Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tweakers' Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

DIY HDLs & AC cable tweaks - impressions

Posted by rhyno (R) on January 2, 2008 at 17:13:54

over the holidays i did quite a bit of DIYing to my rig. i've already posted impressions of the DIY AC filters (consisting of X-rated caps to flameproof resistors across + / - of AC). but this post concerns the following:

1) DIY HDLs
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=tweaks&n=118178&highlight=HDL&r=&session=

2) DIY system shielding tweak using TI shield (avail via percyaudio.com)

(all these tweaks are from al sekela, and you should review prior posts by Al for exact values used in the AC filters & the HDLs)

#1 resulted in a quieter system w/ more natural treble extension and a surprising improvement in bass impact. drums are far more punchy and this tweak strikes me as being a bargain for the improvement it wrought.

#2: use TI shield around the IEC end of the AC cord, and ground the shield. for my rig, i built the shield as a detachable sleeve, with a separate cable connecting the shield to a central ground, and simply grounded the central ground. by building this tweak w/ detachable wires to the sleeves, you can reuse and move as needs change (hint: use a small jumper wire soldered to the shield and connect the free end of the jumper to an electricians bullet plug and you have made it reusable).

the impact of the shield is more subtle, but very audible. treble is cleaner & clearer w/ more natural decay--i.e. less noise. much as with my EMM CD player, the improvement in treble extension is directly associated w/ long-term listenability of a rig. background hiss / noise is similarly attenuated, much as a good power conditioner does. a friend thought perhaps some leading edge attack was reduced, but i find that a reduction in spurious noise can not ever harm the overall presentation but will ony reveal problems elsewhere.

w/ all of Al's combined tweaks, my system has never sounded better. i'd equate the cumulative effect of these tweaks to be @ $1k worth of a better component.

net cost: @ $100. and worth every penny.

naturally, thanks and props to our friend al.

best
rhyno

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---