50 tips to get the best from your hi-fi & home cinema

1550 tips to get the best from your Hi-Fi & Home Cinema Russ Andrews

50 TIPS TO GETTHE BEST

FROM YOUR HI-FI &

HOME CINEMA

2 Russ Andrews 50 tips to get the best from your Hi-Fi & Home Cinema

We thought it would be a great idea to gather together some of the tips Russ haspublished, over the years, into one handy publication. Throughout the followingpages, you’ll find a mixture of Russ’s top tips and other tips we’ve come across – or have been told by our customers – which we’ve found particularly useful when setting up our own systems.

Many of them offer a completely free way of improving the performance of your system. While we can’t guarantee that in every case they will improve your sound quality – everyone’s set-up is unique to them – you really have nothing to lose by trying them.

If you have any questions, need any advice, or want to offer suggestions, contact us online or on the number below. Happy experimenting!

Welcome to our 50 Top Tips Guide

Call us on 0845 345 1550or visit www.russandrews.com for lots more information and tips

So what makes us qualified to offer advice?If you don’t know Russ’s reputation in theHi-Fi industry, then you may well besceptical of our approach to achievingtruly enjoyable music and movies. Whyshould you take our advice? That’s a verygood question that demands aconvincing answer!

Russ’s thirty plus years experience in theindustry, much of it spent in fundamentalresearch and development work, hasgiven him an unmatched appreciation ofhow a Hi-Fi system works as a wholewithin its environment.

Russ’s pioneering research into the effect

that mains quality has onHi-Fi systems led todevelopment of the world’sfirst Hi-Fi mains cable back in1986; today, his continual R&D ensureswe’re still leading the field.

The philosophy behind Russ AndrewsAccessories is to provide enthusiasts withproducts that really work to improvesound quality and to back this up withplenty of information and excellentcustomer service.

We are here to help you achieve realmusical pleasure from your system.

Ask for our free catalogue and discoverour products for yourself...

Exclusive UK distributor

buy online www.russandrews.com Call UK Local Rate 0845 345 1550

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Get much more fromyour CDs and DVDs

That’s the SpiritIf you’re a fan of vinyl as your main

source you’ll be aware of how important it isfor the platter to be level. But this is alsoimportant to owners of CD/DVD players too. Ifthe component isn’t level, its performancecan be negatively affected by the laserstruggling to track the disc correctly. Have alook in the toolbox, and search out a smallspirit level. Check the levels in both directionsand adjust as necessary until the player isperfectly level.

turn me off3Many CD players, and some AV components,have the facility to turn the display off. If youcan cope with the lack of information, this iswell worth doing. The display itself emits noise into the component so switching it off can improve clarity.

Freeze your discs – We’vefound that Deep CryogenicTreatment (DCT) is a great way

to improve the sound from yourCDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs but youcan also achieve a similar effect byputting them in your home freezer.Place the discs in the freezer withoutthe paper booklet. Leave them inthere for 72 hours and then transferthem into the fridge and removethem 24 hours later to comegradually back up to roomtemperature. You should noticeimprovements straight away,ranging from subtle to significantchanges dependingon the disc.

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CD or not CD? – When connecting sources such as aCD player to your amp, it is worth testing the differences

between inputs. The natural thing to do is to plug the CD into theCD input, but this is not always the best connection. The oldCreek 4140, for example, sounded better with the CD pluggedinto the Tuner input! Don’t plug your CD player into the phonoinput though - that’s for turntables only!

Black mark

The easier it is for the laser to read

a disc the better and more accurate

sound and pictures will be. One

element that affects this is the laser

scattering light over the disc and there’s a simple

way to help reduce this.

Get yourself a black permanent marker pen –

preferably one with a flat edge. Run the pen

around the edge of your CD/DVD or

Blu-ray disc two or three times to

make sure the black is ‘solid’. Pop

it back into your player and

marvel at the difference!

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Burning love - If you have a CD thatis difficult to play or skips, you may beable to create a drastic improvement by

burning a copy on your computer. The keypoint here is to select ‘Use Error Correction’ inthe preferences of your recording software. Ensure that the disc being copied is cleaned, and the disc that is being burned is cleaned too. Our ReVeel® and ReleeS® CD enhancers are perfect.

