TIPS & TWEAKS

Just tried another trick on my cadence arita bookshelves. I got myself two 5 pound weights, the kind you would use on a dumbell.

Wrapped it in soft chamois cloth and kept it on top of the speaker aligning it flush against the back horizontal line of the speaker, its amazing how the clear bass got clearer and the lower mids were more open.

Heard about this from a friend and decided to try it and it worked like a charm.

Anybody else has any tips and tweaks to share ?

Manek..... old pal,

"Cork up" with all the postings!! Instead, make time to come home.

Really need some "sound advice"..... speaker placement, sound proofing, isolators etc. And finally.... to buy or not to buy.... the Cadence Avitas!!

Tips Tweaks & Traps - like the old software books huh?

Shandy is on the house.

Cheers.

Anil

Anil...heh heh....welcome to the forum.

buy the Avitas....junk the B&W's...thats my sincere advice

I found my isolators in the cork board

I'll take you up on the shandy offer anytime

Hey!
Cork! Good idea!
I will try this!

do that kimber and hear the difference.

My NAD 320BEE integrated has metal gold plated jumpers between the pre-out and main-in.

This jumper I feel is made of either nickel, brass with zinc content and plated gold. Nickel or brass are not the best choice for sound.

I want to replace these metal jumpers with good short copper interconnect cables with connectors. The cables and connectors I am looking for should not only be neutral in sound but also should not give or take away nothing from and to the pre-out signal. So it should faithfully transport the signal from the pre-out to the main-in.

I dont mind using readymade or hand fabricated stuff.

Any ideas ?

I used a pair of old Ecosse Composers instead...frankly It just beats me as to why NAD could not provide a better connector !

Home made stuff would not be easy as you would need that exact size to fit in..and for a good connection you Would need use a RCA termination. Hmm perhaps a Good thick copper wire with RCA termination might do the trick..since the size is so short Cable impedance would not be that big a factor as to affect tonality

Have you`ll tried the "Beak" which is provided extra by Totem? It is to be put on top of the speakers by which they claim it controls resonances and allows for better driver integration and results in imaging and dynamic improvement.

The Beak and Claw both are good but only if you get them with the totems...if you plan on buying them separately , they are obnoxiously priced

Arj,

I tried it with good cable...Vandenhul Hybrid MKIII D-102.
I found no difference at all.
Tried it not once but 4 times with extended listening sessions.

So i'm now wondering if it really is worth the effort ? Do the NAD engineers know better ?

I could notice some difference..unfortunately Good or Bad I could not say as the soundstage was just about the same

But it did play Louder .. (My speakers have a 98dB sensistivity and small difference do show up !

maybe next time i'll try a one piece silver wire. I'm trying to souce a good small piece from the dealers.

Instead of cork.

I read in the last number of what hifi that you could use squashballs (black, rubber, size of a golfball) for dampening. You cut them in halves and place them under your cdplayer, amp etc. So you need 4 halvs per unit. Hmm.. I wonder how much they cost?

squash balls are not cheap but they are not expensive either.

I prefer cork as my CDP is on a flat surface and cannot be easily toppled over. My cork peice is as wide as the cdp.

Why dont you try the squash balls and let me know.

manek.

Manek, is your CDP resting directly on the cork ? If so you could try keeping 3 Wooden (Hardwood) Cones or Pyramids under the CDP.(ie in case you have not done it already !)

Since you are using a cork it could be with the point up. Usually youo should be able to see a difference in the soundstage. Ideally one of them should be directly under the CD Tray mechanism and others at the back
I use DH cones/Squares which has a similiar action.