Another new sound system

I checked on the Nuclear packages I sent to the USA on the 14th December. 10 days later and they have not even left Australia yet! I know it's Christmas, but I sent them via the fastest and most expensive Express Post available. No excuse, I'm afraid Australia Post are a ripoff. They should have suspended their Express service if they can't deliver it. It's fraud to take the money, promise a delivery date and then simply fail to provide the service.
 
Another Nuclear STB tip for guitarists -

I initially thought that completely taping over the pickups was a good idea, until I tried 2 layers. Unfortunately that dulled the sound. To do the job properly, you have to cut small holes for the six pickup magnets (for each string). You can also tape a thin strip of STB all around the circumference of the pickups.
 
After changing to shorter Cat 5e data cables with a wrapping of Nuclear STB, I have been very pleased with the sound. With some time on my hands this evening, I decided to add a second Nuclear STB wrap on top of the first.

I can not stress how much better data cables are with the second Nuclear wrapping. The second wrapping gives the same amount of benefit as the first. I mentioned this before, but it's just so true, I wanted to say it again.
 
Here's a little ditty to further emphasize the need to double-wrap all data cables. I can't be more specific than this :

Double Nuclear wrap or your sound will be crap.
 
I neglected to mention in my above report on my last visit to the Bunker, that Mark sent me off with an obscenely generous amount of Nuclear. Unlike Mark, I don't like to add STB piecemeal, so I went home with the stuff before evaluating the result. Accoutrements included painting Nuclear on some of the existing patches around the internet equipment and on the amplifier. The television power chord was already 2/3 covered in an earlier model of STB, so I covered the entire length with Nuclear without removing the older material. I also covered the length of the untreated desktop monitor power cord.

When I turned on the music, I discovered a top end, which I didn't realise was missing until I heard it! Nothing else was compromised as a result: only improved. I then thought I'd open the back of the speakers to see if I could add some STB inside. That proved too difficult due to the compact size of my speakers, so I replaced the backs having only managed to place two small strips on the inside of the rear cowling. However, I tested the screws securing the speaker cones to the front of the speaker housing and they were somewhat loose. I tightened them all, and powered up the system. Wham Bam, thank you Ma'am! It was as if the floodgates on all the STB enhancements I had made up to now were opened. The improvement was huge! It's as if the speakers tripled in size. Suddenly I had a sound stage: something which a mini-system isn't supposed to have. I won't go into all the detail, but believe me, EVERYTHING was improved. Thereafter, I covered the entire top of the amplifier with Nuclear, and the sound has just gone from incredible to more than incredible with improvement to detail, realism and airiness. The best Christmas present I had this year!

I highly recommend to anyone with speakers which are more than a year old, and in which the cones are secured to the cabinet with screws, that they check them for firmness. You will need a technician's toolkit for atypical screw heads.
 
That's fantastic Daniel! It's great to hear about your ongoing success improving your stereo.
I'm already aware of the need to keep the speaker cone screws tight. It's a well known tweek and very easy to do. But also easy to forget to do! (and quite easy to over-do, as I have done several times in the past to previous speakers unfortunately. Lesson learned the hard way).

I have a question - I assume you wrapped the TV power cord to improve the TV picture, but what was the purpose of wrapping the computer monitor power cord? Was it to improve the picture of the monitor, or the sound of the streamed music? And did it work?
 
That's fantastic Daniel! It's great to hear about your ongoing success improving your stereo.
I'm already aware of the need to keep the speaker cone screws tight. It's a well known tweek and very easy to do. But also easy to forget to do! (and quite easy to over-do, as I have done several times in the past to previous speakers unfortunately. Lesson learned the hard way).

I have a question - I assume you wrapped the TV power cord to improve the TV picture, but what was the purpose of wrapping the computer monitor power cord? Was it to improve the picture of the monitor, or the sound of the streamed music? And did it work?

The purpose of wrapping the power chord was to improve the stereo. The monitor is plugged into my laptop and part of the system which streams music to my stereo streamer. Whereas I think there was a slight improvement to sharpness of picture in my monitor, the main improvement, I believe, was to the stereo system. I didn't do it as an isolated improvement - as hinted above - but I do think it made a significant contribution. As for the TV power chord, I believe it improved the entire system.
 
My STB Nuclear pack arrived today. I didn't get the mail until 7 PM, but I had to try it out immediately. STB Black made a huge difference. Adding the STB Sonic elevator made a big difference, but not as big a difference as between nothing & STB Black. However, removing the STB Sonic Elevator & adding the STB Nuclear pack to my breaker box made the biggest difference of all. Just astounding! There was a slight elevation in the highs with the Sonic Elevator. Not so with the Nuclear. Every thing sounds perfect tonally. The sound stage is wider & deeper. I played the Just Like Us LP by Paul Revere & the Raiders. Lots of stuff I had never heard before. I played You Can't Sit Down by the Phil Upchurch Combo. With the earlier STB versions, I could hear the bass strings being plucked. Now, I can also hear the pick against the guitar strings. Just astounding! Everything I played sounds right. It is hard for me to explain what the Nuclear pack does. The music just sounds pure and true.

Thank you so much, Mark for this amazing gift. We are not worthy.

Tomorrow, I will wrap the power and data cables with the nuclear tape & report the results.
 
My nuclear pack arrived yesterday.
I am overwhelmed....will get started as soon as I finish expanding my record bins. This occurs every Jan 1. I have to add another bin or two because the 45s are too tight to allow ease of flipping.
Thanks again, Mark!
 
Got my Nukes a few days ago. Can't wait to dig into this weighty box of wonder courtesy of the GREAT ONE!
 