ReVeel® and ReleeS® are avilable from us at www.russandsrews.com/5420

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Solid foundations - Every turntable needs a strong, rigid plinth or the sound will be soft, soggyand unfocussed. Check the corner joints to make sure there is no movement due to dried-out glue.If it has a plastic plinth, fill the cavities between the stiffening struts with ‘Plastic Padding’ bodyfiller. This will both stiffen it and dampen its resonances.

Keep it clean – The stylus is renowned as a dustand dirt collector, so make sure you clean it on aregular basis for best performance. Fluff is easily

blown or brushed off, but mould release agent in therecord groove builds up on the stylus into a hard blacklump that causes mistracking. The black gunge is noteasily removed because very few cleaners dissolve it.Alcohol and those snazzy little vibrating cleaners haveno effect on it.

Russ Andrews TipTonic has been specially formulated to remove this and is perfect for gently cleaning the stylus tip.Available from us at www.russandrews.com/5068

Top Tips for Turntables

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8Sensitive nature - Try to avoidplacing your turntable near to yourspeakers as it can be very sensitive

to the sound they produce, which canmuddy the sound and create feedback.

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Keep on track - Make a regular check onthe tracking weight and the anti-skateadjustments on your tone-arm. Although

you set these when you first get a turntable, withuse they can become off-set, so it’s worthconsulting the manufacturers handbook again andchecking that the settings are still correct.

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On the level -

Checking that your

turntable is level is

one of the quickest and easiest

ways to improve the sound as this

affects all other parameters such as

tracking, anti-skating and

cartridge alignment.

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Our Bubble Levels shown on theturntable above do the jobefficiently and effectively.www.russandrews.com/5021

Turn on, tune in - Leave yourequipment* switched on 24 hoursa day, 7 days a week (except

during electrical storms, of course, when youshould unplug it from the mains, and alsounplug TV and FM aerial leads!). The soundfrom your system will take at least a week tosettle down and stop changing. If,subsequently, you turn any part of it off,even for a few minutes, expect it to need 24hours to settle again.

The improvements in smoothness,sweetness and musicality are enormous.Bass may appear to drop half an octave and

improve in clarity. The whole sound will bemore relaxed and listenable. It will alsoreduce the incidence of breakdown sinceturning your system on and off putsenormous stress on the internalcomponents. We appreciate that there is anelectricity cost incurred - however webelieve that this is offset by the improvedperformance and reliability!

* Amplifiers shouldn’t overheat, unlessfaulty or badly designed (please note thatsome amps are designed to run quite hot).We would, however, advise against leavingvalve power amps switched on all the time.


Revamp your Amp

Boxing Clever - Use your TV set-topbox for radio. If you’re not a fan of DABand prefer the sound quality of FM,there’s now a real alternative. For £50 or

so you can replace your FM tuner with a Freeviewor Freesat box for equal to FM quality with betterreception. If you can connect your existing box toyour TV and Hi-Fi at the same time, you can usethe screen to navigate through the stations.Alternatively, use a simple LCD mini TV monitorplugged into the box.

Most boxes of this type will have a digital output– probably optical – that you can connect to anexternal DAC or Home Cinema processor. Werecommend connecting them that way (ratherthan using the analogue outputs the box mayhave) for best sound quality.

15Don’t get rattled – Rattling panels onequipment can cause nasty signal interferenceand create a rather harsh and confused sounddue to the microphonic nature of the internal

components. There are two things you can do toaddress this. First, make sure all the casework screws arenice and tight. Then, second, use a reasonably heavyitem, such as a cloth covered brick placed on top of thecomponent to dampen the vibration (when doing this,check first that there are no vents impeded by doingthis and avoid if it does). An even better solution is to use one of our ‘Dampers’, a lightweight, self-adhesive wooden panel which attaches to the top of your component. Its low-mass construction means it can effectively damp the panel without storing any acoustic energy itself.www.russandrews.com/5700

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Got it taped? – Did you know that thesound from your amplifier can be degradedwhen interconnects are connected to the‘Record’ or ‘Tape Out’ circuits? The sound

can become really muffled with a lack of ‘life’,information and 3-dimensionality. Somepreamps/integrated amps have a ‘Tape Defeat’switch to prevent this but if yours doesn’t it’ssimply a matter of unplugging the leads when youare not recording.

