a single 16 AWG cable for the earth connected to a MK mains plug. I made a pair as a gift for a friend too. He claims that it improves the sound of his Forte 44 preamp. A reader, Bow Wah Liu from Canada uses Kimber 4TC to make mains cable. My latest attempt uses Space & Time speaker cable which sound significantly better than my AQ Type 4. If you are sceptical try a cheaper mains cable first. As for interconnects, these appear to be system dependant. If you are lucky like me, your system may not be particular sensitive to cable choice. I've figured that this is due to my high input impedance of 100 KOhm on my amplifier. Some of my friends systems are a lot more sensitive. In my system, the most dramatic effect is achieved by changing speaker cables, followed by the power cord and finally the interconnect.
Pieces of wood and magic stones
Send me a bank draft or a postal order for any sum you deem fit and I will chant my magic spells only known to me and I guarantee that your hifi setup will sound much better than any of those pieces of wood or magic stones. If you hear a difference, I've saved you a bit of money. If you don't, then blame yourself for having either sub standard equipment or lousy hearing.
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Comments ? Mail me at ericshifihaven@hotmail.com