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193L choke impressions

Posted by John Swenson (A) on May 26, 2007 at 14:51:49

I had a Hammond 193L gathering dust (left over from a tube amp project) and decided to try the "choke tweak". Let me say first that many AC tweaks have not had a big impact on my system. I have a filter made out of ferrite rods with a layer of wire around them and small caps that does a good job of blocking and isolating RF. So I wasn't expecting very much.

Well after hooking it up and plugging it in I noticed a significant change, the soundstage got much sharper, like tweaking the focus of a projector. Things sounded louder, even though nothing else had changed. BUT the sharpness was a little too much, kind of like the sharpness control on a TV turned up too high. It was a little harsh and glaring and fatiguing after a short time listening. There was also kind of a hollow sound to the whole thing.

I decided to give it the prescribed 5 days burn in. For the first 3 days there was no difference, at day 4 it started smoothing out significantly. At day 5 WOW! The harshness was completely gone, the hollowness was gone. The dynamics were majorly improved, any percussive instrument now has an amazing attack. You can feel a plucked string bass. Drums, piano, guitar etc are radically improved. The sound stage on well recorded live events is huge, I can sense the space around the performers like never before. Building reverberation is more there but less obvious. Previously it kind of hung around the performers in their "space", now its part of the ambient space like it should be. Its definately wonderfully there, but doesn't call attention to itself. A much more natural presentation.

Kingston Trio recordings and large choirs have made the greatest improvement with this tweak. I sing in a several choirs and go to concerts frequently, recordings of such groups have always left me wanting something more. A good choir has a dynamic range and impact that is spine tingling, I just haven't heard this before in reproduction. With the choke in place it got much closer to live (its still not all the way there).

Something happens when a good choir is singing well together where the sound from the individual voices fuse together forming an almost palpable sound field around the whole group that has an amazing sonic "texture". I hear this fairly often in live performances, but it almost never makes it across the recording barrier. With this tweak I'm hearing this on several recordings now, it really is spine tingling.

My wife is having a hard time prying me out of the listening room to work on the "honey do" list today. I keep on telling her this is a scientific experiment, I have to asses if the "tweak" is working or not, I don't think she believes me!

So it definately works, way more so than I thought it would. That 5 day burn in is absolutely essential. Don't even think about critically assesing the sound earlier - you will be disappointed.

Highly recommended. By FAR the biggest bang for a tweak I've ever gotten.

John S.

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