13Radio radio...

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On the level -

Checking that your

turntable is level is

one of the quickest and easiest

ways to improve the sound as this

affects all other parameters such as

tracking, anti-skating and

cartridge alignment.


A

Preferred speaker placement area

Preferredlistening area

Preferred speaker placement area

Hi-Fi Hi-Fi

Speaker

Speaker

Speaker

Speaker

ChairWidth ofback wall

(A)

1.25 of A

0.8 of A

Mixed grilles - Take the speaker grillesoff... or leave them on! The idea of removingspeaker grills to allow a loudspeaker to

perform at its best is a well known tip, but one that issometimes easily forgotten. If your sound is a little bitmuddy and lacking in detail, removal of the grilles is amust. But, conversely, if the sound is rather harsh, thenit may be worth going against received wisdom andputting the grilles back on, for a warmer, less ‘in yourface’ sound. Indeed, some speakers are designed towork this way, so check first before removing them.

SpeakersThe exact spot to place your speakers will vary according to the particularspace they are in so the key is to follow these general tips and use your ownears and judgement to fine tune and decide what sounds best for you.

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Stuck in the middle - Place yourequipment between the speakers – thisminimises the length of speaker cable

you need (saving money) and is also the quietestposition for the components to be in tominimise acoustic feedback from the speakers(which has a detrimental effect on the rhythmand timing of the music).

22Open wide - Get those speakers aswide apart as they will go; the widerthe speakers, the wider thesoundstage and the more involving

the sound. So long as the speakers are no lessthan 5cm (2”) away from the side walls, youshould be fine. Have a listen and if they dosound slightly boomy in the bass, move themfurther away from the wall a step at a time untilyou like the sound and the boom has gone.

Sweet spot - Angle the speakerstowards the listening position toincrease the focus and solidity of theimage. It gives you a greater ratio of

direct to reflected sound too. Place yourlistening seat in your preferred position andthen move it forward and back to find thesoundstage’s sweet spot where the imagecomes into focus giving believable positioningand separation.

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Screw-Drivers - Tighten the screwson speaker drivers. If the sound from yoursystem is sounding a bit unfocussed andslack, try tightening the mounting screws

on your speaker drivers. You’ll find the sound willimprove all round and especially in a tighter bass.This is worthwhile doing as a regular maintenancetask as the drivers do come loose over time.

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Middle age spread - On olderspeakers with large drivers, the woofers canstart to sag due to gravity. To negate this

effect, unscrew the drivers and turn them upsidedown. Don’t for get to screw them back in tightlythough! (see tip 17)

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Posit ioning your speakers

Beware Bi-Wire - Think beforebi-wiring – if your speakers are bi-wirable,it is tempting to go that route. Our tests,

however, have shown that some amplifiers can findbi-wired speakers more difficult to handle and youcan often get results as good as bi-wiring by using asingle run of speaker cable: often for lower cost.

If you are single-wiring bi-wirable loudspeakers, it’simportant to replace the gold-plated links thatconnect the two sets of binding posts together withproper speaker cable (you only need short ‘jumper’links). We find that the metal plated links can soundbright and harsh and replacing them with properspeaker cable will give even better sound.

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Speakers sounding a bitharsh and lacking in bass?Turn them upside down(assuming they are

stand-mounts of course!)OK, they may look slightlyodd, but having the bassdriver above the tweetercould be just the thing tobring the sound you are

looking for.

25 Try your speakers upside down!

Just a phase - Check the phase onspeakers – The standard way for speakers tobe wired is ‘in phase’, that is, positive on theamp to positive on the speaker. Check that

this is the case and that both speakers are correctlyphased. However, there are some circumstances inwhich reversing the polarity on your speakers can

improve the sound, so it’s always worth giving thistrick a try. Take the positive wire from the amp andput it in the negative binding post of the speaker,and, likewise, the negative to the positive. Makesure you do the same on both sides. Sit back andlisten, comparing to the sound in ‘correct’ phase.Trust your ears: if it sounds better leave it that way,if not, change it back.

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Down to Earth - Metal speakerdrivers can be earthed to improve theirperformance. The results can be botheasy to hear and very beneficial;

improved clarity, definition, depth in the bass,improved separation betweeninstruments, singer etc. and morethree-dimensionality in thesoundstage. Not only that but you’llfind the treble should be clearer,sweeter and cleaner.

