tmsorosk
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Biggest improvement for the least cash .
JIMV
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A tubed buffer ($190) in the otherwise all solid state vinyl system filled in a weak midrange. A glass toslink cable rplacing a plastic one made a big change in my iMac based system.

soulful.terrain
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While they may not necessarily be the cheapest, I feel acoustic treatments are the most critical and unfortunately the most overlooked. You can have the most exotic, boutique gear around, but a bad room will negate all the big bucks you spent on a system. Bass traps, panels and diffusers will literally transform your listening space. And the best thing... you can build your own!

 

Happy listening,

Mark Evans

WillWeber
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The best tweaks are free, and have the most significant effect: speaker placement, and listening position. It only takes time, sometimes lots of it, to experiment. A time domain spectral analyzer can help with the process, and these are getting pretty reasonable for PC based systems. Education on how to do all this is also important, and good books are not all that expensive either. Room treatment is next, and this is more effective once the voicing is close. Some simple treatments are often all that is needed. You might want to iterate with placement and treatment adjustments. This can get tedious, perhaps endless for the more picky of us, but that's what makes this a hobby after all.

Most important of all, listen to some great music from your collection. That is a tweak for your soul!

JIMV
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Another good idea...a dedicated power line to the system...

j_j
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room treatment.

 

It's 1, 2, and 3 on the menu.

geoffkait
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I agree many things that can be done for no cost or very little cost. Other examples include cleaning all electrical contacts, making sure the CD transport is absolutely level, CD treatments, checking tomearm geometry and checking all speaker drivers for proper polarity.

Geoff Kait
machina dynamica

Bubbamike
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Tone controls. Remember when they came with your kit?

tmsorosk
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Remember tone controls ? The Cambridge Audio Azur 650A integrated amp I just purchased for the garage , new , came with tone controls . Actually I bought it because it had tone controls that I thought might help tame a few nasties in a reflective area like a garage . I think there a mixed blessing .

                                                                                                                                                                Tim

Bubbamike
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Depends upon how you use them. Good tone controls with have a tone defeat circut so they aren't in the signal path unless you want them. My older Luxman gear have a tone defeat button, my old Onkyo's tone controls were defeated when the knobs were in the center postion. I don't use them often but they are handy when needed for poor recordings and for room issues.

drjjpdc
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The biggest problem with tone controls are that they usually work over too great a frequency range. That quality is what makes them unmusical, not the mere effect of having them at all. Good tone controls can be a good thing but most of them are not.

dlb
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The Yaoin Tube buffer transformed my system into an all access pass to the best seats at some of the best performances ever recorded.  It is a magic box!  My EVS ground enhancers also make a huge improvement.

John Marks
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Music Direct sells it on a money-back guarantee, what's not to love?

JM

lwhitefl
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In order of importance:

Symmetrical listening room positioning minimizing equipment between and around primary speakers, primary speakers away from room boundaries, proper toe-in, and equi-distance from listening position. With careful listening this will promote a more linear frequency response, coherence, and imaging.

Room acoustics to control sound reflections that "smear" audio diminishing dynamics, presence, and articulation.

Dedicated audio circuits with power conditioning to minimize electrical line noise that reduces dynamics and resolution.

Synergistic cabling (power, ic, speaker) to ensure design philosophy continuity throughout the electrical path.

Resonance control to isolate audio equipment electrical noise and vibration which smears the audio signal. This signficantly improves presence and articulation.

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