April fool in June ? No this really did work as unbelievable as it may sound !

[kitkat]

OK here is my story.........I was reading another hi-fi forum and someone had posted that his Yamaha M170 after many years of good service had started to take ages to read cd's and sometimes would not play them at all, so this guy was thinking of buying a new player or asking if it was worth fixing as it was probably the laser failing, What someone posted next I thought was a joke.........He said to the guy take the lid off the unit, get a cleen piece of paper and put it over the laser lens and then get a weak magnet like a fridge magnet and place it on the paper and leave for a few seconds, do that and let me know if it now works........Well the guy come back and posted that his player was now working like new and reading cd's in a flash! He then went on and asked how it fixed it, the reply came......even though cd's are plastic and cd players should not get magnetized the labels contain small amounts of metal that over many times of use can cause the laser to become magnetized and cause the sound to deteriorate or for the laser to stop working.

Now my player is a few years old, still sounds really good to me, very clear, sweet volcals, analoge sounding and against my better judgement I decided to demag the laser in this way, as I put the paper over the lens and then rested the magnet on top I was thinking I have proberly done more harm than good, HOW WRONG I WAS.........I have played several albums that I know really well including Stereophonics, Birdy, Rumor and E Goulding now before they souded fine to me but now they sound fantastic, somehow sweeter sounding, more detail, clearer volcals and wider soundstage, OK some of you could say its just a placebo effect but I know these albums really well and I can say without doubt they now sound even better on the same system.

I would love to hear your views on this and if any of you already know about this or have even done the same

 

[abacus]

Always enjoy a good laugh

 

[GSB]

OK here is my story.........I was reading another hi-fi forum and someone had posted that his Yamaha M170 after many years of good service had started to take ages to read cd's and sometimes would not play them at all, so this guy was thinking of buying a new player or asking if it was worth fixing as it was probably the laser failing, What someone posted next I thought was a joke.........He said to the guy take the lid off the unit, get a cleen piece of paper and put it over the laser lens and then get a weak magnet like a fridge magnet and place it on the paper and leave for a few seconds, do that and let me know if it now works........Well the guy come back and posted that his player was now working like new and reading cd's in a flash! He then went on and asked how it fixed it, the reply came......even though cd's are plastic and cd players should not get magnetized the labels contain small amounts of metal that over many times of use can cause the laser to become magnetized and cause the sound to deteriorate or for the laser to stop working.

Now my player is a few years old, still sounds really good to me, very clear, sweet volcals, analoge sounding and against my better judgement I decided to demag the laser in this way, as I put the paper over the lens and then rested the magnet on top I was thinking I have proberly done more harm than good, HOW WRONG I WAS.........I have played several albums that I know really well including Stereophonics, Birdy, Rumor and E Goulding now before they souded fine to me but now they sound fantastic, somehow sweeter sounding, more detail, clearer volcals and wider soundstage, OK some of you could say its just a placebo effect but I know these albums really well and I can say without doubt they now sound even better on the same system.

I would love to hear your views on this and if any of you already know about this or have even done the same

Unfortunatly how can we take your word for it?! :?

Your expectation bias would sugest that it should work and you didn't blind test it :roll:

:rofl:

 

[steve_1979]

expectation bias

+1

 

[Overdose]

The disc contains digital data and if the laser incorrectly reads the disc, you will get stuttering, skips or simply a read error with no sound.

Incorrect reading of a disc does not result in a change in the presentation of the sound, such as change in soundstage or more clarity.

You are imagining things.

 

[damonster]

I have a quicker fix than that .when listening to your music system ,put both hands infront of you palms facing up. Now cup your hands as if you were going to use them to cup water.keeping your hands in this position place your thumps against the back of your ears .this dramatically improves the soundstage and makes your system sound brighter and costs nothing.try it if you don't believe me .

 

[GSB]

I had a cd player(portable toploader)that i took to work,it stoped reading cd's one day,it just kept whirling so i hit it(hard)with a hammer....it smashed the case but i found that if i stuck half a brick ontop it played....still sounded shite tho.