You can test this upgrade fairly easilyfor yourself without having to modifythe drive unit. When you remove thespeaker grille, you will find thetweeter(s) and one or more drive units held in withscrews. Tackle only the drivers and tweeters withmetal bodies (drivers and tweeters that have aplastic chassis do not need earthing so if you havethem - lucky you!)

Remove one screw from each driver and clean themetal around the screw hole to remove any paint.

Strip the end of a piece of earth wire that is longenough to reach your mains socket (you are goingto use its earth), make a small loop in the strippedend and refit the driver screw through it so that itmakes a good tight connection with the chassis. If

there is more than one driver on eachspeaker, you can earth link themtogether or run two lengths of wire.

Do both speakers and fit 13 ampplugs to the earth wire (using onlythe big earth pin!) so that you caneasily A/B the difference.

If you like what you hear, you canmake the connection morepermanent and hide the earth wire

by making the earth connection at the back of thedriver and running the earth wire to an extrasocket on the back plate next to the usual speakerterminals. KIMBER earth weave is the ultimate, lowinductance, low impedance cable to use if youwant to do the job properly.

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Picture Perfect – to get the verybest images from your HDTV, thechances are that you’ll need to make

adjustments. Out of the box the picture canoften be over dynamic, set for shop displaywith bright lights rather than the normallighting conditions of a house. This hasimmediate impact but is neither natural noreasy to watch for any length of time.

Most modern TVs are exceptionallycustomisable in their settings to enable youto get the perfect balance of sharpness,contrast, brightness, colour, etc.

Two ways of adjusting these are :

1. The free solution – go onto Google andenter the model of your TV along with “setup”. It may takea few minutes ofpatience, butyou shouldeventually comeacross an entry from the likes of AV Forumswith recommendations for the optimumsettings for you to enter.

2. The low cost solution – for a bespokesolution that will allow for your room andlighting conditions, use a calibration disc.These use varying on-screen patterns tofine-tune your picture and will help youachieve the very best from your set. Oneexample is the Spears andMunsil High-DefinitionBenchmark Blu-ray set updisc, which is wellreviewed and great value –a small price for a bigimprovement.

Sub Standard – When setting upyour home cinema it doesn’t matterwhere you place the subwoofer does it?Wrong. Although it’s true that the

subwoofer is not as directional as the surroundspeakers, it is still affected by position. Try moving itaround the room and listen to the difference. You willprobably find by doing this that there will be moredefinition and detail in the bass in one positionrather than others.

Most subwoofers also have a crossover adjustment.This enables you to adjust the frequency at whichthe subwoofer needs to take over from the surroundspeakers. The easiest way to do this is by ear.

The best way is to play a movie or music that’sfamiliar, with the sub turnedright down. Now bring thevolume of the sub up graduallyuntil you hear the bass come in.Then turn it back just a touch.This should give you the rightbalance, where the subnaturally takes over from thesurround speakers withoutbeing overblown.

Clean your screen. A simple but oftenneglected ‘upgrade’ is to clean your screen on aregular basis. Grease and dust develops on thescreen gradually so you don’t always notice howdirty it is. And all that muck creates a ‘fog’ over thescreen, reducing image detail. Use a good qualitycleaner specifically designed for the task, such asDeoxIt™ Screen Cleaner, and you’ll immediatelynotice a brighter and clearer picture.Available from us at www.russandrews.com/5441

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Home Cinema

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Available from us at:www.russandrews.com/5532


Screen size SD HD SD/HD

37” 1.9m to 4.7m 1.4m to 3.75m 1.9m to 3.75m(6’2” to 15’5”) (4’8” to 12’4”) (6’2” to 12’4”)

40” 2m to 5m 1.5m to 4m 2m to 4m(6’8” to 16’8”) (5’ to 13’4”) (6’8” to 13’4”)

47” 2.4m to 6m 1.8m to 4.8m 2.4m to 4.8m(7’10” to 19’7”) (5’11” to 15’8”) (7’10” to 15’8”)

52” 2.6m to 6.6m 2m to 5.3m 2.6m to 5.3m(8’8” to 21’8”) (6’6” to 17’4”) (8’8” to 17’4”)

Size does matter – bigger is notnecessarily better when it comes toyour choice of flat screen TV. It’s aboutfinding a balance: too big and you are

going to be more aware of the pixels; too smalland you will miss out on finer detail. So youneed to take two things into consideration: the screen size and the viewing distance fromthe screen.

