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)
128x128mapman

Showing 8 responses by mapman

Anyone have a spare ultrasonic record cleaner send it my way.

Agree clean records are transformational.

I have an effective manual process I use but is time consuming and a pain.     A good ultrasonic record cleaner would be welcome.
Auralex subdude platforms under floor standers and Isoacoustics brand pro monitor stands under monitors. 
Paper if source is in basement as you suspect then you might be able to place a flat my metal shield between either on ceiling in level below or floor on upper level.   

If if so then you might be able to hear differences in the noise level if affected device can be raised and lowered somewhat while playing.  
$600 is the right price point but I need it to be fast and easy as well as effective.  Otherwise my manual process cost virtually nothing and is most effective.   I haven't seen one like that yet.  The ones I have seen cost thousands still.

papermill,

There was no noticeable hum or noise prior to adding the step up transformer to better match the MM level phono pre-amp in my ARC sp16 when I bought it.  So I knew adding the step up xformer introduced the hum somehow.

First I determined hum was related to EM field by moving the stepup xfermer around and noticing changes in hum levels at different locations which gave me info about location of the source of EM.

Then I bought enough flexible sheet mu metal foil from an online source (do not recalll which, but a simple google found it at the time) to form a cylindrical container (open on both ends which did not matter in my case) that I could slide the step up xformer into easily to form an encompassing cylindrical shield.

This worked like a charm in my case. The key is knowing the location of the EM source by istening to noise levels as device is moved around, picking an optimal location with lowest noise possible then applying the mu metal so that it shields device from EM source. I can share a picture if desired. Not pretty or elaborate in my case but effective.


if noise is from RF, shielded ICs may help. in my case it was EM noise being picked up by my step up transformer directly. The ICs I use from step up xformer to phono input are unshielded mainly because I like those specific ICs, but using shielded ICs in all cases is probably safest. Each case could be different in many ways so you have to be able to determine the cause.


Hum in a phono setup is commonly due to ground issues. If ground is good, nothing else may be needed. Lower level devices like low output MC carts (a Denon Dl103R in my case) and step up transformers are most susceptible to external noise sources. Higher output MC or MM phono carts and line level devices are less affected. YMMV for sure in cases like this.

Yep, as mentioned several times above, hum is most likely ground and/or EM related due to close proximity to transformers and the ilk.

RF is typically higher frequency noise, not unlike the noise other than hiss one might hear listening to FM stereo radio. Older digital gear, microwaves, light dimmers are just some of the more common culprits.