Adding weights to CD/preamp

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Jimboo

Well-known member
You can tell all that without hearing it play a note? Wow!

(Seriously, I don't think you are understanding me, so best leave it at that perhaps.)
Unless you are meaning something different to what you are writing then yes. Super loud playing causes problems soooooooo
Speakers too close to source soooooo
I know what it sounds like for you with all the fiddling because you told us.
99.9% of people on here have never had this problem or understand what you believe.
The advice I gave is just standard.
You have a hi fi problem you go to the hi fi store?
No you go to see an isolation guru , what did you think he would say?
Why not just try the usual methods? Do you have a pic of the room.
 

Mike Hunt

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Jan 22, 2020
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My, we're both sneery and certain about everything, aren't we?
I can't speak for you but I certainly am, especially so when I believe someone is talking nonsense.
The affects of vibration are readily comprehensible to anyone with a mind that's even half open
It seems to me that some people's minds are so open that some important bits may have fallen out.
I believe you're massively overestimating the effect vibrations might have on a transformer, but that is neither here nor there, because it doesn't explain this...
"The improvements are many, in that bass is deeper and tauter and stereo separation is clearly improved "
This is the part I was ridiculing, and yes, my reply was perhaps a little childish and dismissive, but you say this, then go on to state...
My background was the physical sciences, and I built an electrostatic speaker as an A level project, so I have more than an inkling about how to be objective and analytical.
When you clearly aren't being 'objective and analytical' in any way that would hold up in scientific circles.
Apart from possibly the loose lead anecdote, you didn't perform a single blind test, far less an ABX test, so how can you possibly consider the tests to be reliable?
There are many ways to test your hypothesis. I guess the simplest way would be to record and compare waveforms at varying volume levels, both with and without the lead weights, but if you do insist on using your ears, then to remove expirimenter expectancy from the equation, an absolute minimum of multiple blind tests would be necessary, (but preferably ABX tests), before your conclusion could be considered to be unbiased.
 
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Mike, thanks for saying what you really think - nothing I will criticise in approach to that post. I know it is hardly something that I could write a paper about - but the only way of doing a blind test would be to get someone else to keep adding and removing them. There's no-one else in the house who would want that responsibility, or to whom I would entrust it. What I mean with that is that my education and background mean that my capacity for self delusion is pretty well-controlled (although I am sure someone who was self-deluding might hold that self-delusion too!)

Nothing has fallen out of my mind, other than what I last went upstairs for.

I accept that what I describe seems an unusual step - I guess I'd hoped for a response further removed from 'that doesn't seem right to me, so it must be rubbish' than I've had overall. But thinking about it, this is how it has always been. I am or have been a member of lots of forums - cars, RS, meteorites, hell there's even one for remote controls. In my experience, none are as prickly (at least in some quarters) as those that deal with hifi, and none have as many users who are so dismissive of things of which they have no first hand experience. It's a pity, as it rather takes the fun out of it.
 
Actually, I'll add a caveat to that last paragraph - I am a member of a specific forum relating to my car, and whilst it's not really the sort of place you dip into for a chat, it's a mine of information about technical matters. Unless you refer to the seats (which Clarkson described as ones you wouldn't get thrown out of in a hurry) as 'wingbacks' as I saw one or two others do. If you did that, all bets were off and the sheer bile thrown out by a few long-time lurkers was genuinely startling/saddening.
 
I would be extremely impressed if, without knowing, you could reliably say whether the weight was installed or not. In other words Simon, I'm saying that you were expecting to hear a difference, so you did.

Interestingly enough I was listening yesterday and thought things didn't sound quite as good as I thought they would, and wondered if there's an ennui that can come when you've made a few improvements but then stop. I took the lid off the CD and some of the suspended weights had come loose. I've reattached and will have another listen later when glue's set.

I realise that none of this proves a thing, but it is interesting.

To those who think this is all cobblers and have already told me so, please don't feel the need to tell me again. I was listening the first time around!
 
D

Deleted member 188516

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i believe most if not all high end kit takes minimising vibrations, be it external via isolation feet or internal via damping, seriously.

check out the designs of mbl, nagra or specifically msb where the internal components of their dac products are located in there own chambers within the case work.

ultimately if this tweak cost less than an upgrade to your cd player would have and your happy with the results thats all that matters !
 
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Mike Hunt

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Jan 22, 2020
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Interestingly enough I was listening yesterday and thought things didn't sound quite as good as I thought they would, and wondered if there's an ennui that can come when you've made a few improvements but then stop. I took the lid off the CD and some of the suspended weights had come loose. I've reattached and will have another listen later when glue's set.

Again? I hope you used better glue this time?

I've been using a few specific tracks when I make changes and there was a point where I thought that things were sounding a little less good. When I took the lid off, the weights had detached. That was when I was relying on self-adhesive qualities, and why ones that are suspended need gluing.
 

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