It Pegged the Needle on My "BS Meter". Now, I'm A Believer. Ever Happen to You?


Okay, here you are. Feeling pretty good about yourself. Your high end audio knowledge base is extensive. Ears fine-tuned. You can sling words around like "dampening factor", "air gap flux density", and throw in the occasion "dark background" or "micro-dynamic" just to let those around you know you’re not a high performance audio lightweight.

Then, there it is: you are presdented with the utterly ridiculous. After the initial automatically triggered chuckle, the "reasonable" part of your brain assembles a list of the number of reasons why this makes no sense at all. You hit the eject button and move on to more sane topics, like alien shape shifting. But, the topic gets revisited. Most likely an acquaintance or industry associate asks: "Have you tried this?" You put on your best poker face and attempt to keep a friendship intact while explaining in no uncertain terms why they are out of their cotton-pickin’ mind.

After defending your space and putting up your best efforts to not come within 100 meters of this "thing", you give in to the pressure(s) and give it a listen. And then ... "what the heck just happened?!!" You are flabbergasted. Not only did it make an improvement. You have to look at the guys you just labeled as certified lunatics -- and admit they were right.

Ever happen to you?

The first, and most memorial for me .....

Monster Cable CD Sound Rings

The sonics first generation CD players were not, uh, as advertised. They had more grain than a belt sander with 60 grit attached. A bit later Yamaha introduced a new (lower priced) player with "oversampling" that filed the burrs off a bit But, still not even close to an analog experience in my view.

Then the Monster rep showed up and dropped off a little package of CD Sound Rings. Per the rep, these little boogers reduce "jitter" in CDs and make them sound better. I just couldn’t hide the obvious smirk, and "promised" to listen to them. He left. They sit on the desk along with literature, open invoices, and a pretty full todo list. I’m not sure what provided the nudge for me to give them a listen. But, I finally opened the package, stuck one (literally) to a CD, and closed the drawer. Music started playing. It was at that precise moment that CDs became listenable for me. And, opened the window for a lifetime of open-minded, audio experimentation.

Similar experience(s) anyone?

128x128waytoomuchstuff
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I don't recall the "Sound Rings" but did experiment with the PWB Rainbow Foil.

After placing it on a few CD's with mixed results (some good) I ended up placing 3 squares of the foil on a few CD Stat-Mats (a commercial CD add on mat that did offer a slight improvement in SQ on many discs).

I gave one away and lost the other years ago (ended up in a book to be flattened and got lost in the shuffle of the thousands and thousands of books we own).

DeKay

I still have CD's with the monster CD rings glued to them. Yes, they were effective, but not as good as the thin black stretch-on reference bands that were made by a different company I think.

The Philips CD clamp in my Jay's Audio CDT3 MK3 probably has enough mass already to achieve a "flywheel effect."

I think that one of the best ideas was the Pioneer rigid clamping system which actually eliminated the need for these accessories.