How I tamed digital glare.


For months I have been trying to eliminate digital glare in the my system, which showed up most noticably in the upper middle frequency vocal range, especially female vocals. I tamed some by replacing the stock fuse in my dac with HifiTuning Supreme Cu on the sage advice of Chris Van Haus of VH Audio, resulting in a significant improvement in tonal density, detail and clarity. So far, so good. Today I lightly dusted the laser lens in my CEC transport with a microfiber cloth and was astonished to discover a substantial improvement! And the laser lens and drive compartment appeared clean to begin with (in a smoke free environment). I tried cleaning contacts, swapping power cords and interconnects, rolling the tube in my MHDT dac, and so forth, but this simple protocol was more effective than any of those experiments. I suppose results may vary as every system is unique, but for me this simple tweak was revelatory: greater clarity and a signifcant reducton of hash. Wish I had thought of tt in the beginning; it would have saved me considerable time and frustration.
pmboyd
I tamed the digital glare I was hearing when I went from a CD player to a music server.  I'm not trying to knock CD players, just saying in my system, files played back through a server sound smoother and more refined with no hardness or glare....that is unless it's on the recording.

@gulpson 

I learned that our posts and the posts of the person we were discussing were removed at the request of someone on this thread.  I still think anything said in an offensive manor should be removed regardless of how much progress the offender has made in his/her communicating skills.
Post removed 
We know that glare and other types of noise and distortion in CD playback are produced by a number of problems inherent in CD players generally - you know, susceptibility to vibration, the vibration of the CD itself even when the player is isolated, and distortion produced by background scattered laser light getting into the photodetector. I use the word we editorially.
geoffkait thanks, you hit the nail on the head.....Also to clarify, if a recording is bad, a music server won't help.
Post removed