To refute comments by people who have disbelief in the existence of tweakoland and to dispel the fallacy that, “Since tweaking works so well, WHY buy equipment???” – had me decide to write this article.

First off, by tweaking a mini-compo system manufactured by the big brand names to hi-resolution standards will require nothing less than an act of God. No one in this world is capable of doing that, period. I’ve heard, “If tweaking really works, then there is no point spending money on equipment, is there??”

There is an overlapping pattern between what tweaking can do and what equipment change can do, i.e. you can change a piece of equipment and get less improvements than by tweaking and vice versa. It all depends on your selection of equipment and your tweaking skills.

BUT, no matter how good you are, no amount of tweaking can overlap an excellent component change. Witness a friend of mine Sangram who has benefited from a couple of sessions of tweaking by Joe and myself on his Mark Levinson 333 based system. Does his system sound good? Yes! But what happens when the compulsive buyer that he is, eyes an upgrade to a pair of Audio Research Reference 600 monoblocks? It sounds better than the ML333 with tweaks (no disrespect to the Marky Marks out there, the dealer, the manufacturer and Joe, hehe). The Ref 600 is after all a better and more expensive piece of equipment, not to mention much heavier and hotter (a great choice as a dual purpose heater/amp in the sauna for the well heeled).

Sangram’s System

All things being equal, any component change will sound better than any tweaking, given that it is the correct choice. It can sound exponentially better if it is an excellent choice of course. But, that is not to say that an esoteric system will definitely sound better than one that costs much less. I’m sure all of you have witnessed this before, if not all the time.

Know that a system consists of many parts – The room (whether it is dedicated or multi-purpose), its furniture (whether intended for THE purpose or not) and of course, what you call the system. I have in fact witnessed systems costing >10 times less, sound much better than the more expensive ones.

Two simple and easy rules why this kind of sh*t happens:

1. You are not listening to the components.

You are listening to the interaction of the components with the surroundings, the boundaries of your room, its furniture and the AC that gives you sound in the first place. Whether you like it or not, any of the above-mentioned can screw the sound up big time. This is one of the reasons why tweaking works – it changes the surroundings or boundaries to enhance the behavior of sound waves (Oh, they really misbehave and I’ll gladly spank them if I could)

2. Choice of equipment and placement.

It is a question of system synergy and common audiophilia sense.

Example: imagine using Audionote’s Ongaku driving Wilson Grandslamms in your generic HDB room (If there’s someone out there doing that, accept my sincerest apologies.). You get the idea. A fully optimized system by extreme tweakers like Mr. Teo’s (thousand hand Buddha) and Mr. Pen’s, with choice (not necessarily expensive) equipment, optimized room and ingenious tweaking techniques, is capable of sonics that will pop your eyes out from its sockets. When I’ve heard Mr. Pen’s system costing less than S$4K for the first time, I felt like digging a hole in the ground to hide my embarrassment. Most of you out there have no idea of the potential of your system. Mr. Pen will gladly tell you.  

So what can we do about it? First ask yourself a simple question – What do I really want from my system?

By reading this article, you are proving that you did not buy a system to brag and look good in the living room (Oh, Jeff Rowlands look absolutely sexy sitting there on your Bellogetti racks), so let’s leave that out of the equation.

I know of bass audiophiles out there, particularly of one who is only into bass. Well, he did the right thing – buy an excellent subwoofer and match it with his bookshelves. The bass will make your full range floorstanders cry. There are the tonality audiophiles – stressing that it should sound exactly like live but disregarding the soundstage. Then there are those that fuss about soundstage width, depth and localization of instruments and voices (Believe me, they will use a clamp on Cai Qin if they could). Well, most of us are somewhere in between. But if like me, you are all of the above-mentioned, then you have a life-long quest for the holy grail - which is both time consuming and expensive, ouch! I’m starting to worry that taste buds are going to grow out from my ears.

Point is let your sonic preference guide you into making the correct equipment choices and how I may be able to help you get there with much less pain for your pockets and ears (by the sound or by your wife’s slim but powerful fingers). 

So When Does Tweaking Start?

It can start anytime and applies to the humblest of mini-compos to TVs to even million dollar setups. If you ignore rule no. 1 – your room, you are seriously negotiating your systems capabilities. If you do not tweak your system, you have no idea how much more it is capable of. How much more will depend on your closed ones’ tolerances and of course, your skill.

So When Does Tweaking Stop?

We all know that there is a limit where tweaks can bring you. This again depends on your skills and dedication, If you are really good at it, you can get to dimensions way above what your system is thought to have. Mr. Pen is an example. The reason why his system sound so good is because he knows every strength and weakness of each of his components and due to his untiring dedication to optimizing his system (room included) for the past few years. He will be changing his speakers after having totally squeezed all the juices out from them. Of course the normal way will be to stop when you know the system’s weakness and you cannot tweak it to suit your tastes. I for one, do not have years to spend tweaking a system right especially when you know which is the culprit. Change it wisely though. Quote Joe Lee, “Or you’ll end up with a dinosaur instead of an elephant.”  

So When Do I change Equipment?

Let us imagine that there are only 2 types of CD players available – a Marantz and a Wadia. You would expect a Wadia to sound very good, but a Marantz? OK, so off you go, plug it into your system, but nah, no where near your standards. Enters Dr. Jon Wong with his op amps, clock and power supply upgrades. WAH! So much better! But hey, it still doesn’t do it for you. Enter Mr. Joe Lee with his bag of tricks. WAH! So much better! But hey, it still doesn’t hit the spot for you. So what’s next? The Wadia, but of course. You could have skipped the first 3 steps but who knows if it works for you? You geddit. 

What do I do with the tweaks
after I changed my equipment?

With luck, they might still work, but always make it a point to check each and every one of them again by a/b-ing with and without to ensure that nothing detrimental stays on your precious stuff after your component change.

Hey, no one is telling you it’s going to be simple. Instead think of what joys tweaking can bring you and believe me your ears are going to so much better than before. There is a study in the February issue of the journal Nature “Neuro-perception: Superior Auditory Spatial Tuning in Conductors” that proved that conductors (those funny people standing in front of the orchestra, not the metals) have better capacity to pick out notes and localize sounds than musicians and non-musicians (I wonder why they didn’t try an audiophile in the test). According to the study, it improves with training. Conclusion: Every acclaimed audiophile that got where they are now got there by repeated critical listening and not because they are born with it.

Does tweaking work?

Until now, if you are still unconvinced, give me some of your precious time and let me prove it to you. Unless you are tone-deaf, which shouldn’t have got you to be an audiophile in the first place, much less read this article, you will hear it. I have one die-hard disbeliever friend who said he definitely heard the difference but still refuses to indulge in it. I still give him the respect of his decision.

It is after all your choice.

I do not know whether it is psycho-acoustics or not. But I will be really surprised if it doesn’t show up on a spectrum analyzer. (Anybody cares to loan me one?) Well, if it doesn’t, it just goes to show that psycho-acoustics plays a huge part in your listening pleasure.

I’ll be working on a Tweaker’s Starter Kit (rings, ball bearings, crystals, etc.) article that I hope can help the potential Joe Lees out there. Until next time, have fun with the ‘I’m sure you thought were negligible’ GST coins