Mark -

Packet arrived 8PM on Friday night. I'm working with a bunch of new toys tomorrow (Transparent cables,Esoteric streamers, Project phono boxes, DACs & the new Hegel integrateds) & I'll file a report. My thanks as always -
Ned
 
Great to hear that some of the Nuclear packages arrived in the USA. I hope the ongoing experiments prove exciting and worthwhile. I'm having a lot of success painting the lid (inside and out) covering the meter box. At first we did one coat when Daniel visited a while ago. But I have since added about 6 more coats, including the latest just this morning. The bizarre thing is, each new coat has a better and stronger effect than the last!

The effect Rich describes is exactly what I hear. The Nuclear formula is completely neutral. And there seems to be no limit to its beneficial effect, no matter how far you push it. Recorded sound is a weird thing. There's so much more in it, but something about the average home electical supply stops it from being heard.

G45 members are definitely most worthy. There's a reason Nuclear STB was discovered here, of all places on Earth.
 
THE BOWERS & WILKINS ACTIVE DESKTOP SPEAKER UPGRADE: Chapter two - the Nuclear chronicles

You may have read about my STB Black upgrades culminating in post #532. This time I applied STB Nuclear, mostly supplementing the Black accoutrements, but replacing it to a very limited extent. I started with the power board (shown in pics below). I also completely covered the power board cord which had only been a quarter covered in Black. The audition showed the release of a substantial amount of higher frequencies, somewhat overwhelmingly. Detail was also increased. I then added nuclear to the three cords attached to the master speaker: partially for two of them, and fully for the one that connects it to the laptop. Auditioning showed a restoration of balance. Depth, clarity and air is substantially increased with the speakers now punching insanely above their weight.

IMG_4570.jpgIMG_4572.jpgIMG_4573.jpgIMG_4574.jpg
 
I actually applied a total of 5 coats that day. Therefore there must now be a total of 11 coats!
There must be. And yet each new coat continues to improve the sound to a striking degree, just as if it was the first coat. I still have not come close to discovering the point where it stops improving.

Late at night, the sound is like a work of art. Really. It's a new type of art - visual, yet it's audio. The bass (on nearly everything) comes across as a solid entity, with size and texture. On certain tracks it goes as low as you can hear, to the point where it can only be felt. Other frequencies also have a spatial dimension. But it's the natural, neutral overall realistic tone which is the thing that really blows your mind. Together with the fact that you can hear stuff in every track that you never heard before.
 
If you check out the first post in this topic, you'll see a large painting of a sailboat that is hanging in my listening room. Today I took the painting down, painted the entire back of the painting with Nuclear STB, and hung it back in place. Very interesting. Incredible really.
 
Wrapping the cables took longer than I thought it would. Bending down & messing with cables is not as easy as it was 40 years ago.

I wrapped both ends of the power cords for my 2 PS Audio Ultimate Outlets with the STB Nuclear wire wrap. I then wrapped both ends of the cables connecting my PS Audio Juice Bars to the Ultimate Outlets. I then wrapped the power cords for my mono block power amplifiers & added a sheet of STB Nuclear to the top cover of each one. I wrapped both ends of the power cord for my pre-amp. I also wrapped both ends of the digital cables leading from my CD player & satellite box to the pre-amp. I had previously added STB Platinum strips to all the outlets not associated with my A/V system. Now I added STB Diamond strips to the outlets that my A/V system uses. And I put the STB Sonic Elevator (STB Platinum) on top of one of the Ultimate Outlets.

Then I auditioned the results.

The improvement was less than the improvement of going from STB Platinum to STB Nuclear in my breaker panel but the improvement was obvious. The sound stage was definitely wider & deeper. More low level detail was heard. There was a greater sense that the band was in the room. The bass is so clear & solid. I have never heard such accurate bass in a home audio system.

Thanks again Mark. This stuff is unbelievable.

Next I will be adding STB Nuclear to my phono pre-amp & turntable. And anything left, I will add to my office stereo setup
 
If you check out the first post in this topic, you'll see a large painting of a sailboat that is hanging in my listening room. Today I took the painting down, painted the entire back of the painting with Nuclear STB, and hung it back in place. Very interesting. Incredible really.

Hopefully it's added to its $50,000 market value :wtf:
 
Having achieved such stark improvement in sound quality, I could not restrain myself from further accoutrementation. I completed the coverage of the cable joining master to slave speaker. I competed coverage of the high voltage cable of the speaker power supply (which only had 10% coverage). I added more to the laptop surfaces. This stepped up the fidelity to a whole new level. It’s WOW! WOW! WOW! How is this even possible? The richness, depth, clarity, detail, and delivery allow for a sublime listening experience, heretofore only possible from a much larger, and much costlier stereo system. (Even further tweaks gave the bass a solidity which seems technically impossible for such diminutive speakers.)

An interesting side note is that despite an apparently greater output from the speakers, the active speaker is running cooler than it used to. I can only conclude that clean electricity generates less heat when it encounters resistance. That would imply that more of the current is preserved to course through the circuitry. That may explain why both volume and detail are increased. One would also expect the longevity of the equipment to consequently be increased. Dirty electricity is an abhorrent filth which must be expurgated from all wiring and equipment; it corrupteth all electrical components and the spirit of man. The cunning alchemy of Mark shall henceforth vanquish this pernicious evil!
 
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Ever since I painted the seascape, I have been experiencing bass response so solid, that it produces a complete visual pulse-wave the size of the entire wall (with certain recordings). Nuclear STB is very strange because it keeps delivering no matter how far you push it, and just keeps breaking new boundaries previously unimagineable.