We’ve found two basic formulas that are a goodplace to start when thinking about screen size -one for standard definition and one for HD.When considering the optimum position foryour room think about how much you will beviewing each format. HD is great, but if most ofyour viewing is of TV programmes in standarddefinition there is no point setting things up for HD pictures.

With standard definition, the formula is to beseated no less than 2x the screen size awayfrom the TV, and no more than 5x. So for a 40”screen that would be no less than 80” (7ft) andno more than 200” (17ft).

With HD, you should be looking at no less than1.5x and no more than 4x. In this case, for thesame 40” screen that would be no less than 60”(5ft) and no more than 160” (13ft). For mostcircumstances, the ideal would be a balancebetween the two so you are not losing out onone format at the cost of the other i.e. no lessthan x2 and no more than x4.

The table below gives examples for somecommon screen sizes: it‘s easy to try this foryourself with different sized screens in a shop.

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Computer Audio

To get the most from your computer audioyou need to ensure that both yourrecordings and playback are optimized foraudiophile playback. The following tips arebased on using Apple‘s iTunes as this is themost common program used:

Importing CDs into iTunes:

Favourable formats - Make surethat you are importing your discs in thebest possible format. Go into

preferences>general > settings > and choose aformat for your recording. Apple lossless is finebut has less flexibility for playback on somenon-Apple devices. We’d recommend that youchoose AIFF or WAV for the best quality: these filestake up the most space but are a direct copy ofthe data on your CDs.

Free samples - iTunes does not changesample rates according to what is beingplayed but rather outputs to a pre-selectedrate determined by your operating system.

So you may think your lovely new Hi-Res files arebeing played at 96kHz when in fact the operatingsystem is down-sampling to 44.1kHz. To avoid thisyou need to get iTunes to do all the Sample RateConversion rather than the OS.

To achieve this set the system to run at 96kHz/24bitprior to launching iTunes. Now when you launchiTunes it will reflect the system’s settings and outputat 96kHz/24bit. All your music will now be output atthis rate, with high res files passing straight throughand others upsampled.

To do this with a PC, select the audio device you areplaying by right-clicking the loudspeaker in the taskbar of your computer. Select Properties and youshould be given the option to select the sample rate.On a Mac, go to the Audio Midi Setup (in Applications>Utilities) and select the sample ofthe audio output.

Remember that if you are connecting your computer to a DAC, you will need one that canhandle high-resolution files to play them backproperly.

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Audio Midi Setup can be found in Utilities on a Mac

Error-free - Use error correctionwhen importing CDs. Make sure youcheck the ‘Use error correction when

reading Audio CDs’ box when importing yourdiscs, for the most accurate data retrieval (see pic above). And don’t forget to clean your discs before ripping them.

ReVeel® and ReleeS® are avilable from us at www.russandsrews.com/5420

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DAC to basics – The sound cardin your computer is unlikely to behelping to get the very best from your

audio files. We’ve found that the best solution is touse a standalone ‘external’ soundcard that connectsto your computer by USB. Those with their ownexternal power supply can sound better, too. Externalsoundcards can have analogueor digital outputs or both. Do some research and pickthe one that suits yoursystem best. We have arange available fromFirestone Audio and M2Tech on www.russandrews.com

iTunes playback settings:So you’ve got the best possible recording into your iTunes library, now how do you make sure you get the best playback? There are a number of things you can adjust to maximise playback quality:

Direct approach - To get the best audio output you need to get as direct a signal as possible. iTunes has some settings which are

there primarily for a non-audiophile audience, so the first thing to do is switch these off. Open iTunes preferences and turn off ‘Crossfade Songs’, ‘Sound Enhancer’ and ‘Sound Check’. All are superfluous and just interfere with the sound quality.

Pump up the volume - Although it has improveddramatically over the years, the iTunes volume is still noreplacement for using the control onyour amplifier. What level to

set the iTunes output at is a matter oftrial and error. Try it on full to beginwith and then adjust to find a goodbalance with the amplifier, so youhave a sufficient amount of flexibilitywith the volume level, with noharshness.

