Great question. I'm pretty sure you will get a lot of input and maybe some interesting discussion amongst members. What I have found is that there is a hierarchy of tweaks. Proper set up is kind of a no-brainer but often overlooked. Start there. It's not as easy as it seems but, thankfully, with the internet and this site one can get very close. The next area of concern should be the room, IMO. Temporary acoustic treatments with blankets, pillows and such help get the most out of your system. The next area to concentrate on should be your electrical delivery to components. Without even spending any money of dedicated lines you can play with lifting of grounds to lower the noise floor and plugging your digital source into another circuit. Everything I've mentioned so far falls within the realm of tweaking but these steps are necessary to allow you to even hear any changes other tweaks can make.
I'd suggest that you next audition interconnects starting with preamp to amp. Speaker cables are your next logical tweak. Dedicated lines, permanent acoustic treatments and power cords....
So, I haven't addressed what you really want to know. Is sorbothane better than tennis balls, coupling vs. decoupling, etc.? My point is that you must get your basic system to a point where it is revealing enough to hear what any tweak can do.
It took me so long to realize the importance of the above mentioned basics that most of the smaller tweaking I'd tried before were acts of futility. Even if I heard a difference I can't say that it was positive or negative. It was just different. Now that my system is maximized the smaller tweaks are easily identified as good or bad in my system.
I'll be following this thread closely and hope that I haven't sidetracked what you want to find out with my post. It's just become so obvious to me that many of the naysayers about tweaks in general haven't gotten their basic systems and rooms to a point where any meaningful evaluation can be done.
I'd suggest that you next audition interconnects starting with preamp to amp. Speaker cables are your next logical tweak. Dedicated lines, permanent acoustic treatments and power cords....
So, I haven't addressed what you really want to know. Is sorbothane better than tennis balls, coupling vs. decoupling, etc.? My point is that you must get your basic system to a point where it is revealing enough to hear what any tweak can do.
It took me so long to realize the importance of the above mentioned basics that most of the smaller tweaking I'd tried before were acts of futility. Even if I heard a difference I can't say that it was positive or negative. It was just different. Now that my system is maximized the smaller tweaks are easily identified as good or bad in my system.
I'll be following this thread closely and hope that I haven't sidetracked what you want to find out with my post. It's just become so obvious to me that many of the naysayers about tweaks in general haven't gotten their basic systems and rooms to a point where any meaningful evaluation can be done.