This is an excellent example of a guy on drugs. 
From a local hi-fi forum:
The Characteristic Of Sound
After extensive tweaking, room tuning and vibrational control
recently , I have formulated my own principles and come to several
conclusions.
1. Good sound can be had easily and cheaply if you put in a little
effort.
All materials have their own sonic characteristics and we can use
them to good effect.
I used bitumen sheet and aluminium foil to dampen the vibrational
effect of my audio rack with excellent results. You just need to
determine how much and placement.
By placing some aluminium foil (those used for insulating air-con
ducts and heat control) on the platform of my audio rack, I am
shocked to discover that my sound had come alive, even though my
system had already sounded lively in the first place.
So I used more of these aluminium foils, and eventually
discontinued the cellulose sponge tweak.
Initially, I secured the foil by taping them onto the platform rack
and there was an immediate loss of air and richness to the sound
fabric. I removed the masking tape immediately.
Air matrix will lend dimension to your sound fabric
- my sound consultant had already understood its importance even
before I do and she is only Sec. 1.
So this means if you diy your cables and interconnects, having air
matrix to work for you is a good thing.
Everything has its own sound characteristics.
Those that feels good to the touch, is very likely to perform well
sonically - egs. include cellulose sponge. But I think natural sea
sponge is better. They are harder to find now. Sold in
pharmacies.
Aluminium is very good - it will liven and enrich your sound and
give it a natural balance.
Ebony is good. In fact any kind of wood is good. It will help
diffuse the sound and give it a more organic feel. I simply think
hardwood perform better.
The guitar and piano makers use spruce and rosewood to good
effect.
Carbon is good - it adds more transparency and clarity.
Good quality cables - high purity copper or annealed / high grade
silver is a must.
And stratospheric cables are for the rich and famous.
It is clever geometry and exotic materials like aluminium and gold
that give these cables a leading edge.
It is also possible to achieve the same leading edge effect by
cleverly implementing tweaks like the aluminium foil, carbon and
ebonys.
If I had to choose between marble and granite, I will chose
neither.
There is another material, they call basalt stone or lava stone - I
strongly believe it will better the above two.
I had the good fortune to walk bare footed on basalt stones. It
feels very, very good and have health benefits. My relative uses
alot of it. His system sound was very much enhanced with these
lava-stone.
Crystals - rutilated quartz, rose quartz, etc. they easily add to
the sound performance, no doubts about that. Just need to explore
placement position for optimum effect.
My friend uses rose quartz embedded onto wooden footers under his
cdp.
Foam - high quality foam in speakers will eliminate some of the
bass boom found in china made cotton stuff speakers.
Disc Demagnetisers - they enrich the sound. The more transparent
your system, the more they will show up. I demagnetise my discs
everytime before I played it. It offers a richer sound.
Speakers cabinet - solid wood not only look good but will perform
head and shoulders over dressed up veneer plywood, imho.
An accidental discovery
Recently, I redo my ebony placement in 2 corners of my room. I have
discovered that placing the ebonys 1" - 2" away from the corners
would offer a better resonating effect - translates into richer
ambience.
When everything was going nicely, I decided to realign the 2
ambient light lamps - now sitting on a spare dac and a dictionary.
Then I discovered the sound had deteriorated.
I had to exert and spent a fair bit of time to fine tune the lamps
and the dictionary placement to get back to the original sound with
my sound consultant in tow.
To create a equal height for the lamp platform, I had placed a 4"
width maple strip somewhat diagonally under the dictionary.
By adding two vibrapods under the lamp side of the dictionary, I
discovered the vibralto was back in play.
I had lost some of the vibralto with all these new equations.
These lamp shades are not connected to any equipment, yet they
influence the soundscape.
Simply put, just about anything that you placed in your room that
are near to your source or speakers can be tweaked because they do
influence the sound more.
I have added 3 new aluminium foil in the rear wall carpeted space
between my 2 amplifiers. It is concealed by my cotton towel drapes
but they sure make the sound come alive like the sound of
music.
These last 3 aluminium pieces, I improvised by wrapping kitchen
aluminium foil around art drawing paper - this is as cheap as it
gets.
Good tweaks can perform sonically well and cost very little and
will certainly raised your system performance to reference level
for next to nothing.
Even my Joni Mitchell "Hits" disc - which I had put away for awhile
because of poor recording, sounded shrill and sharp to my ears - is
now not only listenable but enjoyable.
Bell tweak does significantly enrich the sound. Proper
implementation is essential. I think getting a good brass bell will
resonate better than my ice-cream bell. Given the opportunity will
explore further with other bell materials. Since I already started
by tweaking the lamp and the dictionary that the lamp sits on, I
might as well stretch myself further, but only with the help of my
consultant, who is not only decisive, but razor sharp and
surefooted. She even know how far I should place my aluminium piece
into the side wall sound panel to optimise the bass effect within
say 10 to 20 secs. I planned and have just rewarded her. Otherwise,
it is tough.
She even placed one small bitumen strip along the rounded edge of
my bottom dac platform, with the top and bottom part of the bitumen
strip sticking out. By tilting this projected plane, more up or
more down, the tonal balance of Katie Melua's voice changes
accordingly. When I got to Katie's tone, as I used to hear it, I
secured the position with the barest of double sided masking
tape.
These are some of my personal opinions. You are at liberty to
disagree.
Lastly, my tweaking days are over.
Some footnotes:
Hey, Chief - you've a good nick. You are just one step away from
the Hall of Fame - made famous by the latest X-box Halo 3 game -
'Master Chief'.
Heard from a gramaphone guy that Diana Krall is eligible
again.
Charcaol - remove green netting before placing it near your
computer electrical cables. Green netting have a sharpening effect
on the sound. Once activated, the sharpening effect will remain
even after you remove the green netting. Probably have to power off
everything and redo again by using new charcoal.
I used anti static cloth to flap around the plugs and what nots to
undo the effect.
Once the charcoal effect is in place, leave it there for a while
and you can remove charcoal bag. If it loses effect over time, you
can place it back on again.
Charcoal that comes in lipton teabag material type is fine.
My newly replaced, near obsolete TDK Tremour S80 speakers, comes
with a subwoofer, $65 - second time around - is really good
sounding after 2 months of running in, especially with the belden
power cord - 83803 double run - cum castle power conditioner
feeding my computer.
Very organic.
At the gramaphone - I listened to Laura Fygi XRCD spanish cd,
"Besama Mucho" track and I didn't buy it.
When heard on my TDK speakers through You tube - I cannot don't
buy. Her rendition is so good.