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Short and sweet -The input sockets on yourequipment can act as

aerials for interference when there isnothing plugged into them.Short-circuiting these inputs willresolve the problem bringing bothsound and pictures into better focuson your Hi-Fi and Home Cinema.

The simplest way to do this is byinserting our ‘Noise-ReducingShorties’ into the unused inputs in allyour components. Another quick fixfor little outlay and a good result!

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Shorties are available from us atwww.russandrews.com/5735


Loudspeaker

Power Amp

Preamp

Source

The right direction - Back in the 1970s, Russ discovered thatcables are actually directional and that they perform at theirbest when used in the right direction! Signal flow should followany directionality arrows, so the arrows on a speaker cableshould point away from an amplifier and towards the speakers,for example.

If there are no direction arrows, it’s relatively easy to test it forthe correct directionality. Test one channel at a time: play a pieceof music with the cable running in one direction, then reverse it.Whichever direction sounds the best is the correct direction!

Cables are directional, make sure yourcable is going in the right direction

All our cables have directionalarrows on the heatshrinks toindicate which way they shouldflow, follow the diagram above.

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Cables

Clean sweep - Most terminationstarnish over time and this will have adramatic degrading effect on

reproduction. Clean all your connections on aregular basis – around four times a year isgreat. This includes banana plugs,interconnect terminations,binding posts, mains IEC andmains plugs. There are a numberof products available to do thisbut we recommend the DeoxIt™range as they not only clean butresist the oxidation of theconnections after cleaning.

38 Pole reversal – unlike astandard IEC, a figure 8 mainssocket in equipment has no earth,

so the cable can be fitted 2 ways – withcorrect polarity (live to live, neutral toneutral) or in reverse polarity (live to neutral,neutral to live). On most occasions you willfind that you get better performance oneway rather than the other, so give it a gowith both.

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DeoxIt™ is available from us atwww.russandrews.com/deoxit


Supports

Dust the ticket – Metalracks and speaker stands canadd harshness to the sound due

to the material used (tap a stand and itwill ring – that’s not what you wantinterfering with your music!). It is notuncommon for people to fill their standswith sand to address this but thatsolution adds other problems.

We find that high-mass stands and racksstore acoustic energy, which can feedback into your equipment, destroyingthe rhythm and timing. The lighter thestand, the lower the amount of energy isstored, meaning less degradation ofyour music. So adding sand – high mass– just makes things worse. A betteralternative is to use sawdust; therougher type you get from a pet shopfor use as bedding. Pour this into thehollow tubing of racks and stands and itwill reduce the ringing and mean lessenergy is stored.

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A corny solution - Cornplasters stop cone feet slipping.If your equipment is on cone

shaped feet (like our wooden cones) andyou find that it has a tendency to movearound on your rack, try fitting somesmall traditional corn plasters for thepoint of the cone to sit in. If youdon’t like the colour you can use amarker pen to change them.

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3

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Cone feet are available from us atwww.russandrews.com/conefeet


THE ROOM

The room your Hi-Fi or home cinema is placed inwill always have an effect on the sound it makes –play a portable radio in different rooms to see howmuch the sound can vary. There are a number oftricks you can use to get a better performance.

Music and soundtracks can sound harsh in roomswith painted walls, large expanses of glass and barefloors. Adding home furnishings, which reducesound reflections and echoes, can dramaticallyimprove this:

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Au naturelA good quality wool carpet will have adramatic effect on improvingdamping and try to use naturalmaterials in other soft furnishings suchas feather cushions and wool and hairupholstery (if on a budget, try tochoose hollow-fibre rather than foam).

Use wallpaper to limit the sound reflectionsoff the walls, and, for even greater effect,try a wall-hanging. Thick wallpapers of the‘flock’ type or Anaglypta are best as thesesurfaces are better at absorption, thoughany is better than bare plaster walls. Use agood thick lining paper too.

Absorb the costFor an alternative to specialist (andexpensive) Sound Absorbers or Diffusers,use open bookcases and album storage - as the books and records provide both arandom and absorbent surface.

