Yes, Hack 9: Take good care of your ears. I. Avoid loud noise or sound, be it impulsive or continuous. - Always train your ears to being comfortable with low volume listening, especially over headphones or earphones. - Avoid using ear canal earphones as pushing them into the ears damages the ears. - Avoid thunderstorm lightning impulses from reaching your eardums without serious damping. - Careful of loud impulsive sounds like hammering, fire crackers etc or continuous sounds from automatic saw tools, marble or tile cutting tools, loud cars or bikes etc. - Vibration of air tight cars or buses as they move on the road can damage ears as well, but people over 25 years of age may not be able to perceive a difference as their ears have already degraded enough upon aging. - Closed though not air tight AC trains are also very bad. - Use aviation class noise cancelling headphones while flying. II. Get ears professionally cleaned periodically, once every year. III. Do not ever underestimate the degrading power or any of the above-mentioned stuff, as that will be a mistake.
Drip a few drops of olive oil into you ear leave it for 5 mins then gently squirt in warm water using a rubber squirter. Blobs of wax will fall out and suddenly you'll hear a pin drop. You can actually get a kit at your pharmacy for a couple of €'s.
@@NickRobbMusic be careful, I tried that & I felt my head was on fire. Turned out I had scarred eardrums & an infection & warm olive oil gave me immense pain. Much fun had by my family when I was dancing around in pain.
What I like most about Andrews channel is... it is there is a lot of helpful people who comment... Very little negative commenting... kudos to everyone including Andrew for keeping it real in that respect. Manners and etiquette should never go out of style Imo. And thanks to everyone who replied to my questions...
Instead of washing machine puck I use the anti-vibration pads for air compressors. The good thing about them is that you can get them from any Lowes or Home Depot.
Great video! It’s extremely rare to find an audiophile channel - that isn’t full of BS and and a pusher of fairy dust. Everything talked about here is true and about products which are genuinely useful. With regards to the stylus brush - although perfectly fine, I prefer to use a Vinyl Passion Dust Buster. A quick google search should bring up all of the info. It’s kinda mid priced, I’ve had mine for about 5 years and it’s still doing a great job of keeping my stylus clean.
I've been in the electrical industry for a little over 22 years now and power quality analysis has definitely been one of my areas of experience and training. I can 100% vouch for what you're saying regarding power quality conditioners. Regarding a dedicated circuit, this isn't necessarily for power quality more than it is an issue of not wanting to put your home audio equipment on a circuit with other appliances, due to overloading the circuit and tripping it. All the power quality anomalies that are created by your HVAC system starting and stopping or your wife or daughters running a hair dryer, nonlinear loads placed on the system like fluorescent lighting or computer equipment, other home audio equipment; these all lead to transients and slight fluctuations in the power system, and with all your breakers closed they're essentially connected to the main which is connected to your transformer feeding your house as well as more than likely several other houses and everything within that distribution network is affected by anything within that distribution network. My point is here, just because you have a dedicated circuit does not mean that it has a better power quality it is only to negate nuisance tripping and overloading of the circuit or having another appliance that has a ground fault or a short tripping the circuit if it's common to your audio equipment. I'm not implying here that is what was insinuated by advocating for having a dedicated circuit because you definitely should for this application. I'm just mentioning this because I can see where one may assume that it is a method to provide better power quality. And like he mentioned having surge suppression is a must because of those transients I spoke about that can be created within the system that could actually be created from your neighbor's house that could damage your equipment even if it's on a dedicated individual circuit for reasons that I mentioned. It also protects you from lightning strikes in an area that could affect that electrical distribution system I painted earlier. I'd like to add here that if you are in a home that has what they call a 2-wire branch circuit (without an equipment grounding conductor) and someone has installed a ground fault circuit interrupter that has a ground prong on it, that is definitely better than just snipping the ground prong off of your equipment cable because you only have a 2-wire receptacle or even if someone put a three-wire receptacle in and the internal ground is just not connected to anything, The GFCI method would still be better than that but, if you are installing home audio equipment and you're spending some coin on that equipment and you happen to be in this situation with your house I would definitely advise running a new cable and circuit to the main panel of your house that includes the equipment grounding conductor. Just wanted to say that I have nothing but respect and admiration for your channel and the knowledge and time that you share with us. I definitely have a love and affinity for audio equipment and its technology and the more important experience that you can get from it as a lifetime lover of music and playing instruments myself. I wish I could have made a prolific career in this genre but it wasn't in my deck of cards. If you were able to do that and make a wonderful standard of living for yourself and your family and, it's what you love, then consider yourself extremely blessed! Especially if you can make a RUclips channel sharing that love because there is some serious money nowadays in that if one is successful but is definitely a full-time job doing it! Damn I wish I had a neighbor like you! (Even if I could hear everything emanating from your household...😆)
This is what separates you from the other guys/girls on RUclips. Instead of asking audiophiles to go out and spend hundreds of dollars, you break it down into simple, cost effective choices. Nicely done!
this guy is refreshing and clear and mostly right. cheap/free tweaks few do that will make a huge difference: experiment with speaker placement/toe in; room treatment esp for bass nodes and high end reflections; improved/phase checked grounding; improve your source quality before any other system changes.
Really liked it. Thanks! Glad to see someone talking about practical things to do with your set up. After all, “perfect is the enemy of the good.” Or “good enough.”
100% thumbs up... Thoroughly enjoyed video...!!!!!..... it was short and concise and full of useful information... Thoroughly enjoyed it... coming up with content might be an issue... But even if you could only come up with one hack on a very short video it would be well appreciated... I thoroughly enjoy your RUclips channel...
Brushing the stylius, always brush from rear to front so as not to damage it and be GENTLE. Also, a cartridge overhang gauge is handy if using a universal headshell.
Another "hack" I'd like to point out is avoiding buying "specific-to-product" items whenever possible. Take a rubber puck, for example. You could go to a specialty store and buy rubber feet specifically sold for speakers and pay $20-30 for them, or you could find some generic rubber pucks somewhere that have nothing to do with speakers necessarily, but are essentially the same thing, but these cost a fraction of the price, because in reality, those rubber pucks cost pennies to manufacture. By the way, this applies to basically everything. Half the stuff on Amazon is just rebranded Alibaba wholesale merch bought in China for dirt cheap and being resold to you with a 200% mark-up.
Maybe a hack I used on my old DUAL 1928 turntable with a hollow frame and a suspended plate. I put in a sandbag (little pillow filled with quatz sand) and it helped a lot with stability an I even think it sounds a little more clean. It took out some of the vibrations.. hope that helps
Cladding the inside with some rubber using dual sided tape (or glue) also works quite nice; works just as nice as the rubber on the backside of many turntable platters.
@@timvonr2802 Well, factories that put rubber on the platter do it with precision (if done correctly) so the rubber is equally thick everywhere under the platter. Additional platter finetuning/balancing is done individually for every platter at the end of the platter production, if it's a high end platter. Luckily this isn't a concern when you clad the inside of the plinth.
I've had the thin RCA cables allow much more interference into signals in the form of static, feedback and signal dostortion, even in short runs. It's important to use better cables to insulation against those kinds of signal problems. They don't have to cost a fortune, but if they're too thin, they're going to be susceptible to problems.
I'm from down under. Bought hack number 2 (stylus down force gauge). It's the same as yours but branded differently. It cost me about $11.00 AU. I compared it to a $300.00 gauge and guess what; they both measure the same!
I have been randomly binge-watching audiophile stuff to have myself a laugh, but you sir surprised me with a great little video! There was no BS and i really think that if more of the comunity was this pragmatic more people would join:)) Great job!
