TAS Recommended CD Tweak….

Shadorne, there are many audiophiles, even some with credibility, who claim that copies of CDs actually sound better than the originals. How can this be?

If I trust in science then I can only assume it is mostly the placebo effect. In some rare cases, no doubt there may be an explantion. (For example, a wobbly CD might cause the laser tracking to draw power in an oscillatory manner and cause jitter in the DAC via a feedback mechanism from the shared power supply.) As a generality, burned copies of CD's should be the same and indistinguishable from the original. The error correction that Eldartford mentions practically ensures the bit stream read from the disc will be perfect and identical. As I mentioned above, if this were not true then PC's would not work and our whole computing industry and internet would be on its knees.

Shadorne, there are many audiophiles, even some with credibility, who claim that copies of CDs actually sound better than the originals. How can this be?

Another explanation might be that some users CD playback equipment might simply be faulty - to the point where even the disc type has a bearing on the sound. Or that the burning program is not actually making an identical copy (some programs will re-dither re-sample when converting redbook CD data to a PC file on the computer and the then back to a CD redbook file. Some programs may even have bugs.)

I use this SeedeClip and it certainly does alter the sound as it tries to reduce the tens of thousands of flat top clipping on your average modern crap hpercompressed CD track.

BTW - When CD data flat tops then it is possible that the actual waveform it represents is actually BIGGER than CD redbook format specifies and exceeds what D to A converters can handle - at this point a CD is illegal or out of spec (most rock/pop CD's today are out of spec) and it may sound different from one CD player to another (depending on how the D to A converter behaves when trying to reconstruct an illegal signal - one that exceeds the redbook format itself...)

Ozzy...

Did you purchase both the cleaner and the UltraBit solution, or just the UltraBit solution - do you clean your discs prior to adding the UltraBit??

There is quite a bit of online information regarding optical impedance matching. I guess my real skepticism has more to do with my own ability to perceive any difference. I’m one of the oddballs who can’t hear much (if any) difference in cables and tweaks. For only $65.00 I will try it though. I do not expect to hear any REAL improvements. However, there is always that possibility...

I'll let you know if I'm "floored!"

I purchased e bottles of the ulta bit and one of the cleaner.the cleaner thus far has not been used

El, Shadorne, All,

How much error is inherent in error correction? Error correction tries to recreate the original through mathematical prediction, but most predictive mathematical models are not perfect, just good enough for the purpose.

Or is my understanding flawed?

Jim S.