There are a number of thins you can do to improve your audio video system without investing great sums of money. In fact, there are quite a few improvements you can make with little to no money at all.

Nearly 20 years ago, Stan Warren and Paul McGowan, the founders of PS Audio, published a series called "Tech Tips" that described ways of making your own cables, tweaking your own equipment, and so on. These Tech Tips were created because both Paul and Stan believed then (as we both do today), that throwing money at a system isn't always necessary.

We trust you will take advantage of these free tips and we encourage you to spread the word!

Free Balanced Power

Most of you know what balanced power is: when both the hot and neutral of the AC line has power on them equal to 1/2 the total AC voltage, each being out of phase with the other. So, if your balanced voltage is 110 volts, you would measure (as referenced to ground) 55 volts on each leg of the AC, and because the two voltages are out of phase, they add together to make 110 volts. Normally, only one of the prongs in our home's wall socket has AC power on it, the other being the same potential as ground.

The chief advantages of balanced power is common mode rejection, which provides a greater rejection of noise on the AC line. Your preamplifier or power amplifier's own input power transformer can reject a great deal in the way of noise on the AC line if it is fed a balanced input.

So, how can we provide balanced power for our equipment? If we live in a country that already has 220 volts, then we must use options 1 or 2 below. This is because homes in countries with 200 volts are themselves single ended. In the United States, Canada and countries where 110 volts is the norm, then we can use any one of the three options below.

There are several methods:

Purchase and install a balanced transformer like and Equi-Tech, Tice or Cinepro.

Purchase and install a PS Audio Power Plant or Accuphase AC power generator.

Add a 220 volt outlet in your listening room.

The third option is the least expensive option of any we know of. To make 220 volts available in your home (if you live in a country whose standard voltage is 120 volts), the electrician will have to provide you balanced power, where each of the two legs (hot and neutral) have 117 volts on them, one out of phase with the other. This is balanced power.

What's it cost to install? We phoned an electrician and he gave us an estimate of $350 to run a 220 volt service. This pricing, of course, depends on a number of factors: length of run and how you have them install it being the biggest factors. Nearly every home in the US has 220 volts available, it's what your electric dryer or electric stove/oven operate from.

There are drawbacks to this however: the question of whether or not your equipment will accept 220 volts being the biggest. If you own or are contemplating purchasing a Power Plant AC generator, then there's no problem at all. Inside the Power Plant, there is a voltage change switch that is easily accessible. If you take this route, you'll then have balanced power coming into the Power Plant and balanced power coming out of the Power Plant. The same would be true for a properly designed isolation transformer as well.

Another drawback is the outlet. The wall socket of a 220 volt service is quite different than a 120 volt outlet, and you will have to devise a safe adapter for your male US plugs, or change the male end of your power cord to the appropriate 220 volt style. Whatever you decide, make sure others in your household are not fooled into believing the new outlet is a 120 volts and mistakenly plug the wrong thing in!

So, if you have a Power Plant, or if you have a piece of equipment that is able to be run from a 220 volt source, then this is a relatively painless, rather dramatic improvement you can make. Used in conjunction with the Power Plant, or a properly designed isolation transformer, a rather significant decrease in noise can be taken advantage of, if you live in the United States, Canada, Taiwan and Japan.

AC polarity is important at your wall socket

All houses are not wired equally. It's unfortunate but true. The wiring in your home may be different from AC plug to AC plug. That is, there is a hot and a neutral side to each AC outlet. Upon examination of the AC outlet in your home, you'll notice that there are typically three holes, in a triangular pattern. Two of the holes are actually more accurately characterized as slots, these are across from each other, and the third is below the two, and is a hole rather than a slot. The two slots across from each other have the actually AC energy between them, the third hole, below these two is a ground. Of the two slots, one is referred to as the "hot" side and the other is referred to as the "neutral" side. It is important that the hot and neutral sides are always the same.

You can determine if they were properly wired by purchasing an under $10 polarity checker at any hardware store. The polarity checker is a simple device that plugs into the wall socket and indicates proper or improper wiring by means of two LED lights.

Purchase one of these inexpensive devices and make sure that each AC wall socket has the correct polarity in your listening room or video room. If you should find an improperly wired AC wall socket, you can reverse the wiring yourself after first turning of that wall socket's circuit breaker and then making sure it is no longer active using the same polarity checker. Alternatively, you can hire an electrician to do the work.

