It doesn't sound like you've really gone over the deep end yet--if you stay in this hobby long enough you probably will--the disease manifests itself slowly in some subjects. I'm sure you will get some responses that have gone complete bizerko in tweaking. I started tweaking when my system resolution was very high, and I had no more money to spend on upgrading components. Tweaks are cheap (most of them--then Shun Mook came along) and are fun--and when you are trying to get that last 1% out of your system it really does help. But once you've gone to tweakdome--you don't go back. Now all of my speakers--even my cheap bookshelf speakers hooked up to a lousy receiver for an office system have to be on spikes (they're cheap spikes mind you). I never would have even considered this until I got into high end gear. My manifestation has including changing the incoming power to dedicated 220v stepped down to 110v with balanced poles, amp stands on marbles, granite floating turntable shelf, corian shelfs in a simi isolated rack, cable jackets (more for cosmetics than sound), room treatment (including a built into the wall bass trap), active bass eq, sound absorbers on windows, and dedicated EMI and RF filters for all source equipment. Like I said--I can't wait to hear what the REAL tweakers have to offer.
"Tweaks" vs. Audiophiles
Back in 1985 Ed Metiner accused me of being an audiophile rather than a tweak. He was right, the more bizarre stories I heard of folks doing the strangest damn things to improve their sound, the more I was convinced the "tweaks" were outta their minds. Pouring concrete pillar to to use as a turntable stand, freezing wires, supposedly hearing differences in power cords, placing quarters on our speakers, spraying stuff on CD's, all kinds of strange behaviour. I had a good system, and figured fooling around with set up, wires, etc was plainly a waste of time and money, I enjoyed listening to the system, if it ain't broke...
Fast forward to today, where I'm tweaking and trying various things to see what kind of effect it has on my system. No, I haven't poured a pillar yet or froze anything, but tweaking is cheap and it's fun. Recently I built an amp stand out of 4X4 lumber, and put some new electrical outlets in. Having just built my first set of balanced interconnect, then carefully drilling holes through the joists in my basement to run them over to my amp, I got thinking. To be in this hobby requires a certain amount of tools and ability/willingness to use 'em. So, have I crossed over to the dark side and become a tweak? Ed would be proud...Jeff
Fast forward to today, where I'm tweaking and trying various things to see what kind of effect it has on my system. No, I haven't poured a pillar yet or froze anything, but tweaking is cheap and it's fun. Recently I built an amp stand out of 4X4 lumber, and put some new electrical outlets in. Having just built my first set of balanced interconnect, then carefully drilling holes through the joists in my basement to run them over to my amp, I got thinking. To be in this hobby requires a certain amount of tools and ability/willingness to use 'em. So, have I crossed over to the dark side and become a tweak? Ed would be proud...Jeff