Filling speaker stands w/copper bb's (didn't want to use lead shot this time) and then adding aquarium black sand. Big improvement. Lately bought a Furatech gold-plated ac plug for $30 for the Arcam's home-made power cord. Noticeable improvement. Finally, did some experimenting w/the Arcam's 10 Int. amp speak binding posts. I found the "B" sounded better than the "A." Why....much shorter metal connection from board to spk. binding post w/the "B" spk. posts. Also, removed the Deltron BFA plugs and went back to bare wire. Much better. Finally, a good cleaning of all contacts.
Most Effective Tweaks?
Wondering what generic tweaks people have tried that made the biggest difference? Also interested in how much the tweaks cost to implement and the magnitude say from minimum of "marginal" to maximum of "transformational".
My top tweaks I can think of so far are
1) isolating speakers from versus coupling to floor when needed (~$100, transformational)
2) Mu metal shield around low level phono stepup transformer ($30, transformational noise reduction)
3) power cord upgrade (significant, ~$80)
4) acoustic panels (significant, $90)
5) power conditioner (significant, $100)
5) Physically moving components further apart from each other (NC, marginal)
My top tweaks I can think of so far are
1) isolating speakers from versus coupling to floor when needed (~$100, transformational)
2) Mu metal shield around low level phono stepup transformer ($30, transformational noise reduction)
3) power cord upgrade (significant, ~$80)
4) acoustic panels (significant, $90)
5) power conditioner (significant, $100)
5) Physically moving components further apart from each other (NC, marginal)