Everything affects everything else. There is no such thing as size in context of the whole. There can be a replacement but there can not be a displacement. For example in the truest sense if something was inert, it would fall through the skin of the planet and rest in the center. In the truest sense there is no such thing as isolation. The closet we have found to this is a ballon in the air with no wind, but even this is affected by it's surroundings. BTW I learned that one thanks to your buddies at NASA.

I think part of the mysteries in audio is that it has so much to do with what our eyes can't see. People tend to make theories based on parts and not wholes. This leaves a lot of room for the "If's". Here's an if. If we really saw the audio signal and system for what it really was would we be sitting here listening to all these unnecessary parts? I don't thing so.

So my answer is it can't be too small. I've seen people take the time to tune a room with plastic thumb tacs dipped in my wood filler solution and that's less than .35" in size. I've also made transfer washers for regular mechine screws made of wood that made huge differences.

Size is not the issue, the use is. I've seen audiophiles make their own on wall disc out of pennies, copper or brass shavings. Much of this is about how to, and matching materials with the size.

For example, you might have a room made from plaster in 80% humidity that completely rejects the Marigo Tuning Dots, but has wonder success with a piece of folded Kraft paper stuck on the wall.

I love the interaction of materials and application and that's one of the reasons I go toward variable cause you might have one guy where it works perfect and the next where it is a disaster. It's hardly ever one size fits all for the guy who is going all the way. When I was a dealer I carried a lot of the audio tweaks, but I would have to say that in all truthfulness most of the time they made a change but not the change. Guys make a change in their systems and 6 months later are looking for something else cause they start to hear the negatives that they didn't pay attention to at first. Audiophiles are extremely compulsive buyers, like a woman with shoes. Different is the name of the game but months later is when the real listening comes in. That's why I like referencing with a client, it's the only real way. Everything else is really not much more than product pushing and only the listener themself can be the engineer of their own place.

So my view of the little tweaks or any tweak is to make a listening plan and work with someone who can go in either direction. Meaning if I have a client for example who is using the disc and it cleared things up but lost some of the body I want to be able to bring them back toward the body side. Same thing with the guy who ends up with too much body, I want to be able to swing him back the other way. The key for me is this, make that person the master of his own system. Get to the place where it is not about product, but more about the method of listening that works for him or her.

michael green
MGA/RoomTune

geoffkait wrote:

Got any others?

I got a camel that fits through the eye of my cartridge needle.

If you came over & heard The Wife, you would be surprised how loud she can be for someone so small.

Then I got a hold of this guy & asked him to go into my DAC & find some better sound.

Funny thing, now that I think about it, I have not heard form him in while.....

Bill - on the Hill
Practicing Curmudgeon & Audio Snob
- just an “ON” switch, Please –

... but we can, all too often, hear them. Right now I hear echoing when hitting my head on the amp's power transformer. Maybe it's that "little voice"?

I ran out of optical digital inputs and bought a ten dollar optical to coax converter box as a coax input was still available.
Turns out the source sounded much more fleshed out using coax even with a ten dollar gadget doing the job.
In fact experimentation showed that ALL my optical devices sounded more fleshed out once turned into coax.
You might think the digital inputs all wind up the same place and an extra step degrades the sound.
No.
Also the cheapest upgrade I made to my main room system was to move the coffee table six inches to make it centered in front of my speakers.
Once it was centered the center image improved dramatically.
It was as if the sound waves were getting pooched up in a ball under the coffee table creating a hole in the room acoustics.
Centering the table straightened out the sound propagation bigtime.
Both these "upgrades" made more improvement than the difference between MP3 and CD.
They improved the way the overall presentation came through by adding weight and clarity to the playback.
A higher resolution only adds definition and does not change the emotional impact you get from tuning your system for fullness and solidity of image.
I'm not saying resolution doesn't matter.
Just that once the system is singing sweetly it becomes the icing on the cake.
I can enjoy low res if it is full and clear and sweet sounding.
My two cents.