Let’s all just appreciate Phil’s natural and funny delivery. It’s like having him round your house for help/ a chat. Seems a lovely chap.

tightening the speaker bolts is just compressing the wood after the initial fitting. Removing all connectors and putting them back , undoing the mains plugs , put a new fuse in is the same as buying a expensive mains lead ... you are a top man for revealing the BS

Best £2k upgrade I did was toe in the spealers and drawer the curtains.

Removing the plug in and out of the socket several times always helps also none switched sockets, I know this as I’m an Electrician and when I do Earth loop test I can improve the readings

Thanks Philip great tweekery video. I knew the tip about tightening up the drivers.

The problem with tightening screws/nuts etc is that one person's loose is another's tight and vice versa - it is very easy to over tighten. Ambient temperature also plays a part as does the original designer's intentions!

Top advice! One word of warning, I’ve been tightening up drivers for years. The magnet from the tweeter of a pair of Acoustic Zen Adagio’s was so powerful, it literally pulled the Allen key from my fingers at least 2-3cm away - damaged the thin ribbon tweeter 😢 - had to remove and send both tweeters back to USA for repair - use extreme caution around tweeters

Monitor Audio have their main drivers bolted right through to the rear of the cabinet I believe. So you tighten the bolt at the back.

Also move bass drivers on older speakers 180 degrees as gravity has been acting on the suspension all those years

Absolute gems of helpful advice , without going into your deep pockets !

Thanks for this. I have just gone round and nipped up the screws holding in the drivers on my speakers (KEF iQ7’s). It was amazing how loose they were!

Just being blown away by latest tweek. Marigo Labs Aida Mat. It goes on top of CD and absorbs vibrations. I can’t believe the difference. I’m hearing things previously hidden. It’s like I’m hearing CDs for the first time! The mat is not cheap at £199 but so worth it! Without this mat, you won’t know what’s on your CDs. Note I’ve got 7 mods to CD playback before I even get to my DAC. My system is about £30k+ replacement value.

Great video. Never thought of tightening screws. I have 2 suggestions which I’ve tried. 1. Put pipe insulation round speaker cables. For 2 reasons - absorb and isolate from vibrations plus it keeps their distance from any power cables and/or interconnects. 2. Only done this on 2 plugs so far. Put a thin piece of rubber sheet in between plug and socket, obvs cutting holes for the 2 plugs to go through. Primarily it’s to absorb and reduce transmission of vibrations. Puritan Audio Ultimate power cables are floppy for this same reason. The rubber must be quite thin so plug is still making good contact in the socket.

I laughed until I tried tightning my speaker, which are from the 80's, and wow they were loose! Thank you!

For those renting holiday properties from time to time I also recommend to bring your hifi system and try it out in different buildings and rooms. The variations in sound quality are astounding. For me it was a Scottish cottage that showed me that I first need to change something about my listening room and speaker positioning before continuing to buy more expensive / better gear.

Good advice! Keep up the great reviews 👍

Great video Phil Thanks so many brilliant tweek that others miss out, tightening up drivers and cleaning up plugs are brilliant tips that hifi folk used to do but the trend has stopped over time. Time for a hifi deep clean.

Very good suggestions. 😁

A glass fibre pencil is probably better for cleaning contacts, fuses etc. It's not as abrasive as sandpaper.

Quality hifi waffle.. enjoyed this thanks

Using a rubber o-ring as a washer on the woofer screws keeps them from loosening. B&W did this to their Matrix 800 speakers for that very reason.

Cable dressing is a basic for all electronic applications to stop electromagnetic interference. If you can’t separate power from signal cables, then yes, cross at 90°, but that is not because of the contact area it’s because the electromagnetic fields can’t interact when they are not parallel.

I’ve got some 1988 Tannoy M20s there immaculate but the screws had definitely never been touched so I tightened them up I noticed a difference straight away 👍🏻

Tweaked the bolts on all my speakers (main and office). Couldn't believe how loose they were and how much the sound improved!

Regarding re-tightening screws - I also do the same with my headphones, both the screws holding the ear cups together and also the screws in the headband assembly. The results are much the same as with speakers.

Excellent video (again - personally I like the off the cuff low Fi production style). ‘Free’ tweaks are even better. On the subject of layout of cabling, I think the idea of cables crossing at right angles (if they have to at all) is more to do with physics principles of induction (left hand and right hand rules) than minimising the area where the cables meet. It’s also puzzled me why amplifier manufacturers don’t give more thought to the positioning of power sockets to make the best cable layout easier, especially on high end equipment or better still on monoblock amplifiers. I’ve looked at many pairs of monoblock amps and wondered why they couldn’t just make the power socket position layouts on each amp symmetrical to one another, so you can have a left and a right hand monoblock with the power cable positioned as far out the way as possible, but I’ve yet to find a manufacturer who does this. It occurred to me you could theoretically sit the monoblocks on their side, to keep the power socket near the floor for example and out the way, but given the weight of the transformers etc and then questions on how best to minimise vibrations (if the feet are no longer in use) just defeat the whole concept! Yes … I’ve clearly got too much time on my hands and am over thinking this 🤯

Thightening the midrange driver screws is a good tip; percussion sounds a lot more three-dimensional afer doing this. Beware that some manufacturers are using Torx screws now. I recommend the Park Tool TWS-2 for dealing with these as it offers drivers for nine different sizes of screw all housed in a single moulded holder.