Where you plug in can make a significant difference

A common mistake we see concerns where your equipment is plugged in. Keeping in mind that receivers and power amplifiers draw a lot of current to operate (lots of watts), it is critical that you follow these three steps:

Never use an extension cord or plug strip to connect your receiver or power amplifier, if at all possible. The results of using an extension cord or plug strip can be loss of bass, impact, and dimensionality. It is much better to plug a receiver or power amplifier directly into the wall socket. If you must use an extension cord or plug strip, make sure it is wired with the same thickness of wire that is found inside the walls of your home, typically 14 gauge or 12 gauge.

Find a separate plug for your higher-powered items such as power amps or receivers. Try not to plug them in into the same plug as your lower level items such as, preamps, CD players, and so on.

Find a separate circuit for your higher-powered pieces. Many AC plugs in your home are wired together. Typically in a room with (for instance) six AC outlets, three will be wired together on one circuit and the other three will be wired together on yet another circuit. By "circuit" we mean that a separate run of wire will go from the plug to the circuit breaker box in your home. To find the separate run of wire, or circuit, you'll need some help. With the aid of a colleague positioned within earshot of yourself and near the circuit breaker box, have him selectively turn on and off circuit breakers until you have determined which ones are separate. I recommend using a lamp, plugged into the AC outlets, to perform your test.

VTA (Vertical Tracking Angle) on the turntable is very important.

If you are using a turntable for phonograph records as many still are, make sure your VTA is adjusted correctly, it can make a huge difference in the way your records sound.

VTA stands for Vertical Tracking Angle and is the angle your needle sits at relative to the surface of the record. We recognize that the left to right angle, as you face the front of the phono cartridge, must be straight up and down. Many of us do not realize, however, that the front to back angle, as we face the front of the phono cartridge, is also critical.

Conventional wisdom would suggest that you want the bottom of the phono cartridge perpendicular with the surface of the record, as viewed from the side. This is certainly a good starting point, but we have found that a slight amount of rear angle can improve depth rather dramatically. That is, as you view the phono cartridge from the side, the rear of the phono cartridge (the rear is the end closest to the turntable arm pivot point) should be slightly closer to the record surface than the front. The angle is generally controlled by the pivot arm height.

Only careful experimentation and listening will reveal the best VTA for your particular arm/cartridge setup, but it can be well worth the effort.

One excellent source of information about this subject is Michael Fremer's Tracking Angle magazine.

Keep digital isolated from analog

There are two truths in today's world of digital audio: at some point the digital audio must be converted to analog so you can hear it, and digital and analog devices should be kept apart from each other.

Their separation is recommended from both a physical and an electrical standpoint because their very different nature of operation can cause audible interference.

Physical separation can be rather simple but quite effective with respect to performance. If space permits, group all of your digital based equipment, CD players, DAC's, Digital Lens, transports, AC3 processors, together. Group all of your analog equipment such as, preamps, power amps, tuners, together and separated from the digital group by at least one foot, two feet if possible.

Electrical isolation can also be simple. If you can identify the fact that you have separate AC plug circuits easily accessible to your equipment, plug all digital devices into one circuit, and all analog into another. Barring access to separate circuits, group digital and analog equipment into two separate high quality plug strips.

The ultimate solution is the PS Audio Power Plant�..but that's not free.

Speaker cables can make quite a difference

Typically the longest connection in our AV system is between the receiver or power amplifier and the loudspeaker. The quality of this connection can play a large part in the way your system sounds. We would first recommend that you purchase high quality Audiophile speaker cables to make sure this connection is handled properly. However, these can range from several dollars per foot to several thousand dollars per foot.

Here's an inexpensive solution: as is true with power cords, thicker is usually better. If you are currently using thin lamp cord for your speaker connection to your receiver or power amplifier, you can make a difference by doing two things: purchase thicker, multi-stranded wire from your hardware store, and separate the two conductors.

Visiting your hardware store, acquire the appropriate length of either 14 gauge or 12 gauge multi-stranded copper wire, such as a heavy lamp cord. Then, before you strip the two ends to connect to your speakers and power amplifier, separate the two conductors by peeling them away from each other. Now, instead of one length of two conductor wire (one for the plus and one for the minus), you will have two lengths of single conductor wire. Connect up your speakers to your amplifier using these two separate conductors.