I forgot to say one thing, about the cables. If you have the oportunity to start a brand new system, and the price permits it, buy good quality cables. Not for the tripple layer extra mega unicorn sprinkle shielding or something, just because a low quality connector is bound to break in time; i use Cordial for everything; they are a bit expensive, at about 7-10 bucks a pop for the standard versions, but absolutely great quality to price ratio. Cheers!
I bought one of those 5 gram (10 if you include an extra step) scales a few years ago. Price including shipping was about $13. Absolutely one of the best values for the money in an audio accessory. The Shure SFG-2 (of which I have 2 or 3) is probably better for some reasons, but it is much more fiddly to use, limited to 3 grams capacity, and no longer cheap --- it now costs about three times as much as the electronic gadget.
One problem with “tight” cabling is if you need to remove items from your rack. You want enough cable length to be able to pull the unit out and then be able to remove cables from the front and then when restoring the unit be able to replug it without moving the rack. Even if your rack has wheels when you remove one, or some, unit(s) the rack can be very unwieldy and possibly tip over.
A few years back the romain lettuce i bought at the grocers store came wrapped with a 12-15" very flexible green "velcro" strip.These are great to bind cables (cut to whatever length you need) and they also work great to tie up tomato's. Best of all they are FREE.
Good suggestions! I use Mogami cables that I buy off of Amazon, they sound fantastic and are still inexpensive. One important thing, you should explain to vinyl newbies to ALWAYS WIPE THEIR STYLUS (NEEDLE) FROM THE REAR TO THE FRONT OF THEIR CARTRIDGE, else damage may incur.
I would say from my own experience it is unlikely that damage MAY occur...:-) Dumb as I am, i destroyed 3 OC9/III already ;-) But i admit that 2 times it happened because i was arrogant enough to not wear my glasses while putting on the stylus shield cover upside down - kkkk. So if somebody wants a kind of insurance, I would recommend MM with changeable stylus therefore plus some glasses :-)
I built a large power line filter into a 10ga extension cord. It won't help if you have sagging line current or voltage, but it takes all the "noise" out of the 60hz power going into my equipment. Functionally, it's a narrow bandpass crossover for your power line: only 50-60hz gets through. This is something found internally on test equipment, or some of the medical monitoring machines used in hospitals. Cost about $30 with all the parts (wire, case, receptacle, and plug). Made a big improvement when I lived in apartments. Another "tip" is to route all your power on one side and signals on the other. I do disagree with using cheap interconnects, but the reasoning is that they're better shielded, not that they offer some magical benefit in signal conveyance. Any noise from CFL or LED driver circuits can be picked up in AC transmittance wiring, so the extra shielding is beneficial to prevent noise gain. Balanced lines are best here, because of how the signal is transmitted twice, but 180° out of phase, then rephased at the destination effectively cancelling anything added along the way, but even XLR's use continuous braided shielding to prevent ingestion at the source.
DIY power treatment = good advice for those so inclined. I too have built multiple diy power devices, settling on one final design. As you know, the primary caveat is it being a voltage drop inducing current choke-point. In no way can it be a current delivery impediment, even just slightly. I've designed my own as that's my background, however there are some solid designs detailed online. The diy design from Thomas from the Cult of the Infinitely Baffled is a good example and it's well detailed.
The power strips you mentioned always use sacrificial surge suppression and wear out over time. Some have LEDs that indicate when they're worn out, but I have a strip where the indicator light is still on even though it's certainly worn out. Bottom line, religiously check your surge suppression and replace it annually as a matter of course. I recommend looking at ZeroSurge, which is expensive but not sacrificial / disposable, and is cheaper long term (and greener) than disposable power suppression.
At the moment they sell RCA cables in "dollar stores" that have no coaxial cable but parallel. The pins in the middle of the plugs are not made of metal, but made of plastic with a thin layer of alu-foil. No need to explain what happens if you remove them out of a machine. So there is a minimum quality you can go below.
I just watched this video after one of your recent ones aaaand...the quality improvement is incremental! Not that tje old ones are bad, but when I went back a year and some - I noticed how much you improved. Congrats!
Andrew nice video, you have some good, basic tips here. When it comes to power protectors/conditioners some spend WAY to much IMHO. I think a good way to go is with what many musicians use during live shows, and almost ever amp/rack/whatever is plugged into a Furman. They aren't that expensive, they do a good job, and they are pretty much bomb proof (sounds like you might be talking about something along these lines in this video). I use two Furman M-8X2 in my listening room, they are professional quality, and they cost all of $70.
I'm glad you've had good luck with the Furman pieces, but unfortunately they're really nothing more than a rack mounted plug strip. They are a nice piece of gear, but I don't believe they offer any conditioning or protection. They're just a handy rack mounted plug strip for live or studio use, and priced appropriately affordable. The market segment including power conditioning and power strips is fraught with BS. Addressing quality power delivery to audio gear can be expensive.
More important even than having short unbalanced cable runs (matter much less with balanced) is that when your audio cables have to cross your power cables, that they do so at a 90° angle. This will minimize inductance of hum and noise from power. There is a chance that employing shorter power cables incidentally resulted in physically moving them away from rca and speaker cables... PRESTO! A blacker background.
My suggestions: take a cheap piezo lighter and modify it to make a cheap but perfectly working antistatic gun (it makes a huge difference not only on viny sound, but also it's easier to keep them clean and they don't stick to the envelope). Also I would suggest the dust buster from vinylpassion for cleaning the stylus: faster and fool-proof compared to brush, and a lot cheaper than the more known onzow zerodust while having the same exact functionality!
At first reading the title a little bit too fast, I thought this was going to be about 8 Tracks.... Honestly, I love 8 Tracks just because of the oddness of them :)
I learned about the projector bulb explosion issue the hard way, about 15 days after the expiration of the 2 year warranty on the projector. DOH! Honestly seems like a design flaw on the part of the manufacturers though. Should have a small battery/capacitor backup on the fan that would let them carry on for 30 seconds or so. That's really all you need.
I took your advice, added some of the pads under my Emotiva T1s. While much of the effect may be psychosomatic, I do think I have noticed a difference, a good deal of which my be attributed to the fact the ribbon tweeter now sits more at my ear level. Thank you for all the time you take to provide us with these videos and tips.
It is more of an improvment when it's for a subwoofer that shake everything in the room and you can ear that, like the picture, my clock, my door frame. After putting special feet under my sub, 50% of those rumble disapeared, and i solved the rest 1 by 1. Door rumble was solved with rubber for winter.
Here’s a cheapish, bookshelf speaker stand hack a la IKEA. Check out the Lauters lamp, the pedestal sits at 32” and even includes an attractive “cable management system”. Cut off the lamp part at the pedestal with the adjustable post either high or low, stain as desired or not. Probably add a friction element to the top? Might stick a Denton 85 on top with Velcro, or are there bookshelfs that can make me cry, a La Scala? Thanks!
I have my home theater on a large UPS. The TV, AVR and HTPC are on the UPS because one stormy night the power blinked on and off (rapidly) for about 30 seconds. It looked like a frankenstein monster film and freaked me out with concern about my electronics. Cheers
Thanks for the affordable tips! I was shocked this week to learn (yeah, puns are a thing) that my new carbon fiber antistatic record brush from Hudson Sound did not work nearly as well in picking off dust specks and sweeping them off records while reducing static charge as my 25 year old Decca carbon fiber antistatic record brush, the difference was very obvious. Who would have thought it would matter? The Hudson left about 1\2 the dust on the record, the Decca swept nearly all of the dust off. Sheesh!
Just a point of order, a lot of audio manufacturers will void the warranty if your equipment is hooked up to one uninterruptible power supply. It’s because of the square wave or modified square wave output.
