I did a few experiments which I thought were interesting enough to post.

1. I have always had a very good soundstage in my room, but have always wanted the soundstage to reach out further into the room.   It depends on the song, but I really wanted more reach out into the room from the diffusers I made/bought.  

In one of Paul McGowan’s posts he mentioned collapsing the depth of the soundstage by simply flipping a diffuser he had behind his speakers to face the rear of his room as an experiment.  Well, if it collapsed it by flipping it around, I thought it might expand mine if I put one a few feet behind the horn opening on my cabinets.  Big wow moment.  Now the soundstage really reaches out into the room.  You experience the hall/recording environment a lot more.  Songs which were good are now better.  Like Cowboy Junkie’s Trinity sessions (did you know that album was recorded with s a single mic?).  Anyway, there is no doubt that you are sitting in that church.  This tip may aid any rear ported speaker.

2.  Jeff from Jeff’s place talked about making interconnects out of the Western Electric 16g wire so I thought I would make up a pair.  These were made out of used wire that I bought from the eBay guy who still has this wire and they obviously have some miles on them.  Interestingly enough, I did find them more transparent than the Belden microphone wire interconnects.  They are a touch less warm than the Belden ICs, but the transparency is there.  I am going to continue experimenting.  

3.  I got out an old linear power supply and dialed it from 5v to 6v and took it over to Raven’s house for a quick listen on his Uptone Audio Regen.  He is using the stock SMPS that comes with the Regen.  On my last visit I could hear a clear difference with the Regen in the system.  Many on the Computer Audiophile site say the unit also benefits from a LPS.  Well, it clearly does.  What I heard was tighter, more realistic timbre from the bass for sure.  Eric thought that the vocals sounded more natural and sensuous.  If you are computer/USB based, I feel the Regen is a worthwhile tweak, even on a high end DAC like the PS Audio Direct Stream.

4.  Based on the inspiration of Beowulf’s system pictures, I bought a new shelving unit.  No difference in sound that I can tell, but it’s sure nice to have more room to put stuff.  I can now have my TT in the system at any time.  Not that I listen to that much vinyl, but it’s nice every once in a while.

I am looking forward to the Decfest warm-up CDApS meeting at ProggRob's house on the 20th.  We'll hear a UFO Zen and some interconnects and maybe a few speakers.  We will have a new member or two!

@ Palomino ... OK, so lets see those pics!

Very cool!  Did you buy the styrofoam diffusers, or are they DIY?  Having something really light that could easily be placed behind the speakers for a critical listening session and then tucked away somewhere out of sight when not in use would be great.
Thanks,
Chris

By the way, I played that soundstage test track mentioned above in Steve's room during the fest and it was pretty awesome.