Tweaks and good practices 

Nice addition to the conversation. This is a love of incrumentalism. Like most, my speakers are either side of my components on a stereo rack and, imaging has always been a problem within the room. ( my system is on u-tube under my name). My set up is roughly a 1 1/2ft back from the front of the speakers. For a time, I had an extra set of my Dad's speakers sitting on the floor directly in front of my components. I kept hearing a hole in the sound and spent a lot of time moving my floor speakers around trying to rectify that sound. On a whim, I moved my Dad's speakers sitting in front of the stereo rack away... the hole was gone. I'm not smart enough to understand all the issues that go into what I'm hearing, but my Dad was a big proponant of K.I.S.S.- keep it simple stupid... These are all good videos and really appreciated.

I'm very interested in best practices. Looking forward to hearing more of those. Happy new year everyone!

Hi Paul, you are really good and you belong to the very nature, blended as one. Your mind in the "forest" is so clear and sharp and natural, best talking with honesty, admiring you talk while walking the track you can focus your mind (I would tripped or slipped). Unlike in your office, it is a bit hesitating. Agreed with you, tweats are for fun (some are very useful, like avoiding electrical and mechanical interferences, the complex room accoustic treatment.) Joined a few audio forums for learning purposes, noticed that the good ones are finally be back to basis, not those who treating for "life" to get the best and always the best. Those good ones are always saying now it's time to enjoying the music, until time comes again long from now.

Paul this is excellent. I believe in setting your speakers up first with the system and dialing them in and voicing them first in that room, because a living room can sound totally different than a bedroom or a basement based on room dimensions. I then add Acoustic Equipment a little at a time, finding the first reflection points and clearing up the back walls with either diffusers or acoustic materials and possible bass traps. Work your way into the room and add acoustic treatment as needed or if possible to your room, like back walls and ceiling (if possible because some people have their systems set up in the living room so not always possible WAF). Get a stable rack to put your system on, not the most expensive rack, but a good rack and make sure that rack is leveled. If you are using a turntable, like you said Paul, make sure it's leveled and test that table on the rack by tapping on it and if you hear vibration coming through the speakers through it or the rack that you tap on, it's not properly isolated. You can add a butchers block or isolation pads that you can get for $20.00 on the feet of the turntable to isolate the table. Every thing else after this is done a little at a time to evaluate if, it makes a difference or not, power conditioners, cables, power cords or the like are only added after the fact if at all. Find a good local dealer or good online store with a good return policy so that you can try this stuff and if you don't like it return it. Don't buy cables to fix a speaker, amplifier or preamp problem, fix that stuff first. I have been blessed to have a great local dealer that has allowed me to try things and some of the items were great and some made no difference at all, but I learned this from experiencing it myself, not from listening to someone else and calling it snake oil. I have bought things online that haven't worked out and I had no problem paying for shipping because, the knowledge I acquired was priceless and could never be taken from me. If I'm every asked, I can say I tried it and it didn't meet what the manufacturer said. That doesn't necessarily mean that you have to try everything or could afford to try everything, but try to keep an open mind. It's super easy to call things, snake oil, when you have no experience with the items at all or you are using what someone else has said. The only way to know if something is snake oil for you is to try it in your own system, in your acoustical environment, then you can say, it's snake oil for you, but what might not work for you might work in someone else's room just find or not. I believe in a minimal approach first. I have had many an engineers being proven wrong by my dealer, that had to later put their foot in their mouth by foolish things that they have said and I have seen some of the same engineers, pull out their wallets and pay far more than I would have thought to pay for certain, "Snake Oil" items that they raved over later.

what a man... love him...happy new year

Because you're a gentleman you went too easy on the myrtle blocks and magic dots. Still, it's a pleasure to watch you gently clear the path. Enjoyable video!

Mr Poo?😂

Very nice happy day with happy attitude to people! Very nice man :D

Good Stuff as we all know it...Thanks! I'm sure there are "snakes" as you walked through the Trails Lol!

Happy New Year, and keep rocking, Paul!

Love yur show watch them all I'm learning a lot about DSD I have valve preamp and power amp brand is leak

Same goes for modifying cars. We make one change and dyno to check for gains/losses. Throwing a bunch of parts at a car is horrible making for a huge list of variables to check instead of one at a time. Sure it takes time but we see how all the pieces work in concert to yield the best/most gains. Looks like this approach works well in audio as well.

First thing to understand there are tweeks and then there are mods. Each is different. The thing you touch on and is very important for everyone to know, is pretty much everything you do or put in a high end audio system will make a difference in the sound of a system. The question is, is it improving the sound or just altering it. This is what can be the challenge for those who dont have years of experience in setup of high end music systems. Designing and calibrating a system is very complex and takes someone with years of experience to do it properly. You first have to choose speakers and equipment that work well together both electrically and then sonically. Then its taking the time to calibrate it well. Speaker placement is the single most important part of setting up a system. Without it you will not get good sound no matter how good the equipment and speakers. Once it is setup and calibrated then you address room acoustics, and not before speakers are positioned. YOU CANNOT position speakers with room treatment in the room ! Start with a blank slate and when you have speakers correctly positioned you will notice you do not hear issues with the room. But then you can "strategically and carefully" place room treatment to fine tune the overall sound. But do not go into this aspect of acoustical treatment thinking you want a dead room. You want a live room, you just want it to be controlled. A slight delay in the ambient decay of around 1 to 1.5 seconds. Then after all that is done, YES you can play with tweeks or make mods on your system. Tweeks are typically devices or potions that can be added to the system. Where mods are typically changes in the speakers and equipment it self. Anyway all tweeks or mods should be done with caution and trail and error to see if its improving the sound or just altering it to mask shortcomings in the system.

