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Pleasant Surprises

Sometimes you buy one tweak or another and it doesn't work as advertised. So there's a lot of frustration. Other times you buy a tweak that offers an unintended benefit.

I have a Krell FPB 600 power amp. It is a beast that puts out enough heat to warm small countries. Whenever I turn on the home theater, my den gets uncomfortably warm after a few minutes. So, I recently installed a Parasound Zbreeze to help manage the heat. I was amazed at the results. The ambient temperature in the room seemed 10 degrees cooler. My wife even noticed. I can't wait to get some for my tube gear.

So, which tweak has pleasantly surprised you like that?
kinsekd
12 responses Add your response
aball
2,016 posts
 
I have to say my favorite tweak so far has been Walker SST silver paste. I was skeptical at first but knowing that contact interconnections are less than stellar, I figured it could work - and sure enough it does. Definite improvement in transparency across the board.

By the way, keeping your gear cool is about the best thing you can do for reliability and longevity - especially with tubes. I keep my ceiling fan going anytime I am not listening since my MC240 stays on all the time.

Arthur
brf
1,715 posts
 
How does the Parasound Zbreeze lower room's ambient temperature? My upstanding is that the Parasound Zbreeze is used to draw heat away from the equipment and vents the heat into the room. In order for the Parasound Zbreeze to lower the room's temperature, it would need to both draw and cool the air, much like an air conditioner.
elevick
2,636 posts
 
I took a big plunge on tweaks. I just got back a Music Hall unit from Chris Johnson at Parts Connexion. WOW, this moved it up several levels...worth every penny.
gtshelby65
17 posts
 
My favorite tweak has bee using dried buffalo chips as isolation feet... really makes the midrange more pungent.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
More from Walker Audio, the Talisman and their Reference HDL's are two of my favorite 'tweaks'. Though I do have to admit that I now prefer the Quicksilver Gold to Walker's Extreme SST.
tarsando
578 posts
 
Intelligent Design products. They have evolved into great helps for the audiophile.
elevick
2,636 posts
 
Gtshelby65-can you mail me 4? Thanks
rja's avatar
rja
2,356 posts
 
Tarsando,
How can intelligent design "evolve"? :^)
Seriously, I googled and got a whole lot of stuff unrelated to audio. Poor Mr. Darwin!
tarsando
578 posts
 
Rja...my point exactly.
bizango1
276 posts
 
Can I mention two?
1. Getting rid of the coffee table.

2. Going back to the Rotel RB1090 after trying Class D monos.
lokie's avatar
lokie
528 posts
 
Maple cutting boards from TJ Max (1 1/2 inches thick) for $9.00.
tarsando
578 posts
 
This thing about coffee tables that you read about in the mags and here...I tried it, but the screaming I did each time I spilled hot coffee in my lap marred the sound of the system.
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