 Often, people clearly state that higher sampling rates, expensive cables and other refinements to their stereo don't lead to a better sound. And they probably are right too, they don't hear a difference. Then why do all kinds of people, including myself, say tweaks work? Let me start with the obvious. A number of these tweaks frankly are BS. Which ones you might ask? Well I don't know. My missing statement is to bring proper music reproduction to the people. In general this means that I do tutorials and reviews and these reviews should always be of use to a wider public seeking for better sound. That is a full-time job and if I had to review all kinds of tweaks and cables that according to some work fine while I rubbish to others, that would be a bad time investment. Cables might be different. Although there are also snake oil sellers there, there are also people that by trial and error develop cables that work fine in their test setup for they compensate for shortcomings already present in that setup. I use cables by, in alphabetical order, AudioQuest, CrystalCable, Grim Audio, Kimber and Transparent. All well-respected brands chosen since I could try them out, which admittedly is somewhat easier for me than for you. That doesn't mean that other brands automatically are of less quality. If you want to try a cable, ask your dealer if you can buy it and return it if it doesn't live up to the expectations. If you keep the product and the packaging fresh, there are dealers that will do that. Sometimes even a manufacturer has special try before you buy cables. If the investment doesn't offer improvements, don't spend the money. There are some buts, big buts though. Tweaking a stereo is like refining the cooking process for a delicate dish. You should start with fresh ingredients, use the right pots and pans, make sure you got your timing right, taste every step in the process and have a developing or developed palette. Every step in the process should be perfect to get a dish cooked to perfection. If you buy a fresh, fine tuna, but ruin it by using margarine instead of oil, have the pan too hot and leave it in too long, you will end up with a sad tuna. It is the same when tweaking a stereo. I have made a series called Audio Hygiene that describes a number of steps for improvement of your stereo, so I'll give the general approach here. It basically is rather simple. You don't want the audio signal to be degraded anywhere in the path from the source to your ears. Of course your equipment should have the lowest of low distortion, right? It should have a ruler flat frequency response, right? And the lowest of low noise, right? Well, that would be nice but not at any price. Each manufacturer autofon already concluded in the previous century that having a good face behavior should have preference over a ruler flat frequency response. And some large consumer electronics manufacturers chased ultra low distortion figures in the 80s since managers can explain a lower distortion figure to their superiors but not a better sound. So they built amps that had rigorous overall feedback designs giving very low distortion figures but also gave time smearing that killed details. That by the way illustrates the difference between the big consumer electronics companies and specialized audio brands. Although big companies sometimes can surprise you with a very good sounding device, often for the chief designer had a private quest for quality and managed to sell the design choices to the management. Specialist audio brands often have a very consistent audio quality although they do have the occasional lemon too of course. And there are also specialized audio brands, although limited in numbers, that perform poorly throughout but managed to hide their brand. One has to conclude that it is impossible for the average consumer to choose the right equipment based on objective data. There are some ways around this. One is if you have a friend that has a good sounding stereo, that could be a starting point for you. Another is watching and reading reviews and based your choice on those. The third option is to find a good dealer and have him advise you. What approach will fit you the best depends on your preferences and budget. Let's assume you now have good equipment at home and you want to gradually bring it to a high level by, for instance, choosing better cables. You order a set of interlinks and don't hear any improvement. What's going on? Was it the wrong choice of cables? Well, that might be. But it might also be that it is a good cable that will improve your stereo. Ke. Remember what I said about cooking the tuna. If you use a tuna that is not fresh, the result of a high quality baking oil won't be that clear when you compare it to cheap oil. So what you should do ideally is the following. Start by removing all equipment and remove all cabling. Then only place back the equipment that is essential for the reproduction of music. So don't place back that room corrector, equalizer or any other gear that is not essential. Make sure the equipment is on sturdy, resonance free furniture. Cables that have mechanics like a CD player or a turntable should be placed on a level surface. If you can, choose the furniture so that you can separate the interconnects and the loudspeaker cables from the power cords. Even better is if you could create distance between all three groups. Also keep in mind that the equipment still is placed practical so it can be used easily. Now it's time to reconnect the cabling. First connect the power cords after checking the equipment they switched off. Connect all equipment to the same socket box to lower the risk of earth potential problems. These power cords are the first on the list to be replaced by audiophile cables as you can see in part 1 of Audio Hygiene. In part 2 you can see that the polarity of the power plugs can make a difference depending on where you live. If you want to check that, do it before you take the following step, connecting the interlink or interlinks. Finally after checking again your amp is switched off, the loudspeaker cables can be connected. These are the cables that I would replace by audio grade cables after the power cables. The digital interconnect would be the next and finally the analog interconnect. Why? I have written a complete chapter on why cables can differ in my book FILE-BASED AUDIO aka STREAMING AUDIO so there is much to tell. But the most essential factor is the influence of magnetic stray fields between the cables. 110 to 230 volts at one or two amps gives a nice strong interference on all cables close by and cheap cables have very poor shielding, let alone a construction that helps there too. So you want the power cords to radiate as little interference as possible and that is one of the main qualities of audiophile cables. You now also understand why only that last one or two meters can make a difference despite that cheap insulation wire is used in your walls. It is now important to take your time for loudspeaker placement. That starts with watching my loudspeaker placement video. Don't try to be smarter than needed, just do what the video tells you to do and you should be able to obtain a good result. If you have equipment left, hide it away for now. More equipment than needed will always degrade the sound quality. Keep it simple stupid. If you use electronics to repair acoustic problems, first try to get the sound well without the magic boxes, since there is no such thing as magic. Robert Ingersoll said it already in the 19th century. In nature there is no reward nor punishment, there are consequences. You can only go for the right consequences if you know them. Therefore first start with an optimized minimal stereo and go from there. But take at least two weeks between each and every step. That way your auditory system has time to evaluate what has happened. If you doubt, go one step back. Often you won't like the previous situation but if you do, take another road from there. And if you have questions, post them below this video so everyone can learn from it and your question will not get lost in the large amounts of mail I get. Especially email asking for personal advice are impossible to answer and will be stopped by my moderator. So if you want to stay informed, subscribe to this channel or follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. See the show notes for the links. If you like this video, please consider supporting the channel through Patreon and see super exclusive videos too. Just one dollar a month will do and more will be appreciated. The link is in the show notes. And don't forget to tell your friends on the web about this channel. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on the chbproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.