Could you expand on your comment??? I run vintage audio... So I am not concerned about warranty issues ... is there anything I should be concerned about by using protected power strips...?????? Excuse my ignorance and thank you in advance
@@markbingamon9351 The simulated, stepped sine waves can be harmful to linear PSU (which were standard for equipment well into 80s) when ran for longer periods of time. It shouldn't be an issue when ran as a temporary backup though. Modern SMPS are more resilient to stress caused by those stepped sinewaves.
Lots of good suggestions. However, a stylus pressure gauge? I lighten the pressure until the tone arm skates and then up the pressure until it doesn't.
I don't know if it comes out of the same factory or not but I've got a "Neoteck" brand stylus gauge that looks like the one you're showing. It was in the $14.00 range from Amazon. Good tips and I REALLY like you talking about keeping the cabling tidy. When I was younger I didn't worry about it and that kind of mess just burns way too much time when moving or swapping gear. Thanks!
I think that projector thing depends on the projector/bulb. My projector turns off it’s fans as soon as it’s off, so I think it has enough passive cooling to not blow up.
Some good stuff here: Yes if you run video cables from projector down to your audio system... also run a extension cord. Power conditioners are good if they have a 2000joule or more protection, and surge protect your coax and LAN inputs.
8:35 Listen up people, the man speak the gospel. As a one-time film projectionist who dealt with this problem on a much larger scale (cinema lamphouses run xenon lamps anywhere from 3K to 7K watts and require at least 600cfm cooling), most cinemas have automatic backup power generators for precisely this reason. Aside from the fact that the lamps cost 3 grand apiece, they are pressurized at 10x atmospheres so when they explode they do so very violently and will easily trash a 10 grand lamphouse, so cooling those babies is vital. I was lucky in my career, i never had one explode, but I've seen the results of one that did. I'm glad I wasn't in the room when it happened, put it that way. Any lamp that requires forced cooling must NOT have that airflow cut off unless it is fully cool or it WILL explode. Like he says, any half decent computer UPS will do that job just fine. They're not expensive, and most use standard battery sizes obtainable from any good battery store. If it saves you once it's paid for itself. Every save after that is a freebie.
@Andy ME Dude my career was from 1988 until 2003, and modern digital projection units still use air cooled xenon lamps. They were still using carbon arcs in the 1950s. If you want to take a shot at me at least do some research first.
Haha, used to work as a janitor at a movie theater in the early ‘90s, the projectionist was changing a bulb one day, I think it was nearing its useable life, getting dim, while he was changing it, he dropped it and broke it!!! He was making $4.25 an hour, didn’t get a raise that year!
My thrift store setup, I run twin Polkaudio 100W powered subs, an old JVC Super-A receiver and Sony tower speakers. With the bass offloaded to the subs, I can fill the room with very loud, clear sound without over stressing the receiver. Total cost was just over $100.
nice, but i bet you'd be astounded if you upgraded your speakers. you can get A-list small towers a few years old for less than 200 all over the place.
Hi, Andrew. Here's a simple test to determine whether you need a power conditioner or not. On a Sunday evening, about 7 - 8 p.m. your local time, listen to your stereo with a sound source, a really good recording that you are well- acquainted. Then, about 2 a.m. into Monday morning do it again. If there was a notable change for the better on the 2 a.m. Monday morning sudition, you need a power conditione; if not. you probably don't. Let me know how the test went, please. Power line voltage fluctuations are an entirely different matter.
almost every system I've had anywhere I've lived sounded much much better after 10 pm. cleaner power makes a difference. it's also quieter of course. but it's a huge difference.
1:55 Well, I think your measurements are correct and the result don't surprise me. Put the word "audiophile" on it and it suddenly becomes 10000% more expensive!
A note regarding power. In my personal experience, power is easily 50% of your system's ability to produce a clean, crisp, accurate sound. Seriously, starting from the very beginning of the source, the electric grid to your neighborhood. Do you think the electric company cares about clean power or good, crisp audio? Spoiler alert, they don't. So your power starts from a noisy source and it travels down miles of cable collecting all sorts of interference along the way. Strong currents of power through copper act as a an antenna for other signals. It draws them in. All power cables will suffer this. So, by the time it reaches the junction box to your house, that junction box probably isn't "audiophile grade" either (is there such a thing anyway?) and will add more noise on the line. Then you tend to have raw, unshielded copper running through the walls of your house or apartment. Again, strong current through copper is a, what? An antenna for signals. So, massive levels of noise is now being drawn into your home/apartment's electric wires. Then 99% of home/space builders are going to install the cheapest possible electric outlet. Probably .75 cent or at best $1.00 low grade plugs. These plugs have NO copper behind them and do a minimal job at conductivity. Also, the plugs themselves are weak and do not create a cold weld to your equipment. This results in micro arcs that translate as.....you guessed it, MORE noise on your system. Therefore, you are looking at a long chain of unclean, noisy electricity coming into your expensive equipment. With that said, there are some things you can do to control or rectify this. First things first, CHANGE THAT RAT-NASTY ELECTRICAL OUTLET!!!! At a minimum, purchase a Hospital Grade wall outlet. It has some copper behind it, ensuring better conductivity and has tighter plugs to ensure that whatever you plug in has a cold weld and won't fall out accidentally (you wouldn't want that ventilator to come unplugged by accident, right? So, you wouldn't want your amp or other components to come unplugged by accident.) This makes a reasonable impact on sound by increasing your noise floor by removing unwanted line noise. Even with this, there is still noise coming in from its long journey. You NEED a line conditioner on top of a surge protector. Without spending $1000.00 I recommend Audioquest's Power Quest 3. It can be mounted vertically or horizontally as needed. It has specific ports that can handle higher power TVs and dynamic power draws from your amp. It's about $300, which isn't bad considering. Then, finally, if your components allow, change your electric cable. No, there is no active circuitry in those cables and thus your sound will be unaltered. it's about delivering as clean a signal as possible to your amp or other component. I am going to digress a bit to explain how having clean electricity impacts the "noise floor." When electricity comes into the component, it is buffered by capacitors. When noise on the electrical line gets into the capacitor it resonates as a frequency. This is called "Spread Spectrum." This frequency then enters the other IC chips and other electrical components within the system, resulting in either an audible "hiss" or noise or....as a reduction in noise floor. Even though your hi-end system is capable of replicating a wide range of frequencies, it can lose some of the subtle sounds that are within a track. Some systems have built in, hi-end DACs that can rescue some of that information, but not all of them. I finally had enough disposable income to get this equipment and finally end the debate for myself, because a majority of nay-sayers about cables, DACs or power, have never actually bought and tried them. When I upgraded my wall sockets to an audiophile grade (better than hospital grade), it made the biggest impact to my system. So, that would be the first ever thing I would do. Once last thing I should mention, these items are all cumulative. Buying one item within the chain is good. The more you add to the chain, the better the end result. So, getting a line conditioner is good. Getting a better wall socket it good. But add them both together and you get GREAT! The same is true for higher end cables. The more within the chain, the better; but they are only going to be as effective as your equipment and power.
falcon048 - In my personal experience, power is easily 100% of my systems ability to produce any sounds whatsoever. About the rest - provide measurements or its just another snakeoil anecdotal.
falcon048 - You are the reason audio manufacturers keep creating these products. You want to hear a difference. So you do. You paid for it. So it has to be there. I've had several discussions with manufacturers that know their product is snake oil, but why not sell it, if you're buying? All your statements are religious. Conducting a signal has nothing to do with magic sauce, salt, pepper or whatever you think your dollars add. Try to back up your statements with something more than qualified than "we don't have ways to measure quality". Because we do.
And the reason I'm reacting is exactly because you're advising others to blindly follow your insanity. I can't give a rat's ass how you spend your money, but your advice should be tossed on the flat earth pile of stupidity.