 

[damonster]

I have a quicker fix than that .when listening to your music system ,put both hands infront of you palms facing up. Now cup your hands as if you were going to use them to cup water.keeping your hands in this position place your thumps against the back of your ears .this dramatically improves the soundstage and makes your system sound brighter and costs nothing.try it if you don't believe me .

This is also good if your undecided on swapping copper speaker cables to silver.

 

[stevebrock]

The disc contains digital data and if the laser incorrectly reads the disc, you will get stuttering, skips or simply a read error with no sound.

Incorrect reading of a disc does not result in a change in the presentation of the sound, such as change in soundstage or more clarity.

You are imagining things.

mmmmmm wonder why my NAS into my DAC sounds more detailed and nicer than my CD player into my DAC

No transport!

 

[MajorFubar]

More likely the M170 had a dusty laser and putting the paper on top of it cleaned it. A permanent magnet like a fridge manget won't demagetize anything. In fact if you remember you basic high-school physics classes, it does the exact opposite: the magnetic field from a permanent magnet causes other metal to become magnetized. You need something with an AC current to demagetize metal. Or heat it up a lot.

 

[Overdose]

If the files are identical, ie the NAS is using the CD rips, then there should be no difference as the DAC is common to both.

If the above is true, then you are also probably imagining things.

 

[MajorFubar]

The disc contains digital data and if the laser incorrectly reads the disc, you will get stuttering, skips or simply a read error with no sound.

Incorrect reading of a disc does not result in a change in the presentation of the sound, such as change in soundstage or more clarity.

This is partly true, but partly not. It's not a case of 'a CD is either read perfectly and it plays, or it's not so it doesn't'. Clever processing goes on behind the scenes in a CDP to mask read errors. The stuttering and skipping happens when the read errors are so bad that even the clever processing can do nothing to hide them. Most of the time, the masking happens quite successfully and you don't even notice it's happend. Generally I don't buy into hifi voodoo mumbo jumbo, but I can buy into the the logic that reducing read errors in the first instance improves the chances of the stream of data arriving 'bit-perfect' on its journey from the CD to the DAC, rather than being say 75% 'bit perfect' and 25% 'fudged' to compensate for read-errors. And theoretically, more bit-perfect data-stream might improve the sound. Possibly.

 

[stevebrock]

If the files are identical, ie the NAS is using the CD rips, then there should be no difference as the DAC is common to both.

If the above is true, then you are also probably imagining things.

But the transport isnt't Its all in the transport!!!!!

And I know what I am hearing!

Anyway Im off to play some vinyl cos it sounds way better than any CD or flac or whatever!

 

[Overdose]

The disc contains digital data and if the laser incorrectly reads the disc, you will get stuttering, skips or simply a read error with no sound.

Incorrect reading of a disc does not result in a change in the presentation of the sound, such as change in soundstage or more clarity.

This is partly true, but partly not. Clever processing goes on behind the scenes in a CDP to mask read errors. The stuttering and skipping happens when the read errors are so bad that even the clever processing can do nothing to hide them. Most of the time, the masking happens quite successfully and you don't even notice it's happend. Generally I don't buy into hifi voodoo mumbo jumbo, but I can buy into the the logic that reducing read errors in the first instance improves the chances of the stream of data arriving 'bit-perfect' on its journey from the CD to the DAC, rather than being say 75% 'bit perfect' and 25% 'fudged' to compensate for read-errors. And theoretically, more bit-perfect data-stream might improve the sound. Possibly.

I see where you are coming from, but a read error, masked or not, will be random and not correlated to the music itself, but scattered. Perhaps clarity was a bad example, as any additional artifacts could be said to affect it, but certainly there will not be a general change in the levels or frequency response, or any other general change to the sound.

 

[Overdose]

If the files are identical, ie the NAS is using the CD rips, then there should be no difference as the DAC is common to both.

If the above is true, then you are also probably imagining things.

But the transport isnt't Its all in the transport!!!!!

And I know what I am hearing!

Anyway Im off to play some vinyl cos it sounds way better than any CD or flac or whatever!

The transport is merely reading and sending digital information. It cannot affect the sound in the way you suggest.