The reason that I suggest separating the two conductors is to lower the capacitance of the cable.

Keep the two conductors apart from each other by a couple of inches.

Demagnetize your CD's!

Yup. Now I know it sounds pretty goofy, but actually a lot has been written about this in the legitimate audio press, and best of all, it works!

Even though CD's and DVD's are not magnetic in any way, using an inexpensive bulk tape eraser, easily purchased at Radio Shack for less than $20, you can make a significant improvement in the way your CD's and DVD's sound.

Purchase the bulk tape eraser. Then use it on the CD or DVD as you would a tape. Follow the instruction that are included with the bulk tape eraser. There is no potential for damage that I am aware of by doing this.

There is a commercial version of the bulk eraser made by Bedini. Click on the picture for the link.

In order to benefit from the results, you'll have to do this each time you play the disc, but for critical listening sessions, it's a must.

Try it yourself. Listen to a familiar track on a CD. Use the demagnetizer, then insert the disc and listen to the same track once again.

I continue to be amazed at how much better this procedure makes the disc sound.

Our thanks to Bob Harley of Stereophile, Fi, and now the Perfect Vision/TAS for demonstrating this amazing phenomena to me.

Improve your center image.

We all understand that the center image produced by our stereo pair of loudspeakers is an illusion. While it may sound like we have three speakers, in a stereo setup we only have two. The center image is sometimes referred to as the phantom image. It is created when the left and the right speakers contain identical program information.

A properly executed center image will be nearly palpable as if you could reach out and touch the image. To achieve this lifelike palpability, it may be necessary to slightly reposition your speakers.

The first step will involve the use of a tape measure. Because center image palpability is somewhat dependant on high frequency information as created by the speaker's tweeter, making sure that both the left and the right speakers are equidistant from the listener is critical. Due to the short wavelengths involved, accuracy of the placement of the speaker pair is important to within � inch.

First step is to measure the front to back distance from the rear wall. Make sure that it is exactly the same for both the left and the right speaker.

Second step is to then listen to the results of the positioning change in step number one. I recommend a single center positioned vocalist for this exercise. Whatever piece of music you select, use the same one over and over, noting the differences in center image as you go along.

Third step is side to side placement. In small increments, move the speakers closer together, or farther apart, until the center image begins to achieve the level of palpability you desire. A good starting point is to measure approximately six to seven feet between the left and right tweeters.

Fourth step is toe in. Once the side to side distance has been established, the angle of the speakers, relative to the listener must be adjusted. In most loudspeaker pairs, the proper angle of toe in can easily be roughed in visually. Remove the grille cloth of the loudspeaker and, sitting in your listening position, have a friend or colleague angle the loudspeakers in so that the tweeter is pointing at you equally on both the left and right sides. Once achieved, begin the listening process again, equally angling the speakers more or less towards your ears with respect to the tweeter until a perfect center image is achieved.

A note of caution: too much toe in can give you a great center image at the expense of outside information. That is, information present on the recording should go beyond the left and right sides of the speaker. A good compromise between the two is important.

AC power cords DO make an improvement if they are "right for the job"

As you will no doubt read in many areas of this web page, the quality of the AC power coming out of the wall is important to your system's performance. If you can't get it out of the wall properly, you are handicapped from the very beginning of the chain.

One key factor in this chain is the AC power cord itself. Many pieces of stereo/video equipment have detachable AC cords. Most AC cords that are supplied to you by the manufacturer are woefully inadequate. Since the AC power cord is the first link in the system, it is very important that you have a proper cord.

A relatively expensive solution is to purchase a high end "Audiophile" cord. We sell one for $145. While this may sound very expensive for a simple AC power cord, ours is one of the least expensive ones on the market. Needless to say, they go up in price from there.

One simple, inexpensive solution is to buy a thicker cord. Yup, that simple. Most manufacturer supplied power cords are 18 gauge thick. A better gauge to have would be 16, or 14, or even 12 gauge. The lower the number of the gauge, the heavier the wire.

If you'd like to purchase an inexpensive heavier gauge detachable cord, you can do so over the web.

http://www.alliedelec.com/catalog/indices/indices.asp

Look under Belden and acquire the shielded version.

The PS Audio xStream Power Cable is your best bet.