In this video, Paul talked about a future video dedicated to "good practice" subject, but I can not find this particular dedicated video about "good practice". If that video exist, can I receive a link to it?

Vibration protection on a DAC ), yep dont want to shake those electrons!

Addressing the problem vs a tweek to me is something that I can do (cheaper)until I can afford to address/upgrade the issue/problem.ie: my $100.00 speaker cables I would use wooden blocks,but a $5,000.00 set of speaker cables SHOULDN'T require the tweek of wooden blocks and so on.Thxs for all your insight in trying to inform us.

Diffusion and absorption is the answer... but, ONLY if done properly. Every room leaves it's signature within' the music so, tune the room to the speakers FIRST then go from there after all the other initial things that Paul speaks of would be my best opinion.

Thanks for the advice. In what way does keeping your speaker cables raised from the floor improve the sound and will it work on low to mid-range products?

I've had much the same experience as a life long audiophile. Just stick to the basics, like good speaker placement and good amplification and good cables and be done with it.

Those magic dots, are they the ASI Sugar Cubes? Really boggles my mind why people would think something so small, the size smaller than an actual sugar cube, make any difference to the sound. I have done a trial with a pack of 10, but I could not hear any difference. The dealer recommended I add on other tweaky stuff from ASI, and the cost can pile up quickly. These small tweaks are very expensive.

Single wire ground conditioner boxes make huge improvements! I made several and validated, I use them on every device! (my technology)... Oh.. its not snake oil :) I want Paul to make my technology part of PS Audio! hehehe!

When you listen to your audio system you listen to all the different properties of each individual part in your system, the acoustics and other parts who limit the sound and stage. This means you need a lot of information to be able to understand why the stage and sound of your audiosystem is what you hear. And that is why the world wide used way of trail and error is so ineffective. Because you cannot control and guide any audiosystem by trial and error. Based on the fact that you don't understand what you are doing. We work by Tru-Fi. Tru-Fi contains all the different properties of sound. When you want to reveal all the information and the emotion of a recording you need an audiosystem what van reveal all the different parts of sound and layers of the recording. But....when you test (I have done thousands of tests in almost 20 years) many audio products the facts prove that most products are incomplete and miss essential parts of sound. What is missing can never be revealed. We humans can reveal sound in a 3D perspective. But.....most audio products are 2-dimensional based on facts. When you test products on a system and loudspeakers who can create a stunning level in 3D stage most products proof over and over again that the stage depth is less than 1 metre. In out world we call this 2D. The most important part what creates for the biggest part emotion during listening to music is diversity (layering) in sound. But....when we test many products on this part we hear that many are only able to create a limited level of diversity in sound. Tweak will not help you solving all these limitations. Based on the fact that products you use are incomplete on facts. When you are able to think and work by properties, you can create a level and quality what is superior in realism and emotion compared to any created trial and error system. It is that easy!

Would be nice to have a website that would guide us with all the things you mentioned. The how's and why's. Like keeping cables offf the ground, wooden blocks ? And.a whole bunch of stuff you mentioned. I have a great setup, bit the sound suck's and i cant figure out why.

Sounds like to me if at all possible put the equipment in a isolated separate room.

Hi Paul a comment you made about keeping cables off the floor, do you mean all cables like interconnects and speaker cables or just one or the other, what is the purpose by doing this? very curious

We need to put the earth on spikes to remove all the vibration for every system. Start with the root cause ;-)

Put a nice GoPro on and show us the beautiful country you are walking around in. We can hear you talk :)

Paul, don't ie you were the one making all those bird calls

whats the best way to get sound to come from behind the speakers instead of from them?

Aha, I knew I recognized good old Fountain rocks, but it looks way too lush for the Front Range; after the floods, or just a wet spring? I have been enamored with quality audio for decades, but found way too much intermingling with the voodoo akin to high-end automotive indulgences, and marketing suspiciously determined to separate the insecure wealthy from their funds, purely to peacock within their class system. Setup involves using confirmed principles of spacing, stabilizing, grounding, and acoustic testing to make things point the right way, catch polarity errors, feedback, hum, excessive room reflections, dead areas, really basics. Then, with test recordings etc. tune for balance, listening preferences, and you should be ready to play music without need for much more, unless or until you actually hear some issue, rather than imagine one. Tweaking basically represents the last point in the continuum, where no matter how elite the system, the owner cannot trust the experts, or even his ears, and so is vulnerable to any new exotic ploy hatched by clever types. Musicality can be faithfully reproduced for a few hundred dollars, most towards the speakers; then, adequate amplification and decent playback of the source (the cheapest quality from CD players, sorry vinyl lovers) and you're done. Streaming audio especially via computer may never justify more expensive equipment. We humans get used to what we have, and it is amazing how we can appreciate music even through tiny earplugs that have no bass, and no soundstage, or old mono AM car radios while mentally ignoring 90dB road noise at 70 mph.

yea, get rid also of the exotic power cables

The industry relies on high-end audio files to buy high-end products to thrive even if they need them or not. I think what the problem is is a lot of audio files look at this as status quo which is one of the bigger issues. Audio gear is audio gear at the end of the day if it produces sound and you enjoy it then you doing something right. We all wish we could afford the high-end stuff and have fun with it but most of us can't. But again the industry relies on people like this just to buy all the new toys if they need them or not.

Chapter 6. Assisting Mr Pooh.

Are those people are pretty rude. I don't care if you're screaming down the trailer or not that's your prerogative to do so LOL annoying people. I can't stand people like that

Tweaky stuff?.....This from a guy that sells a $1000 AC cord.

Another term for tweaks is snake oil.