9 hi-fi tricks you might not believe affect sound quality (but they do)

[BROKEN]

I've been an audiophike for almost 50 years. I still can't believe this BS your spouting. Pausing the CD and then starting playing again makes it sound different? I suppose you think that there are aliens living among us,, the US neverlanded on the moon, and you're probably an anti-vaxxer too. Freaking ridiculous

Excuse me!? What person start spewing political BS?
Healthcare workers such as hospital nurses and doctors aren't even showing up to work in NY because they don't want the vax

 

[Acalthu]

I'd like a technical answer to stopping vs pausing a CD. When you press 'Pause', you're literally just suspending the data stream into the DAC, nothing more, nothing less. As for the person who mentioned early CD players which had to be stopped to clear its buffers, that's how it works today as well, i.e. the buffer will always contain data while the player is playing music. It means nothing to clear a buffer, since they can't hold "dirty" data (you'd hear it instantly). Ideally the buffer should be fully utilized anyway, because it helps when reading dirty and scratched discs. But stop vs pause? Utter bollocks.

 

[daddyo]

With old ears and damaged hearing I can't tell audio differences between B&W speakers and Klipsch speakers so I can ignore the debate about bike tubes and wooden thingy's. Saves me time and $$$

 

[picard2bridge]

> I'm sorry What Hi-Fi, publishing this nonsense has severely hurt your reputation.

I think that boat sailed some time ago with their cable BS, obsessive Rega fanboy-ism, etc.

But you're right, this article has some excellent examples of utter nonsense. And some things that are perfectly fine. It's the inability of a specialist magazine to tell one from the other that most damages their credibility, and had me checking to see whether it was published on April 1.

 

[Rezonater]

While I respect the experience and knowledge of the ‘seasoned’ audiophiles here - any audiophile worth their weight in salt knows that almost everything makes a difference, down to room temperature and what scent of candle you light. If you have a brain, you are subject to perception and we all process information differently.
Audio-Vodoo exists and not everything can be measured and quantified. While some of these tips might not be my experience - I’m not going to rule out they aren’t someone else’s. If you took 100 of the same resistors, at some measurement they will all be different. Now apply that to caps, traces, solder, wire, power supply, chassis, etc… you will have a very similar sound, but not scientifically exact for the same product. Point being - this isn’t an exact science and every situation is different on some level - however minute. And anyone claiming to be an audiophile who has never been surprised by an unexpected result… is full of it.