@@johnmowgli127 You're the reason I don't care. You're so caught up in whether or not OTHER people (not you) spend their money or whether a company whose products YOU don't buy, are still allowed to make products. I mean, WHO ARE YOU, really? Why does YOUR opinion matter? Guess what bro, I am still going to buy the products I like, regardless of your opinion of the products or me; real shocker, eh? Oh, and I will still push my "snake oil" as you call it, because some people appreciate it, even if you don't. Other people are allowed to like and appreciate things that are different from you. Sorry you had to find out.
Hack 9: Take good care of your ears. I. Avoid loud noise or sound, be it impulsive or continuous. - Always train your ears to being comfortable with low volume listening, especially over headphones or earphones. - Avoid using ear canal earphones as pushing them into the ears damages the ears. - Avoid thunderstorm lightning impulses from reaching your eardums without serious damping. - Careful of loud impulsive sounds like hammering, fire crackers etc or continuous sounds from automatic saw tools, marble or tile cutting tools, loud cars or bikes etc. - Vibration of air tight cars or buses as they move on the road can damage ears as well, but people over 25 years of age may not be able to perceive a difference as their ears have already degraded enough upon aging. - Closed though not air tight AC trains are also very bad. - Use aviation class noise cancelling headphones while flying. II. Get ears professionally cleaned periodically, once every year. III. Do not ever underestimate the degrading power or any of the above-mentioned stuff, as that will be a mistake.
@@geraldperry7779 thanks for that tip, I just sold my motorcycle so that I could now ride a bicycle which has improved my hearing 10 fold over the last 3 weeks, but my fun factor has decreased 87.35 fold over the same period of time... what to do, what to do!
Serious Sound took a power conditioner and passed it around their reviewers. One said it made a dramatic difference in his system, another said it made little to no difference. One reviewer lived in a in-city apartment, the other lived out in the suburbs. The 'conditioner' helped the city dweller because his AC power was shared by a LOT of other people who were using microwaves, ovens, AC, etc.
On the back of your rack try to have 3 groups of cables: AC Power, Speaker Wires, Interconnects. I tend to put my amp/receiver on the bottom shelf so speaker wires flow out away from the other wires.
I learned to avoid longer runs of RCA interconnect. It can be surprisingly easy to pick up loud RF interference. And if your cables are too long, don’t loop them-it becomes an even more sensitive antenna. Nowadays I prefer gear with balanced interconnects-the pros use that for good reason.
I was looking for something to raise my bedroom tv about 2 inches and damn if the washing machine pucks didn't do the trick. Already ordered 2 more sets for the sub and the actual washing machine.
Hi Andrew, I recently bought a Isotek Evo 3 Sirius Power Bar and the High Fidelity Cables MC-0.5 conditioner, both working 2gether. I have to say on digital music, it seems to have made a positive impact on the sound. I wouldn't say it was dramatic but overall the cd's sound richer and deeper and the bass sounds a bit deeper too. Maybe it's all in my head but I have been noticing it with tracks I am pretty familiar with.
My only comment is on power conditioners I've heard studio types saying a case of being aware of what is coming out of the wall; if you constantly run vintage gear, it might prefer 220V and last longer than running it at 240V. Plus you can mitigate fluctuations in the supply etc...
If the amplifiers power supply is of top quality adding a power conditioner is over - kill. Peenut difference. Get better speakers if you want to make an affordable differance
Ever try a square of one of those piece together soft mats ? Their about 18"x18" And are 1/4 " or more thick . You can find them in varying stiffness. Their the puzzle type edge easy to trim a pro look
Have that exact same pressure gauge it's brilliant. & I lost my stylus brush like yours & replaced with a very fine bristle carbon brush for under £9 in English. Gonna try shorter connections at back of rack for tidyness though as have many old hifi leads.
I have the mechanical stylus gauge from Shure. No battery needed - that comes in handy when you only use the thing once every five years… 😂 Uh. Just checked. They do not seem to produce these any more. What a pity.
![NLE Choppa - Or What ft. 41 (Orchestra Mix) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/biOFASEgSOM/mqdefault.jpg)
Hack 9. Clean your ears with warm water or wax remover.
So true. Even just rinse gently with one of those plastic bulbs.
Yes,
Hack 9: Take good care of your ears.
I. Avoid loud noise or sound, be it impulsive or continuous.
- Always train your ears to being comfortable with low volume listening, especially over headphones or earphones.
- Avoid using ear canal earphones as pushing them into the ears damages the ears.
- Avoid thunderstorm lightning impulses from reaching your eardums without serious damping.
- Careful of loud impulsive sounds like hammering, fire crackers etc or continuous sounds from automatic saw tools, marble or tile cutting tools, loud cars or bikes etc.
- Vibration of air tight cars or buses as they move on the road can damage ears as well, but people over 25 years of age may not be able to perceive a difference as their ears have already degraded enough upon aging.
- Closed though not air tight AC trains are also very bad.
- Use aviation class noise cancelling headphones while flying.
II. Get ears professionally cleaned periodically, once every year.
III. Do not ever underestimate the degrading power or any of the above-mentioned stuff, as that will be a mistake.
Drip a few drops of olive oil into you ear leave it for 5 mins then gently squirt in warm water using a rubber squirter. Blobs of wax will fall out and suddenly you'll hear a pin drop. You can actually get a kit at your pharmacy for a couple of €'s.
@@NickRobbMusic be careful, I tried that & I felt my head was on fire. Turned out I had scarred eardrums & an infection & warm olive oil gave me immense pain. Much fun had by my family when I was dancing around in pain.
Otex Express ear drops works wonders cheapest upgrade you can buy
What I like most about Andrews channel is... it is there is a lot of helpful people who comment... Very little negative commenting... kudos to everyone including Andrew for keeping it real in that respect. Manners and etiquette should never go out of style Imo. And thanks to everyone who replied to my questions...
Best comment of 2020 so far. Love that about this community. Thank you Mark for recognizing everyone who contributes.
@@andrewrobinsonreviews you are quite welcome sir...!!!!
Instead of washing machine puck I use the anti-vibration pads for air compressors. The good thing about them is that you can get them from any Lowes or Home Depot.
Great video!
It’s extremely rare to find an audiophile channel - that isn’t full of BS and and a pusher of fairy dust. Everything talked about here is true and about products which are genuinely useful.
With regards to the stylus brush - although perfectly fine, I prefer to use a Vinyl Passion Dust Buster. A quick google search should bring up all of the info. It’s kinda mid priced, I’ve had mine for about 5 years and it’s still doing a great job of keeping my stylus clean.
Thats got to be the best advice on power conditioners/power cables/audio cables I have heard in years, spot on!
Thank you!
I've been in the electrical industry for a little over 22 years now and power quality analysis has definitely been one of my areas of experience and training. I can 100% vouch for what you're saying regarding power quality conditioners. Regarding a dedicated circuit, this isn't necessarily for power quality more than it is an issue of not wanting to put your home audio equipment on a circuit with other appliances, due to overloading the circuit and tripping it. All the power quality anomalies that are created by your HVAC system starting and stopping or your wife or daughters running a hair dryer, nonlinear loads placed on the system like fluorescent lighting or computer equipment, other home audio equipment; these all lead to transients and slight fluctuations in the power system, and with all your breakers closed they're essentially connected to the main which is connected to your transformer feeding your house as well as more than likely several other houses and everything within that distribution network is affected by anything within that distribution network. My point is here, just because you have a dedicated circuit does not mean that it has a better power quality it is only to negate nuisance tripping and overloading of the circuit or having another appliance that has a ground fault or a short tripping the circuit if it's common to your audio equipment. I'm not implying here that is what was insinuated by advocating for having a dedicated circuit because you definitely should for this application. I'm just mentioning this because I can see where one may assume that it is a method to provide better power quality. And like he mentioned having surge suppression is a must because of those transients I spoke about that can be created within the system that could actually be created from your neighbor's house that could damage your equipment even if it's on a dedicated individual circuit for reasons that I mentioned. It also protects you from lightning strikes in an area that could affect that electrical distribution system I painted earlier. I'd like to add here that if you are in a home that has what they call a 2-wire branch circuit (without an equipment grounding conductor) and someone has installed a ground fault circuit interrupter that has a ground prong on it, that is definitely better than just snipping the ground prong off of your equipment cable because you only have a 2-wire receptacle or even if someone put a three-wire receptacle in and the internal ground is just not connected to anything, The GFCI method would still be better than that but, if you are installing home audio equipment and you're spending some coin on that equipment and you happen to be in this situation with your house I would definitely advise running a new cable and circuit to the main panel of your house that includes the equipment grounding conductor.
