Bobby Palkovic, designer of my Merlin loudspeakers, recently sent me some small samples of material he promised would "blow me away" with their effect on my system. i received from him 4 small pieces of paper-thin fabric made of carbon fiber; two pieces are 2.25" x 4", the other two pieces even smaller, the size of a band-aid (1" x 2"). here is about the only info i've found on it online:
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue5/cjdiaries.htm
i'll leave the rest of the details for you to read in the above URL. as instructed, i placed the two small pieces on each of my Merlin TSM speakers, a large piece on my CD/SACD player, and the remaining piece on top of the preamplifier (if i were using my external DAC i would have put it there).
initially, i thought i heard something, but i wasn't sure. my profoundly unaudiophile roommate gave it a listen, and thought with the material applied there was less "static" in the sound, but he wasn't sure. i decided it was too close to call and just left it applied to my gear, not thinking much about it.
over the last few days, i forgot about the tweak moreless, but i noticed my system was sounding unusually clean and musical. but i still couldn't quite quantify what was better. the clincher came tonight.
i popped in one of my favorite SACDs (Saint-Saens/Tchaikovsky cello works performed by Pieter Wispelwey on Channel Classics), a disc my girlfriend and i have listened to dozens of times.
(30 seconds in)
gf: who's playing?
me: wispelwey. same cd we always listen to.
gf: oh. sounds different...
(2 minutes later)
gf: it sounds a lot better than before. i haven't listened to your stereo in a few days and it's really noticably better.
me: really? i thought so too, but wasn't sure.
gf: yeah, it sounds a lot cleaner and just better.
(5 minutes later)
gf: it sounds so good. that part just now sounds so much better than before.
the thing is, she had no idea i changed anything at all, and i never mentioned anything to her. so it was better than double-blind IMHO.
anyway, the stuff seems to work. i haven't really played around with where exactly to put it, etc., but just sticking it on top of my gear seems to "de-grunge" the sound quite a bit. it's not terribly expensive either so i think i'll get some more sheets and play around.
interesting tweak - ERS material