Many thanks food for thought!

Very good tips thank you

Excellent tips. Thanks so much for doing this. Deeply appreciated!

Our narrow & low ceiling dining area has a remarkable positive effect on my budget hi Fi & speakers 🔉 🙂

Good video, it pays to go over your setup every 6 months or so because as we all know cables left on their own will soon form a Gordian knot and nothing good can come of that..

3:29 I agree and if anyone is curious as to why I do the same and support this approach of adjustment. It's the same way that drummers would use to tune their percussion instruments for even tension across the head or skin (depending or said instruments).

If you have a large TV on the front wall , move it higher by 25-30cm , you will be amazed with the improvement in imaging, depth and soundstage.

Tightened the drivers on my PMC’s. They have been running since new, two years, so had about a full turn on each bolt. Had a small win!

18:19 not free and not sure if it makes a difference but I tried this. I popped into a B&Q (UK hardware store) and think I paid £1.89 (or something ridiculous) for 2m of pipe insolation to help separate the cables that I couldn't prevent crossover

I tend to use a small amount of Brasso to clean contacts.

Great input! Thank you

Thanks Phil

Nice..but god..the waffle man..!

The monitor audio speakers usually have a single bolt into the back of the magnet don't they, so you tighten those from behind. At least the Bronze 200's and BX5's do that I have.

A tweek that is not talked about much, if ever, is turn the air-conditioner on a couple of hours before listening. It helps if house is well insulated. What the heck does it do ? It cools the air and increases its density. Proof , have you wondered why it sounds better late at nite .

Your vids are good quality. More than good enough for me (a technical Buffon!) to understand everything that you’re telling me and to enjoy the vid. All done on your phone too? Well done Phil. I have a Go pro 10. Bought it as it was cheap at the time and to mount on my bike. Have you made a vid with a go pro? I’m a vinyl lover, with no turntable ha ha! I’m going to buy one, but I feel there’s so much choice that I’m procrastinating too much. I’m fancying a Rega Planar and considering the P6, but I’m told I should buy cheaper for a first record player. What do you think? Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me, I really do appreciate it.

The things on the bottom of the speaker that you screw the spikes into are called T nuts.

I've got power cables down one rack back leg and signal cables down the other back leg.

Actually Blu-Tack has been shown to be an effective anti-vibration tweak, better than spikes or many isolation pads. I would recommend slightly more than you have recommended but agree that one can use too much.

Ma bolt to the back.

Upgraded from Musical Fidelity M2si to Rega Elex-r ex demo but what a difference it’s night and day better. Only thing now got thinking how would be with P3 compared to my P1 think itch will need scratched sooner or later 😊

I didn't have blutac on hand so I tried a couple of strips of anti-slip material usually laid under rugs. Works well, even with a cat jumping up on my speakers regularly (I know, I know - but have you ever tried to reason with a cat?) Overall this is full of fab advice - thank you!

Tweaks. You people invented the language ;)

I meant equipment in Stereophile Class A+ is not double the sound quality of equipment in Class C. More improvement that that can be had tweeking, if you figure out enough tweeks.

must of read some old 25 y.o audio book #1 Nueter meter Torque screwdriver all screws need to be the same. So your Cuntry has a fuse in the power cable The cheap one you showed ? you have the electricity hitting that fuse Then the fuse at the ICU. that's crazy Free advice is real expensive

£200 on a fuse!!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Acetone is best for cleaning contacts and if it's really bad use it with a green pop cleanser. Audio great fuses stupid lol

If you have 40 tweeks that average 5% improvement each; that equals triple the sound quality. Equipment in Stereophile magazines Class A+ is not even double the sound quality of the equipment in their highest class category. Which means more difference tweeking than spending tens of thousands of dollars (or more) on equipment. There will be an occasional performance category you won't equal though.

I use wire wool to clean plugs and contact cleaner for everything else. P.s the fuse will sound better one way round just try and see witch way round sounds the best!.

Please don't sand your fuse there cheap enough buy a next one 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Get some contact cleaner or similar same with all interconnects Deoxit wipes work 👌🏾👌🏾

A "tweek" is an improvement that you can download from Twitter? ;)

I did the tightening tweak on my dynaudio special forty speakers and it ruined the wide soundstage so I slackened them off again..

May I just ask you a quick question: To improve the sound, do I upgrade my Douk Audio U3 headphone amp or my Sennheiser HD 560S headphones. I have a Rotel A11tribute integr amp and a Rotell A11 tribute CD player. Thanks for your guidance

14:07 The middle pin is earth.. I don't think it would make any difference to clean it for the operational current.. :)

All my plug are silver

Did you make note of the fuse direction?

Brasso is much better. Sand paper is a it rough.

what grade of sand paper gives the best result 🙂

Loctite thread compound on speaker screws anyone?

What happened to the best of videos ...and others you were going to do ?