Just wanted to say that I have nothing but respect and admiration for your channel and the knowledge and time that you share with us. I definitely have a love and affinity for audio equipment and its technology and the more important experience that you can get from it as a lifetime lover of music and playing instruments myself. I wish I could have made a prolific career in this genre but it wasn't in my deck of cards. If you were able to do that and make a wonderful standard of living for yourself and your family and, it's what you love, then consider yourself extremely blessed! Especially if you can make a RUclips channel sharing that love because there is some serious money nowadays in that if one is successful but is definitely a full-time job doing it! Damn I wish I had a neighbor like you! (Even if I could hear everything emanating from your household...😆)
This is what separates you from the other guys/girls on RUclips. Instead of asking audiophiles to go out and spend hundreds of dollars, you break it down into simple, cost effective choices. Nicely done!
this guy is refreshing and clear and mostly right. cheap/free tweaks few do that will make a huge difference: experiment with speaker placement/toe in; room treatment esp for bass nodes and high end reflections; improved/phase checked grounding; improve your source quality before any other system changes.
Really liked it. Thanks! Glad to see someone talking about practical things to do with your set up.
After all, “perfect is the enemy of the good.” Or “good enough.”
I've seen a huge amount of audiophile BS over the years, this was a refreshing change
Nice job, I agreed with all of them. The UPS on a projector is actually really smart, I'm going to incorporate that into upcoming project designs.
I followed pretty much all of these recommendations and they really upgraded my stereo for cheap. Thanks a lot.
Glad I could help!
Finally someone not dropping the BS on us about cables and stuff but good practical advice. Thanks Andrew!
No problem 👍
Great advice. Love the practicality and lack of pretention.
Brilliant.. Thank you Andrew, for your concern and cares.
100% thumbs up... Thoroughly enjoyed video...!!!!!..... it was short and concise and full of useful information... Thoroughly enjoyed it... coming up with content might be an issue... But even if you could only come up with one hack on a very short video it would be well appreciated... I thoroughly enjoy your RUclips channel...
Thanks for highlighting washing machine anti-vibration. searching Amazon brings back a whole bunch of good stuff, like anti-vibration mats!
Brushing the stylius, always brush from rear to front so as not to damage it and be GENTLE. Also, a cartridge overhang gauge is handy if using a universal headshell.
A whole house surge protector is a worthwhile investment to protect audio and other sensitive electronic equipment.
Fairly simple to add to the house.
Another "hack" I'd like to point out is avoiding buying "specific-to-product" items whenever possible. Take a rubber puck, for example. You could go to a specialty store and buy rubber feet specifically sold for speakers and pay $20-30 for them, or you could find some generic rubber pucks somewhere that have nothing to do with speakers necessarily, but are essentially the same thing, but these cost a fraction of the price, because in reality, those rubber pucks cost pennies to manufacture. By the way, this applies to basically everything. Half the stuff on Amazon is just rebranded Alibaba wholesale merch bought in China for dirt cheap and being resold to you with a 200% mark-up.
MrGallbladder so funny - your example is Andrew’s first tip in the video! 😀
Click like before I even watch the video ;) Thank u for the hard work Andrew.
Appreciate it!
Maybe a hack I used on my old DUAL 1928 turntable with a hollow frame and a suspended plate.
I put in a sandbag (little pillow filled with quatz sand) and it helped a lot with stability an I even think it sounds a little more clean. It took out some of the vibrations.. hope that helps
Cladding the inside with some rubber using dual sided tape (or glue) also works quite nice; works just as nice as the rubber on the backside of many turntable platters.
Da Qoraxxx doesn’t that unbalance the plattern or did I get this wrong?
@@timvonr2802 Well, factories that put rubber on the platter do it with precision (if done correctly) so the rubber is equally thick everywhere under the platter. Additional platter finetuning/balancing is done individually for every platter at the end of the platter production, if it's a high end platter.
Luckily this isn't a concern when you clad the inside of the plinth.
I still have my original Discwasher record and stylus brush. :)
I've had the thin RCA cables allow much more interference into signals in the form of static, feedback and signal dostortion, even in short runs. It's important to use better cables to insulation against those kinds of signal problems. They don't have to cost a fortune, but if they're too thin, they're going to be susceptible to problems.
I'm from down under. Bought hack number 2 (stylus down force gauge). It's the same as yours but branded differently. It cost me about $11.00 AU. I compared it to a $300.00 gauge and guess what; they both measure the same!
I've been dealing with Subwoofer move as I have a downward firing sub on a hardwood floor.
Tip one was EXACTLY what I've been looking for. TY!!
Glad this was helpful!
I have been randomly binge-watching audiophile stuff to have myself a laugh, but you sir surprised me with a great little video! There was no BS and i really think that if more of the comunity was this pragmatic more people would join:)) Great job!
I forgot to say one thing, about the cables. If you have the oportunity to start a brand new system, and the price permits it, buy good quality cables. Not for the tripple layer extra mega unicorn sprinkle shielding or something, just because a low quality connector is bound to break in time; i use Cordial for everything; they are a bit expensive, at about 7-10 bucks a pop for the standard versions, but absolutely great quality to price ratio. Cheers!
I've been using a carbon brush for 30 years. they really DO add to the life of your records
One of the most helpful videos I've seen on YT. Thank you!
Thank you for watching!
I bought one of those 5 gram (10 if you include an extra step) scales a few years ago. Price including shipping was about $13.
Absolutely one of the best values for the money in an audio accessory.
The Shure SFG-2 (of which I have 2 or 3) is probably better for some reasons, but it is much more fiddly to use,
limited to 3 grams capacity, and no longer cheap --- it now costs about three times as much as the electronic gadget.
One problem with “tight” cabling is if you need to remove items from your rack. You want enough cable length to be able to pull the unit out and then be able to remove cables from the front and then when restoring the unit be able to replug it without moving the rack. Even if your rack has wheels when you remove one, or some, unit(s) the rack can be very unwieldy and possibly tip over.
Yep, just today I had to get back there to hook up my uncles 400 disc player to fix it and it made me so glad I left slack in the cables
That’s my way. Wires should not be as short as possible, but as short as reasonably manageable. A little slack goes a long way
Excellent advice Andrew. Thank you very much.
Glad it was helpful!
Great tips! Thanks so much 😎
Thank you!
A few years back the romain lettuce i bought at the grocers store came wrapped with a 12-15" very flexible green "velcro" strip.These are great to bind cables (cut to whatever length you need) and they also work great to tie up tomato's.
Best of all they are FREE.
Ecellent review. More of these. Not why did this recommendation appear this late in my youtube?
Noted!
