Update: I just got in some new footers and tube dampers from Herbie's Audio Lab (http://herbiesaudiolab.home.att.net) and they made a significant difference! The tube dampers tightened up the bass quite a bit and brought more detail and smoothness to the fore. The footers were put under my cdp and also yielded impressive improvements over the Vibrapods.

smccull May 15, 2003 20:20

As far as cheap tweaks go, I'd second speaker placement and vibration control. I've had very good luck with Vibrapods under my CDP. At $8 each it's hardly a risk.

smccull May 12, 2003 21:42

Cheap, but not necessarily in any order:

1)Cryoed Hubbell 5362 Outlet(s) @ $60 each.
2)Isolation for components: Vibrapods @$6 each in conjunction with a maple cutting board from Home Depot @$17-$35 each.
3)Quantum Electroclear Line Filter, an absolute steal for digital gear, I'm still going to experiment with amplification. This is excellent power/line conditioning at only $40 (I use one in conjunction with an excellent $600 conditioner with cryoed outlets I've installed myself and am amazed at just how good the Electroclear is)
4)I am not familiar with your CD player; if it is fairly lightweight, ie. less than 10-12 pounds, a judicious damping of the chassis using industrial floor tile available at Home Depot at about 70 cents each attached with heavy duty double sided carpet tape (either inside, outside or both-I've opted for both) will cost you less than $10 and yield excellent results.

That should keep you going for a day or two!

hdm March 24, 2003 01:28

Hey,
Try to use one electrical outlet per component (specially the preamp and cd-player. Then spend some time working on speaker location (i.e. avoid destructive interference nodes of critical frequencies in listening area, etc...). Lastly, the most critical component is the cd's themselves. Insure that they are clean. Once you find a good recording house, stick to it. It does not matter how good your system is if your cd's are not well recorded.
One question - how do you like the monarchy amps? Are they a finesse or power amp?
Salsero

salsero March 23, 2003 21:43

Mcmillan, you have a nice system there. Some of the biggest bang-for-the-buck and least expensive tweaks include:

I. Room acoustic adjustments including speaker placement.
(some say room acoustics can account for up to 80%
of the quality of sound you hear.)

II. Electrical Tweaks
1. Line conditioning. (more expensive)
2. Installing dedicated circuitslines for each
component.
3. audio-grade outlets.

III. Isolating components from vibrations.

-IMO

stehno February 21, 2003 18:54