My vote for Tweak of the Week

For $26,000 + room, board for four days, and round trip air fare from Sweden to you, you can have former Abba bass player Rutger Gunnarsson come and cop a squat in your listening room in each of the four corners of the room. Gunnarsson's turds have been proven to have mirraculous properties of acoustic absorption that has yet to be reproduced by any (other) man-made substance. These properties belie their relatively diminutive size, exhibiting a remarkable NRC rating across the entire acoustic spectrum. A handful of user reviews over on Audioasylum claim the break-in period is lengthy and arduous, with one of the lowest WAF's in all of tweakdom (better send her off to St. Barth while those turds are aging), but in the end all users claim improvements of insurmountable proportions. Audioasylum inmate "4EVRsingle" claims Rutger's stools made a "buttload of difference in my impossibly lively listening room", while inmate "analaudio" tells of how during those first four weeks of burn-in time he became so disgusted by his apparent mistaken investment that he came close to flushing the damn things down the toilet. His story is a happy one though, as he goes on to say that one day, after about five weeks with the fetid piles, he began to notice a smoothness to the sound of his system that he had never thought attainable. From there on in it only got better. "These are the TRUE "Magic Brick's", he concludes! And everyone reports Gunnarsson "is a real nice guy....and he speaks English real good too!"

Yet another great tweak suggestion from the inventor of "The Perch"!!!

Marco

While ABBA's bass player may be a gas, he is strictly "stinky number two" when compared to my animal shelter Persian cat.

When my system gets too bright or the soundstage is dry, skip dumping the litter box and the cat does the rest. Not only in the corners, but under sofas, the dining room table and even under my tube amps.

What does that have to do with ABBA? Our stories are strangely linked.

While searching each cage at the shelter, their Bose Wave radio was softly playing ABBA's, "Take A Chance On Me, " and at that moment, I rescued the white Persian and took her home with me.

So you see, even those of us that cannot afford ABBA's bass player still manage the acoustic miracle by way of an abandoned fur ball and a Bose radio.

I think it's absolutely amazing for one of us to come up with such an obscure tweak, certain that no other audiophile would give it a second thought. Then you read this post at Audiogon and realize how small our planet is.

OK, I now have to 'fess up that I saw that link on Head-fi, and had to pass it on. However, there is no question that the "Turd-o-matic" wins!

Hey Albert - Small planet indeed! I'll bet we can trace it all back to Kevin Bacon somehow! Leave it to the originator of the "Porter-Outlet" to come up with a more affordable and effective tweak. OK Albert, how much for the cat turds? I've already blown my tweak-allowance for the month on Loontoon's excellent Cyprus output jacks. But maybe in March I can order up some of your Persian's poops. As long as you don't send them by FedexGround as I'm sure they'll figure out a way to damage them. Have you tested the hairballs yet?

Marco

Oh, this is good. And, if I may say so, I feel pretty smug about going with a Blue Circle preamp, 'cause at $485 per knob, I basically got the rest of the preamp for the price of the upgraded Shallco attenuator ($250). 'Course, what kind of twit would spend $1500 for wooden knobs, eh?

I bet Gilbert/Blue Circle would gladly sell his knobs for a fair price. :-)