Good suggestions! I use Mogami cables that I buy off of Amazon, they sound fantastic and are still inexpensive. One important thing, you should explain to vinyl newbies to ALWAYS WIPE THEIR STYLUS (NEEDLE) FROM THE REAR TO THE FRONT OF THEIR CARTRIDGE, else damage may incur.
I would say from my own experience it is unlikely that damage MAY occur...:-) Dumb as I am, i destroyed 3 OC9/III already ;-) But i admit that 2 times it happened because i was arrogant enough to not wear my glasses while putting on the stylus shield cover upside down - kkkk. So if somebody wants a kind of insurance, I would recommend MM with changeable stylus therefore plus some glasses :-)
Clean the stylus with it live, you can easily hear if you are applying too much force, LOL!
I built a large power line filter into a 10ga extension cord. It won't help if you have sagging line current or voltage, but it takes all the "noise" out of the 60hz power going into my equipment. Functionally, it's a narrow bandpass crossover for your power line: only 50-60hz gets through.
This is something found internally on test equipment, or some of the medical monitoring machines used in hospitals. Cost about $30 with all the parts (wire, case, receptacle, and plug).
Made a big improvement when I lived in apartments.
Another "tip" is to route all your power on one side and signals on the other.
I do disagree with using cheap interconnects, but the reasoning is that they're better shielded, not that they offer some magical benefit in signal conveyance. Any noise from CFL or LED driver circuits can be picked up in AC transmittance wiring, so the extra shielding is beneficial to prevent noise gain.
Balanced lines are best here, because of how the signal is transmitted twice, but 180° out of phase, then rephased at the destination effectively cancelling anything added along the way, but even XLR's use continuous braided shielding to prevent ingestion at the source.
DIY power treatment = good advice for those so inclined.
I too have built multiple diy power devices, settling on one final design. As you know, the primary caveat is it being a voltage drop inducing current choke-point. In no way can it be a current delivery impediment, even just slightly.
I've designed my own as that's my background, however there are some solid designs detailed online.
The diy design from Thomas from the Cult of the Infinitely Baffled is a good example and it's well detailed.
The power strips you mentioned always use sacrificial surge suppression and wear out over time. Some have LEDs that indicate when they're worn out, but I have a strip where the indicator light is still on even though it's certainly worn out. Bottom line, religiously check your surge suppression and replace it annually as a matter of course. I recommend looking at ZeroSurge, which is expensive but not sacrificial / disposable, and is cheaper long term (and greener) than disposable power suppression.
If you get to live long enough you will come to the realization that there is nothing real good that it isn"t "sacrificial"...
At the moment they sell RCA cables in "dollar stores" that have no coaxial cable but parallel. The pins in the middle of the plugs are not made of metal, but made of plastic with a thin layer of alu-foil. No need to explain what happens if you remove them out of a machine. So there is a minimum quality you can go below.
The projector idea is pure brilliant.
The book with mine does state it must go through a cool down cycle
With regards to power conditioners, dirty power can cause lifespan issues. If you can use a power treatment/iso-bar, it's a pretty good idea.
Also Rip Ties are a great alternative to the Velcro cables ties, you a huge roll for like ten bucks.
I just watched this video after one of your recent ones aaaand...the quality improvement is incremental! Not that tje old ones are bad, but when I went back a year and some - I noticed how much you improved. Congrats!
Thank you!
Andrew nice video, you have some good, basic tips here. When it comes to power protectors/conditioners some spend WAY to much IMHO. I think a good way to go is with what many musicians use during live shows, and almost ever amp/rack/whatever is plugged into a Furman. They aren't that expensive, they do a good job, and they are pretty much bomb proof (sounds like you might be talking about something along these lines in this video). I use two Furman M-8X2 in my listening room, they are professional quality, and they cost all of $70.
I'm glad you've had good luck with the Furman pieces, but unfortunately they're really nothing more than a rack mounted plug strip.
They are a nice piece of gear, but I don't believe they offer any conditioning or protection. They're just a handy rack mounted plug strip for live or studio use, and priced appropriately affordable.
The market segment including power conditioning and power strips is fraught with BS.
Addressing quality power delivery to audio gear can be expensive.
Also,if you use a subwoofer,put in your listening position,then walk about until you get the bass to your liking ,at that spot,put your subwoofer box
Great video channel! 90 degree rca and power cord adapters can work wonders for cable management in tight spaces.
More important even than having short unbalanced cable runs (matter much less with balanced) is that when your audio cables have to cross your power cables, that they do so at a 90° angle. This will minimize inductance of hum and noise from power.
There is a chance that employing shorter power cables incidentally resulted in physically moving them away from rca and speaker cables... PRESTO! A blacker background.
Excellent tips! I would love to see a "pro" like yourself clear up your typical cable jungle in a real proactively setting! Just a thought. Thanks!
My suggestions: take a cheap piezo lighter and modify it to make a cheap but perfectly working antistatic gun (it makes a huge difference not only on viny sound, but also it's easier to keep them clean and they don't stick to the envelope).
Also I would suggest the dust buster from vinylpassion for cleaning the stylus: faster and fool-proof compared to brush, and a lot cheaper than the more known onzow zerodust while having the same exact functionality!
Washing mine with some drops of „mirasol“ anti static fluid and put em into anti static sleeves
At first reading the title a little bit too fast, I thought this was going to be about 8 Tracks.... Honestly, I love 8 Tracks just because of the oddness of them :)
I learned about the projector bulb explosion issue the hard way, about 15 days after the expiration of the 2 year warranty on the projector. DOH! Honestly seems like a design flaw on the part of the manufacturers though. Should have a small battery/capacitor backup on the fan that would let them carry on for 30 seconds or so. That's really all you need.
I took your advice, added some of the pads under my Emotiva T1s. While much of the effect may be psychosomatic, I do think I have noticed a difference, a good deal of which my be attributed to the fact the ribbon tweeter now sits more at my ear level. Thank you for all the time you take to provide us with these videos and tips.
Glad to hear you’re happy with the improvement. Happy to help. Be well.
It is more of an improvment when it's for a subwoofer that shake everything in the room and you can ear that, like the picture, my clock, my door frame. After putting special feet under my sub, 50% of those rumble disapeared, and i solved the rest 1 by 1. Door rumble was solved with rubber for winter.
Here’s a cheapish, bookshelf speaker stand hack a la IKEA. Check out the Lauters lamp, the pedestal sits at 32” and even includes an attractive “cable management system”. Cut off the lamp part at the pedestal with the adjustable post either high or low, stain as desired or not. Probably add a friction element to the top? Might stick a Denton 85 on top with Velcro, or are there bookshelfs that can make me cry, a La Scala? Thanks!
I have my home theater on a large UPS. The TV, AVR and HTPC are on the UPS because one stormy night the power blinked on and off (rapidly) for about 30 seconds. It looked like a frankenstein monster film and freaked me out with concern about my electronics. Cheers
Ordered those washing machine pads directly, as my parents living room is directly under mine
And it works, even after upgrading to a bigger sub.
@@michaelschafer6379 Of course.
Yes I install dedicated circuit and ballanced mains systems . This makes a big difference to clean and better sound
Thanks for the affordable tips! I was shocked this week to learn (yeah, puns are a thing) that my new carbon fiber antistatic record brush from Hudson Sound did not work nearly as well in picking off dust specks and sweeping them off records while reducing static charge as my 25 year old Decca carbon fiber antistatic record brush, the difference was very obvious. Who would have thought it would matter? The Hudson left about 1\2 the dust on the record, the Decca swept nearly all of the dust off. Sheesh!
Just a point of order, a lot of audio manufacturers will void the warranty if your equipment is hooked up to one uninterruptible power supply. It’s because of the square wave or modified square wave output.