 

[MajorFubar]

I see where you are coming from, but a read error, masked or not, will be random and not correlated to the music itself, but scattered. Perhaps clarity was a bad example, as any additional artifacts could be said to affect it, but certainly there will not be a general change in the levels or frequency response, or any other general change to the sound.

Couldn't say as it's definitely not my specialist! I just wanted to point out that reading audio from CDs in not as black and white as some people think, and I can at least buy-into the theory that reducing the read-errors from a CD might have a positive influence the sound, but I wouldn't like to stick my neck out and say exactly how that difference would audibly manifest itself.

 

[stevebrock]

Crikey people have been conned then with transports from the likes of Meridian, Cyrus, Bel Canto -- Dont want to insult you Overdose but I actually think you are wrong - Transports can and do make a difference

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

If the files are identical, ie the NAS is using the CD rips, then there should be no difference as the DAC is common to both.

If the above is true, then you are also probably imagining things.

Sorry but in my case i'm imagining things as well!

Rega DAC USB input provide different outcomes that With COAX or Optical inputs!

A CD played by my Bluray payer (LG BD390 a common BRP) and the same CD riped in my PC with dbpoweramp with NO compression, played by my NAS through UBS into Rega DAC the SQ is better this way.

And i've the same result as the BRP, with SBT through COAX input.

I conclude that the source doesn't have, in this case, a active role.

But the input in Rega DAC does.

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

If the files are identical, ie the NAS is using the CD rips, then there should be no difference as the DAC is common to both.

If the above is true, then you are also probably imagining things.

But the transport isnt't Its all in the transport!!!!!

And I know what I am hearing!

Anyway Im off to play some vinyl cos it sounds way better than any CD or flac or whatever!

At 10 pm ?!

 

[visionary]

On balance, I think OWGA sounds better than HWGA

 

[stevebrock]

At 10 pm ?!

Thats ealry in this house, I really have been canning the vinyl all week - I love it! My RP6 sounds absolutely mint!

 

[cheeseboy]

got some lovely coloured pebbles the op might be interested in

 

[MakkaPakka]

Crikey people have been conned then with transports from the likes of Meridian, Cyrus, Bel Canto -- Dont want to insult you Overdose but I actually think you are wrong - Transports can and do make a difference

If someone can explain how a transport can make an audible difference (other than skipping) then I would be interested to know.

My very cheap, very old CD player can do an admirable good job with scratched discs so it is obviously good at retrieving data.

The blu-ray/dvd/cd combo rewriter drive on my laptop manages to rip (unscratched) discs with 100% confidence and no errors in EAC every time and that is extracting the data at about 10x normal playback speed.

What is an exotic transport going to give me that I'm not getting already?

 

[visionary]

If someone can explain how a transport can make an audible difference (other than skipping) then I would be interested to know.

My very cheap, very old CD player can do an admirable good job with scratched discs so it is obviously good at retrieving data.

The blu-ray/dvd/cd combo rewriter drive on my laptop manages to rip (unscratched) discs with 100% confidence and no errors in EAC every time and that is extracting the data at about 10x normal playback speed.

What is an exotic transport going to give me that I'm not getting already?

Heresy alert!!

Careful my friend, there are some here who would have you burned at the stake or stoned for comments of that nature ;-)

 

[kitkat]

CD/DVD Demagnetization
For a number of years audiophiles have reported improvements in performance after demagnetizing CDs and DVDs. Improved clarity and resolution of fine detail, cleaner top-end and a more developed soundstage are common enhancements. Videophiles offer similar reports of improvement related to picture fidelity, color saturation and detail. There is now research to suggest that demagnetization of computer discs (including CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R and other similar disc media) result in reduced block error rates.

When exposed to magnetic fields inside the CD or DVD player, the disc becomes magnetized. While the levels of magnetism may not be great, they are indeed enough to measurably affect performance, as we shall see a bit later.

But wait a second. How, you may ask, can a CD or DVD become magnetized? Good question. On the surface it doesn’t seem possible, since a CD or DVD is essentially aluminum and polycarbonate, neither of which are ferrous materials. However, the inks used to print the labels have been found to contain elements such as Iron, Nickel and Cobalt, which are indeed easily magnetized. Further, while the substrate is 99% aluminum, it may also contain small amounts of the ferrous material listed above.