The Best and Cheapest upgrades you've ever made?
Let's share our secrets to hi-fi witchcraft. There were surprising improvements I have made in the past few months with little to no money. The first one was Belkin Surge Protector (18 pounds)-it reduced background noise and interference noticeably, I live in a country with unstable power so it's nice to know they provide a 1000 pound insurance if anything goes wrong. The second one was a UPS (22 pounds)-I got an increase in volume levels from this, used to listen at 12 o' clock now 10 is enough for me, it increased 'soft to loud' dynamics as well. The third one was removing speaker links and replacing them with speaker wires---an undeniable improvement in speaker performance, got more tighter and punchier bass response and an increase in detail levels 
Share your secrets---the good things in life should either be free or very cheap 
Best Regards,
Shafin
Sold my arcam cd73 cos it was painful, (stay clear of this if you like rock/metal etc) and bought a rotel 965bx. Much better all round player and £100 in my pocket!
Hi Rick1979
Nice one 
Rotel's RCD965BX is an excellent CD player and one of the finest CD players ever 
All the best
Rick @ Musicraft
Musicraft (Derby), Specialist Hi-Fi/AV & Multimedia Dealer
good accurate audio monitoring and good sound reproduction to all
Some people are not going to like this, but my best value upgrade ever was replacing the fuses in my mains leads with some DCT treated Russ Andrews fuses, bought at a bargain price in a hi-fi show. Even cheaper, though less effective was 'sticking' the CD player to the glass shelf with blu-tak.
Sold my Marantz CD player 6004.
Bought a Sony USB media player + V-dac II..................this sounds so much better than the cd player.
Moving speakers by small amount inc sub. A moving experience. Spending hours making small adjustments to settings and then changing back to non equalized settings. Oh yes - and Blutac !
Not so much an upgrade as such but the biggest enhancement in enjoyment I got for the money was by adding a pair of attenuators between my pre-amp and power amp. I have a pair from ‘Goldenjacks’ but there are various ones on the market.
As with many modern pre and power amps they don’t always marry up in terms of gain and sensitivity. My active pre amp in to my Quad 909 in practice meant I could hardly move the volume pot and I could a really bad hiss through my speakers. As individual units I really liked them both but was frustrated by the noise floor issues, the Goldenjacks solved this completely.
So while in them selves they are not an upgrade they did act as a cheap mediator between my pre and power amps. Possibly the most chuffed I’ve even been adding something to my system.
I’d imagine the most significant cheap upgrade most could do though would be in relation to room treatment, even if it is just by using what you already have in soft furnishings and the like.
Hi,
I have a few. I rewired my speakers with decent cable internally (was very cheap thin wire originally) it made about 20% improvement. Put small bicycle tube under cd player, tightened up the bass and soundstage and sounded smoother, vibrapods with cones are even better.
I clean every cd I buy and it seems to sound cleaner and not so hazy in the sound. Put a better sheilded power lead on my system and it opened up the sound.
Cheers
Steve
Sold my arcam cd73 cos it was painful, (stay clear of this if you like rock/metal etc) and bought a rotel 965bx. Much better all round player and £100 in my pocket!
Hi Rick1979
Nice one Rotel's RCD965BX is an excellent CD player and one of the finest CD players ever
All the best
Rick @ Musicraft
Have you heard the RCD 975?
Granite Slabs below speakers with toe-in toe-out experimenting! Worked wonders
I've noticed a depressing linearity between £ spent and SQ improvement. 
I moved my speakers.
Took an OU course on Learning to Listen to Music.
I now hear much more detail in my music. Detail I had not realised was there. And enjoy it more and listen to a wider variety.
Previously I had been thinking of buying a better amp for better detail; now I am happy with the one I have. (And happy with my new ears. Even bird song sounds more interesting.)
Andrew
I stripped my system of all the fancy cables that have accumulated over the years. I'm currently in the process of downgrading everything as well, realizing that it's possible to enjoy great sound for a lot less cost.
Putting cut outs of a yoga mat between my speakers and my cabinet, huge difference
Let's share our secrets to hi-fi witchcraft. There were surprising improvements I have made in the past few months with little to no money. The first one was Belkin Surge Protector (18 pounds)-it reduced background noise and interference noticeably, I live in a country with unstable power so it's nice to know they provide a 1000 pound insurance if anything goes wrong. The second one was a UPS (22 pounds)-I got an increase in volume levels from this, used to listen at 12 o' clock now 10 is enough for me, it increased 'soft to loud' dynamics as well. The third one was removing speaker links and replacing them with speaker wires---an undeniable improvement in speaker performance, got more tighter and punchier bass response and an increase in detail levels 
Share your secrets---the good things in life should either be free or very cheap
Best Regards,
Shafin
Try cotton buds (new ones of course)
Sold my arcam cd73 cos it was painful, (stay clear of this if you like rock/metal etc) and bought a rotel 965bx. Much better all round player and £100 in my pocket!