Could you expand on your comment??? I run vintage audio... So I am not concerned about warranty issues ... is there anything I should be concerned about by using protected power strips...?????? Excuse my ignorance and thank you in advance
I just re-read your comment maybe you're talkin about the battery backup , that Andrew was speaking of for the projector bulb and fan?
Mark Bingamon Yes, square wave hum and stress on old electolitics
Mark Bingamon yes.
@@markbingamon9351 The simulated, stepped sine waves can be harmful to linear PSU (which were standard for equipment well into 80s) when ran for longer periods of time.
It shouldn't be an issue when ran as a temporary backup though.
Modern SMPS are more resilient to stress caused by those stepped sinewaves.
Magic Eraser - can clean off the dust off the tip of your stylus. Just cut a little square and dab it on the end. You're welcome.
A stylus gauge can also be used to measure out your research chemicals
XDD i have a scale for w33d and figured that would work just as well.
The battery backup recommendation for a projector is a great safety suggestion.
Great tips, thank you for posting.
You can buy velcro on a roll, cut them to length yourself. Used mainly in datacenters so super cheap.
Just found your channel and Im really enjoying it!
Welcome aboard!
getting better speaker cable made a difference to me it was not very expensive but had bell wire before.
the gauge of the wire is probably the most important thing
Lots of good suggestions. However, a stylus pressure gauge? I lighten the pressure until the tone arm skates and then up the pressure until it doesn't.
I use a digital scale that measures 100ths like some people have that sell substances in small quantities. (Not me)
tyler jackson *Boom* FBI, OPEN UP!!
I don't know if it comes out of the same factory or not but I've got a "Neoteck" brand stylus gauge that looks like the one you're showing. It was in the $14.00 range from Amazon. Good tips and I REALLY like you talking about keeping the cabling tidy. When I was younger I didn't worry about it and that kind of mess just burns way too much time when moving or swapping gear. Thanks!
I would guess they are all from the same manufacturer and the companys just print their name on it (Its the same for many products like this)
I think that projector thing depends on the projector/bulb. My projector turns off it’s fans as soon as it’s off, so I think it has enough passive cooling to not blow up.
Some good stuff here: Yes if you run video cables from projector down to your audio system... also run a extension cord. Power conditioners are good if they have a 2000joule or more protection, and surge protect your coax and LAN inputs.
Great idea on the isolation pucks. Always wanted to try the ones from SVS but this seems as if it would work just as well.
8:35 Listen up people, the man speak the gospel. As a one-time film projectionist who dealt with this problem on a much larger scale (cinema lamphouses run xenon lamps anywhere from 3K to 7K watts and require at least 600cfm cooling), most cinemas have automatic backup power generators for precisely this reason. Aside from the fact that the lamps cost 3 grand apiece, they are pressurized at 10x atmospheres so when they explode they do so very violently and will easily trash a 10 grand lamphouse, so cooling those babies is vital. I was lucky in my career, i never had one explode, but I've seen the results of one that did. I'm glad I wasn't in the room when it happened, put it that way.
Any lamp that requires forced cooling must NOT have that airflow cut off unless it is fully cool or it WILL explode. Like he says, any half decent computer UPS will do that job just fine. They're not expensive, and most use standard battery sizes obtainable from any good battery store. If it saves you once it's paid for itself. Every save after that is a freebie.
@Andy ME Dude my career was from 1988 until 2003, and modern digital projection units still use air cooled xenon lamps. They were still using carbon arcs in the 1950s.
If you want to take a shot at me at least do some research first.
@Andy ME Actually, in terms of air-cooled xenon lamps providing the light source, no it hasn't. The principle is still exactly the same.
Haha, used to work as a janitor at a movie theater in the early ‘90s, the projectionist was changing a bulb one day, I think it was nearing its useable life, getting dim, while he was changing it, he dropped it and broke it!!! He was making $4.25 an hour, didn’t get a raise that year!
My thrift store setup, I run twin Polkaudio 100W powered subs, an old JVC Super-A receiver and Sony tower speakers. With the bass offloaded to the subs, I can fill the room with very loud, clear sound without over stressing the receiver. Total cost was just over $100.
running my grandfathers old Technics speakers and AV receiverfound them in the store and damn they bang. 60w per channel.
nice, but i bet you'd be astounded if you upgraded your speakers. you can get A-list small towers a few years old for less than 200 all over the place.
@@timothysullysullivan2571 will do. They're some Sony 3 ways at my local thrift that I've been eyeing too.
Hi, Andrew. Here's a simple test to determine whether you need a power conditioner or not. On a Sunday evening, about 7 - 8 p.m. your local time, listen to your stereo with a sound source, a really good recording that you are well- acquainted. Then, about 2 a.m. into Monday morning do it again. If there was a notable change for the better on the 2 a.m. Monday morning sudition, you need a power conditione; if not. you probably don't. Let me know how the test went, please.
Power line voltage fluctuations are an entirely different matter.
almost every system I've had anywhere I've lived sounded much much better after 10 pm. cleaner power makes a difference. it's also quieter of course. but it's a huge difference.
Haha, yeah, power mains is the only thing that’s quieter at night. That’s gotta be the difference you’re hearing.
Oh yes. High power stereo. There's a time to play it loud, and a time to play it REALLY loud.
Wiping debris from the tip of my stylus is how I got kicked out of college.
This took me a few seconds and some head scratching.... Now I'm cracking up. Well done sir.
1:55 Well, I think your measurements are correct and the result don't surprise me.
Put the word "audiophile" on it and it suddenly becomes 10000% more expensive!
No comment ;).
Lol I've learned to avoid anything that says audiophile in the title when shopping.
@@hugobloemers4425 I like the thermocouple cables suggestion.
Looks like they're well shielded.
Nice going, Andrew. Some "tech tips" are commonly covered in other channels, many others mentioned, fresh and helpful!
New to your channel Andrew- great job keeping it real. Still enjoying my 1982 Cornwalls.
Some great ideas here Andrew. I’ve been mulling isolating my sub from a timber floor so the hack #1 rubber feet may well do the job!
Highly recommend it. Watch my video on subwoofer placement too so you have it (your sub)optimally placed first.
Tip. You can make basic room EQ with normal USB microphone, without buying measurement mic. Some data is better, than no any data.
A note regarding power. In my personal experience, power is easily 50% of your system's ability to produce a clean, crisp, accurate sound.
Seriously, starting from the very beginning of the source, the electric grid to your neighborhood. Do you think the electric company cares about clean power or good, crisp audio? Spoiler alert, they don't. So your power starts from a noisy source and it travels down miles of cable collecting all sorts of interference along the way. Strong currents of power through copper act as a an antenna for other signals. It draws them in. All power cables will suffer this. So, by the time it reaches the junction box to your house, that junction box probably isn't "audiophile grade" either (is there such a thing anyway?) and will add more noise on the line. Then you tend to have raw, unshielded copper running through the walls of your house or apartment. Again, strong current through copper is a, what? An antenna for signals. So, massive levels of noise is now being drawn into your home/apartment's electric wires. Then 99% of home/space builders are going to install the cheapest possible electric outlet. Probably .75 cent or at best $1.00 low grade plugs. These plugs have NO copper behind them and do a minimal job at conductivity. Also, the plugs themselves are weak and do not create a cold weld to your equipment. This results in micro arcs that translate as.....you guessed it, MORE noise on your system. Therefore, you are looking at a long chain of unclean, noisy electricity coming into your expensive equipment.
