http://www.tweakaudio.com/Cd tweaks.html

Uhm.. erm.. yeah. Sandpaper and sharpies aren't going near my CDs

Hahahaha!!!! It's AMAZING what people trick themselves into believing. Especially demagnetizing CDs and drawing pictures on them, HAHA!

That made my night, thanks

ROTFLMAO!

It is digital data. Either a pit or a lan. If you are getting audiable errors from refracted/reflected light then you are either playing the CD in a POS player or you have been sanding the surface to much. ESD is not a problem unless you have shag carpet and wool socks on. In that instance stay away from any electronics untill you have made sure to discharge yourself. Preferably on the goober who thinks that the static sharge built by the spinning CD is somehow gonna deflect the lazer or mess up his sound. Don't waste you sharpies on your CDs. Wait till the moron who thinks that marking your CDs helps falls asleep and then draw him a funny mustache, eyebrows, and glasses. Oh and while we are at it blacken out a few teeth and write "looser" or your favorite explicative of your choice on their forehead.

Tell this guy I have a placebo that cures cancer. I should be able to sell it to him for a fine price.

Unfortunately, the website is completely serious. Peter Belt is mentioned there, and I recall reading about him and his wacky ideas in Stereophile long ago. Here is J. Gordon Holt's column on him from the 1987 archives:

http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?110

J. Gordon Holt was about the only guy whose opinion I paid attention to when I used to read Stereophile. Even still, he had the typical stereophile antipathy to double-blind tests: "The perceptual psychologists' favorite research tool—the carefully controlled double-blind A/B test—just doesn't seem to work in audio, except when the perceived differences are so great that A/B comparisons aren't necessary anyway. No one seems sure why."

I remember being upset after reading Holt's editorial. He should have slammed Belt outright as a charlatan and a fraud. But he refused to go that far. The bottom line, paraphrased, was "I think it's mostly in your mind, but if you think it sounds good, who am I to argue with you: knock yourself out."

ff123

yup...


am infact a true vinyl-freak myself.. but
well.. the digital age.....

plain & simple: there are many "tweaks" to do on a player or the CD...
in most cases.. it realy help...

but: what does it a top-tweaked combo.. realy do..
when (i guess.. around 63%..) of the cd`s used in
pressing/manufacturing.. are plain crap...

Reading digital data from a cd is not an easy task.
Converting digitgal data to analog sound is not an easy task either.

Most consumer electronic is utter crap. Cheap electronic components have been chosen. It makes perfect sense to save $10 on components if you manufacture a batch of 200,000 units.

It is quite possible that a well designed prototype is horrible because $10 per unit was saved. The second and third generation of a product might be cheaper than the first -- but it also contains cheaper components.

If you have one of these crap products, strange modifications might actually work even if they should not. I have experienced this myself on cheap Denon CD players back in mid 90s.

...

Wtf... whats this about painting the CD with lines etc?!?!?

Now this is really a joke, I wonder where in the evolution these guys got created...

Blind tests ! We need blind tests !

I've seen audio engineers with PhD's and 40 years of experience (so-claimed anyway) advocating degaussing and de-staticizing CD's on the Audioasylum.com "digital" forum. AA seems to be where the nutcases gather, and the more years of experience the greater the delusion (conditioning, I guess). Nothing anyone claims about audio could surprise me anymore. Fart on your CD's for deeper bass, enhanced trombone & tuba instruments and better soundstaging (after everyone else leaves the room)...

Photos - we need photos !!! - Do the lines have to resemble some pattern ? BTW: now imho THIS is just the _ultimate_ audiophile "tweak":
http://www.1388.com/products/cesar.htm

MAN !!! ROTFL !!! this is the laugh i needed today to go to sleep well. big big THANX !!!

I don't buy it. For one thing, a lot of people doing these "strange modifications" and claiming benefits have extremely expensive, top of the line CD players and are also making other delusionary claims like "every power cord has a different 'sound' to it, some AC power cords have more bass, some improve the treble, soundstaging, etc." To put it kindly, these people need to get their head out of the clouds and come back to reality.

