@crymeanaudioriver Your statement concerning Amir’s TESTING of the CD trimmer is IRRELEVANT to my statement made of MY EXPERIENCE using it. The hatred and condescension in the replies to my experience was 100% uncalled for.
I am not upset with Amir’s testing although I disagree with it’s relevance over listening in different rooms with different systems (most often published and on-line reviewers indicate the equipment and multiple choices to test by ear, the equipment such as multiple amplifiers to match with speakers or multiple speakers to match with an amp, etc).
I am extremely upset with character assassination, defamation, perverted twisting of neutral statements/personal experiences which degrade the person stating them and the statement. That’s what he has now done on Audiogon.
As to your 100% certainty that all pressed CDs sound alike is up for discussion, not 100% certain. My friends in the manufacturing/stamping of CDs note the variation, somewhat like the variation in pressing of vinyl. My friends and I note that some variation in pressed CDs occur despite the manufacture in the SAME facility. Using the same digital information at different manufacturing plants can result in greater variation (I have 2 complete sets of the Mercury Living Presence classical CD reissues and it is very obvious about 15 of the early pressings sound very different). My friends and I have maybe a dozen copies of Kids Songs for Grown-Ups that there are variations in sound, relating to dynamics and tonal balance.
Now you can call that nonsense but here at Audiogon we can freely discuss our experiences, despite some test measurements that could maintain that there are no measurable differences.
As to reading CDs, I have tried numerous three beam laser transports using computer drives and find them inferior to old, single beam, single pass reading transports. I use one and so do my friends. I have heard some very expensive modern transports that sound great but at great cost. I haven’t heard all of them obviously. However, I use an extremely upgraded Arcam Delta 250 transport (15+ caps, resistors, 10 regulators) which uses the Philips CDM 9 laser system. On this site, we have had multiple forums on transports. My alternative choices to hear are the Jays Audio and Proceed transports. I tried the PS Audio, which I liked in concept but disliked in the resulting sound, possibly due to poor implementation such as cheap computer drive and/or parts. The same with Emotiva. They make well constructed, inexpensive, often good design quality CD players but use computer grade parts rather than audio grade parts. Again, just because computer grade parts measure great does not mean they sound great. I have had extensive experience with Marantz CD players new and old. In the past 12 years, they tend to have a less resolving and warmer tonal balance which is pleasant but inadequate for me (or my friends who also tried them). The 35 year old Kyocera 310 and 410 units, especially with upgraded power caps, sound more open and musically satisfying. They have ceramic vibration elements and a sapphire spindle using a single pass drive. I have four friends who use that as their main CD player and I use one in my secondary system.