With that said, there are some things you can do to control or rectify this. First things first, CHANGE THAT RAT-NASTY ELECTRICAL OUTLET!!!! At a minimum, purchase a Hospital Grade wall outlet. It has some copper behind it, ensuring better conductivity and has tighter plugs to ensure that whatever you plug in has a cold weld and won't fall out accidentally (you wouldn't want that ventilator to come unplugged by accident, right? So, you wouldn't want your amp or other components to come unplugged by accident.) This makes a reasonable impact on sound by increasing your noise floor by removing unwanted line noise. Even with this, there is still noise coming in from its long journey. You NEED a line conditioner on top of a surge protector. Without spending $1000.00 I recommend Audioquest's Power Quest 3. It can be mounted vertically or horizontally as needed. It has specific ports that can handle higher power TVs and dynamic power draws from your amp. It's about $300, which isn't bad considering. Then, finally, if your components allow, change your electric cable. No, there is no active circuitry in those cables and thus your sound will be unaltered. it's about delivering as clean a signal as possible to your amp or other component.
I am going to digress a bit to explain how having clean electricity impacts the "noise floor." When electricity comes into the component, it is buffered by capacitors. When noise on the electrical line gets into the capacitor it resonates as a frequency. This is called "Spread Spectrum." This frequency then enters the other IC chips and other electrical components within the system, resulting in either an audible "hiss" or noise or....as a reduction in noise floor. Even though your hi-end system is capable of replicating a wide range of frequencies, it can lose some of the subtle sounds that are within a track. Some systems have built in, hi-end DACs that can rescue some of that information, but not all of them.
I finally had enough disposable income to get this equipment and finally end the debate for myself, because a majority of nay-sayers about cables, DACs or power, have never actually bought and tried them. When I upgraded my wall sockets to an audiophile grade (better than hospital grade), it made the biggest impact to my system. So, that would be the first ever thing I would do.
Once last thing I should mention, these items are all cumulative. Buying one item within the chain is good. The more you add to the chain, the better the end result. So, getting a line conditioner is good. Getting a better wall socket it good. But add them both together and you get GREAT! The same is true for higher end cables. The more within the chain, the better; but they are only going to be as effective as your equipment and power.
falcon048 - In my personal experience, power is easily 100% of my systems ability to produce any sounds whatsoever.
About the rest - provide measurements or its just another snakeoil anecdotal.
@@johnmowgli127 "
provide measurements or its just another snakeoil anecdotal."
falcon048 - You are the reason audio manufacturers keep creating these products. You want to hear a difference. So you do. You paid for it. So it has to be there. I've had several discussions with manufacturers that know their product is snake oil, but why not sell it, if you're buying? All your statements are religious. Conducting a signal has nothing to do with magic sauce, salt, pepper or whatever you think your dollars add. Try to back up your statements with something more than qualified than "we don't have ways to measure quality". Because we do.
And the reason I'm reacting is exactly because you're advising others to blindly follow your insanity. I can't give a rat's ass how you spend your money, but your advice should be tossed on the flat earth pile of stupidity.
@@johnmowgli127 You're the reason I don't care. You're so caught up in whether or not OTHER people (not you) spend their money or whether a company whose products YOU don't buy, are still allowed to make products.
I mean, WHO ARE YOU, really? Why does YOUR opinion matter?
Guess what bro, I am still going to buy the products I like, regardless of your opinion of the products or me; real shocker, eh?
Oh, and I will still push my "snake oil" as you call it, because some people appreciate it, even if you don't. Other people are allowed to like and appreciate things that are different from you. Sorry you had to find out.
Hack 9: Take good care of your ears.
I. Avoid loud noise or sound, be it impulsive or continuous.
- Always train your ears to being comfortable with low volume listening, especially over headphones or earphones.
- Avoid using ear canal earphones as pushing them into the ears damages the ears.
- Avoid thunderstorm lightning impulses from reaching your eardums without serious damping.
- Careful of loud impulsive sounds like hammering, fire crackers etc or continuous sounds from automatic saw tools, marble or tile cutting tools, loud cars or bikes etc.
- Vibration of air tight cars or buses as they move on the road can damage ears as well, but people over 25 years of age may not be able to perceive a difference as their ears have already degraded enough upon aging.
- Closed though not air tight AC trains are also very bad.
- Use aviation class noise cancelling headphones while flying.
II. Get ears professionally cleaned periodically, once every year.
III. Do not ever underestimate the degrading power or any of the above-mentioned stuff, as that will be a mistake.
Ya yeah you forgot riding loud motorcycles. Lol
@@geraldperry7779 thanks for that tip, I just sold my motorcycle so that I could now ride a bicycle which has improved my hearing 10 fold over the last 3 weeks, but my fun factor has decreased 87.35 fold over the same period of time... what to do, what to do!
Excellent Andrew, thanks!
Washing machine pads! Excellent. The sorbethane speaker pads cost $71 dollars cd. Thanks.
Serious Sound took a power conditioner and passed it around their reviewers. One said it made a dramatic difference in his system, another said it made little to no difference. One reviewer lived in a in-city apartment, the other lived out in the suburbs. The 'conditioner' helped the city dweller because his AC power was shared by a LOT of other people who were using microwaves, ovens, AC, etc.
Nice video Andrew. Some great tips. Sorry you have so many negative trolls on your channel! Lol
No worries, but I appreciate you hanging out with us and not being one of them! Be well Don!
On the back of your rack try to have 3 groups of cables: AC Power, Speaker Wires, Interconnects. I tend to put my amp/receiver on the bottom shelf so speaker wires flow out away from the other wires.
This was a wonderful video with great ideas! Thanks so much.
A Tesla power wall is a home theater upgrade now! I like it.
I learned to avoid longer runs of RCA interconnect. It can be surprisingly easy to pick up loud RF interference. And if your cables are too long, don’t loop them-it becomes an even more sensitive antenna. Nowadays I prefer gear with balanced interconnects-the pros use that for good reason.
I was looking for something to raise my bedroom tv about 2 inches and damn if the washing machine pucks didn't do the trick. Already ordered 2 more sets for the sub and the actual washing machine.
That's awesome! Glad we could help!
Hi Andrew, I recently bought a Isotek Evo 3 Sirius Power Bar and the High Fidelity Cables MC-0.5 conditioner, both working 2gether. I have to say on digital music, it seems to have made a positive impact on the sound. I wouldn't say it was dramatic but overall the cd's sound richer and deeper and the bass sounds a bit deeper too. Maybe it's all in my head but I have been noticing it with tracks I am pretty familiar with.
You left out the one about taping pennies to your tone arm if it jumps around on those bass-heavy 45s. You're welcome. 😄
Those were the days lol. Couldn't imagine doing that on my rega planar 3 today.
My only comment is on power conditioners I've heard studio types saying a case of being aware of what is coming out of the wall; if you constantly run vintage gear, it might prefer 220V and last longer than running it at 240V. Plus you can mitigate fluctuations in the supply etc...
Great video.
If the amplifiers power supply is of top quality adding a power conditioner is over - kill. Peenut difference. Get better speakers if you want to make an affordable differance
Ever try a square of one of those piece together soft mats ? Their about 18"x18"
And are 1/4 " or more thick .
You can find them in varying stiffness. Their the puzzle type edge easy to trim a pro look
Have that exact same pressure gauge it's brilliant. & I lost my stylus brush like yours & replaced with a very fine bristle carbon brush for under £9 in English. Gonna try shorter connections at back of rack for tidyness though as have many old hifi leads.
If you use the velcro wraps to coil up the cable that st least keeps it packed away at the least
What do think of turntable isolation?
I have the mechanical stylus gauge from Shure. No battery needed - that comes in handy when you only use the thing once every five years… 😂
Uh. Just checked. They do not seem to produce these any more. What a pity.
Same and I will say it's a pain in the ass to use, but it does the job.
Quick question: any recommendation for a good tube preamp for a turntable, that is fairly priced?
Little Dot Mk2
Fosi audio.....it's Chinese but it works great upgrade with GE tubes