I am motivated to start this thread to facilitate a dedicated and an informed discussion about this aspect of our hobby as opposed to a Zu centric or other component centric exchange.
A useful starting point for me is what should we regard as a tweak.
I don't see cables be they interconnects, speaker cables, power cables or usb and ethernet cables really qualifying as tweaks. To me they are part of the audio mainstream and there is overwhelming experience and evidence that they do make a real difference to sound quality. How you divide your spend between cable and amps/sources is an entirely valid issue. In general ,and to use an old English proverb, I do not believe you can turn a sows ear into a silk purse. Or in other words the spend on cables needs to bear a sensible relationship to the spend on the component concerned. No point in spending a small fortune on cables for a "budget" amp or whatever. Far more cost effective to buy a better amp.
As a long term proponent of the benefits of grounding I approach that feature in the same way. IME experience it is cost effective but it makes no sense to buy a Tripoint Emperor and Anaconda cables to connect to a system of mid priced kit. Investment in grounding needs to be proportionate to the rest of the system. Indeed, I can see the argument that you should shun grounding completely and use the saving to spend on upgrading other aspects of the system.I do not agree with that but I can see the logic. It's a matter of maintaining a sensible balance IMHO.
Vibration insulation is another issue on which I take the same view.
I won't seek to try and set out an exhaustive list of tweaks/real or alleged performance products, but it does seem to me that we could all benefit from a sensible discussion on this topic if only because the evidence suggests that it is all too easy to get the balance of investment in ones system expensively wrong.
A useful starting point for me is what should we regard as a tweak.
I don't see cables be they interconnects, speaker cables, power cables or usb and ethernet cables really qualifying as tweaks. To me they are part of the audio mainstream and there is overwhelming experience and evidence that they do make a real difference to sound quality. How you divide your spend between cable and amps/sources is an entirely valid issue. In general ,and to use an old English proverb, I do not believe you can turn a sows ear into a silk purse. Or in other words the spend on cables needs to bear a sensible relationship to the spend on the component concerned. No point in spending a small fortune on cables for a "budget" amp or whatever. Far more cost effective to buy a better amp.
As a long term proponent of the benefits of grounding I approach that feature in the same way. IME experience it is cost effective but it makes no sense to buy a Tripoint Emperor and Anaconda cables to connect to a system of mid priced kit. Investment in grounding needs to be proportionate to the rest of the system. Indeed, I can see the argument that you should shun grounding completely and use the saving to spend on upgrading other aspects of the system.I do not agree with that but I can see the logic. It's a matter of maintaining a sensible balance IMHO.
Vibration insulation is another issue on which I take the same view.
I won't seek to try and set out an exhaustive list of tweaks/real or alleged performance products, but it does seem to me that we could all benefit from a sensible discussion on this topic if only because the evidence suggests that it is all too easy to get the balance of investment in ones system expensively wrong.