HA!!!!! We could have fun with these sorts. . . . . .Perhaps I could try to convince them that microwaving your CD's for 2 seconds before every listen "improves reflectivity" and gives a "deeper soundstage and cleaner highs". Or perhaps have them tackle a vinyl LP with that 300-grit emory paper and a red Sharpie. Hey, at least it gives them a warped sense of satisfaction, even if it is only psychologically induced.

> Try an antistatic fluid on the top of the CD and also on the tray in the CD player. The
> spinning CD creates static electricity which also effects the playback quality. I use the
> Nordost ECCO 3 anti static fluid but other people have had good luck with cheaper
> antistatic sprays.

Humm..., errr...., isn't light a-magnetic? Or I'm wrong? :???

(Puzzled) lol

Light is affected by gravitational fields, but I don't know about magnetic... anyway, that brings up another tweak... if these guys can afford $5,000 AC power cords, maybe they can afford a trip on the space shuttle with their audio gear. Hey, no more gravity to "screw up the sound." And maybe instead of returning to Earth they'll decide to just keep on going...

Light is amagnetic. I were just kidding

My pleasure ... sleep well!

Holy crap.

When I was reading the page, I had a big smile on my face. I thought it was a really nice joke. But then I saw this:

I can't belive it. Do these people actually listen to their music, or are they too busy painting their CD's and tesing AC cables?

I still can't belive this.

I've painted arrows on all my stereo's cables - so that the electrons know where to go.

LOL, hey, and if you want to replace all your resistors with higher-quality parts or buy mini heatsinks for your transistors, and replace those nasty silver magnetic screws with brass, you can totally resolder your circuit boards and "feel" the music better

OH! Forgot my prices!

Resistors: 2$ / piece
Brass Screws: 5$ / piece
lol...

May I interest you in my 100$ Sharpie Deluxe?

I burned an audio cd, ripped it, then ripped it with the sharpie-mod and some sand papering.. I got the same CRC. Damn

Won't the positive holes get confused, completely ruining the sound altogether?

Maybe red arrows one way, and black the other. Make sure you use lead paint though, it will help protect the cables from radiation and other sources of interference =)

gnoshi

unfortunately the tweak only works with pressed CDs :evil:

Light has no electric charge, so it's not sensitive to static charges, but the plastic lens could be pulled or pushed by alternating +/- charges running in front of it.

I don't know if it can affect the sound since I've run no blind test. Without at least either blind tests results, or complete calcultaions of the mechanical effect on the lens from the charge in Coulomb, the force in Newtons, etc, there is no possible conclusion.

I don't believe blindly in those audiophile tweaks, but I don't reject them blindly either. I just want proofs.

Some stuff is just suited to be rejected blindly... like sandpapering CD borders... lmao

I actually use sandpaper on the bottom surface to make the CD thinner, so the laser beam distorts less due refraction. *cough*

Quoting Cable tweak section:

Very little/no insulation: Lets all sing together "There's no insulation, like no insulation, like no insulation, at all". All insulation materials suck. I've taken insulation off wires for years and they almost always sound better naked. Peter Moncrief was one of the first to say that our revered Teflon sucks. Have you noticed the "air dialectric" buzzword lately. More and more people are hanging wires in the air or putting them in large teflon tubes or in highly expanded braids made from Mylar, Polyethylene or Teflon. Some people are using enameled high purity magnet wire with no other insulation.




ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!

I understand with an analog sources how little tweaks can be applied but with digital?

Cheap converters don't do a good job at rejecting jitter, when the digital audio data sent to them has too much jitter, though no errors, the sound can become bad.
Problems with the lens will affect the jitter of the EFM (raw) signal read by the laser.
How jitter in this raw signal can in turn affect the jitter of the decoded data sent to the converter, if it can, is not known for sure (it has not been directly measured). The usual explanation is that the current used for the servo engine that spins the CD (or move the lens, I assume) affects the small power supply of the CD player, which in turn affects the master clock that drives the converter.