Follow the flock

45Deep bass notes can cause rattles in theroom which, once fixed, will bring moreclarity and definition to your music andsoundtracks. Common culprits areornaments (use some Blu-Tak to hold thesedown), window and door frames (draughtexcluders will help here), bowls and jugs(half-fill them with sand, beads and marbles),Glasses (stand upside down on kitchenroll or doilies). Picture frames can rattleagainst the wall too, but these can besilenced with Blu-Tack® or selfadhesive foam strips.

Stick it down!

Clean Earth - Check all mains and earthconnections are tight – overtime, all cable connections will

loosen, and this is just as much the case with yourhouse wiring as it is with your hi-fi. Loose earthand mains connections will have a detrimental effecton the ultimate performance of you kit, so a once-a-yearcheck is well worth the effort. The easiest task is to checkthe connections on all of your sockets (Warning! - make sureyou turn off the electricity first, and if unsure, consult aqualified electrician). Unscrew the socket faceplates andcheck that all the wires are connected securely. And whilstyou’re at it, it’s worth checking that they are wiredwith correct polarity – you’d be surprisedhow many times they are not.

Once they’ve all been checked thenext thing is to go around thehouse checking on the earthbonding. Earth bonds are the strapsyou often find connected to theexposed pipework under your sink.Youcan often find that these are eitherloose or corroded, each of which will becompromising the earth. Give them agood clean and make sure the metal theyare attached to is clean with no surfacecontaminants or paint. Re-tighten wherenecessary.

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Don’t overdo the dampingthough. It’s all about balance –overdamp the room and it cansound claustrophobic. Whatyou are aiming for is moredamping and diffusion in thehalf of the room where yourHi-Fi sits, and less in the halfwhere you sit. This willminimise reflections whilstcreating more of a feeling ofspace and excitement to themusic.

46Bookcase

Hi-Fi

Speaker

Speaker Bookcase

Heavy curtains

Wallhanging

Listening area

Dead EndDead End Live EndLive End

Bass instinct –

If your sofa is close

to the back wall of

the room you listen in, and

you are able to move the sofa

forward, try it.

You might find that the bass is

cleaner, clearer and less overpowering.

WARNING! Don’t overdo the damping


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The Sound of Music - Whenauditioning a new piece of kit, the key is tolisten to the music, although that’s not

always as simple as it sounds. As enthusiasts we oftenforget how to listen. We must have forgotten, becausenon-Hi-Fi enthusiasts do it naturally. They don’t, ofcourse, use Hi-Fi terms to describe what they hear, butthey have no difficulty describing it in their ownterms.

First of all, you need to throw any preconceptions outregarding reputation, reviews, specs, etc. – they justget in the way of listening openly. Basically, all thatmatters is how it sounds to you so trust your ears.Rather than focusing on the details, try to take in theoverall sound. After all, that’s what you do when youlisten to live music and that’s the kind of experienceyou want to replicate. If you can trick your mind intomentally standing back and listening to the overallsound - the big picture - you’ll hear everything quicklyand easily.

When you are doing A/B comparisons for yourself trynot to put yourself in the ‘hot seat’. Think of yourselfmore as a bystander than a critic. The trick is in notconcentrating too much, not trying too hard.

Educating your ear in music or Hi-Fi quality is justlike educating your palate in foods; it takes time,patience and a willingness to experiment andlearn.

Practice listening - Listen to the naturalworld around you. Ask yourself what, forexample, does a door closing sound like. Why

does a real one sound so different from a recordedone? What aspects or elements of the sound aremissing from the recording?

Go out and listen to an audience clapping. Analyse thedifferences between them. No two people make thesame clapping sound but there are identicalelements: elements that clearly distinguish the livesound from the recorded one. Listen to the energy,dynamic range, impact, loudness, frequency range,cleanness, tonal character and also the room (oroutdoor) response to the sound – the echo,reverberation anddecay.

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Clean your ears! – pleasedon’t think us rude, but it canoften be worth having your earschecked out to ensure they are

functioning properly. It is not uncommonfor someone to feel there is somethingmissing in their system only to find theproblem is with their hearing. There may bea simple solution that transforms yourlistening enjoyment so it shouldn’t bediscounted as a potential upgrade!

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Finally... it’s all about listening!

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50 tips to get the best from your hi-fi & home cinema

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