How to remove harshness from my digital gear

RL - there are all kinds of things that make it harder for a CD transport to read a CD, including:

1) out of round CD
2) warped CD
3) mal-formed pits
4) static charge - creates forces on the head
5) electron energy level in the polymer - can be affected by exposing to certain light frequencies
6) coating on the CD - just like multicoated lenses - changes refraction and makes it easier for the laser to penetrate the polymer
7) edge treatments - reduces the reflected energy inside the polymer

Try any of these on a truly resolving system and you will hear an improvement.

This is one reason why I don't bother with CD's anymore. Just play tracks on my SS drive.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Rrog, I can certainly understand what you mean, everything's relative. Weird the way we get used to the distortions , eh?

I'm surprised nobody as ever discussed the use of DSP effects processing with computer audio files. For example, I have used an effect within Foobar called PSP Vintage Warmer with excellent results. Even while processing audio tracks on the fly, I have never experienced drop outs or pops and clicks due to lack of computing horsepower. In my experience, just tweaking some of the presets I was able to get remarkably close to the tube sound that I like while rolling off the highs to satisfactory levels to where my ears experience no loss in quality. I agree that jitter reduction is fundamental, however I guess you can throw a number of expensive cables, unorthodox tweaks and buffering devices at your setup but I don't honestly see how it's any different then just altering the file to your taste digitally. I also think that a clever enough developer can most likely replicate the "house sound" of any brand of audio gear and create a sound signature that can be applied via DSP effect such that swapping gear in an out of your system would seem pointless. Good way to kill an engaging hobby, I guess - but aren't we pretty much "there yet"?

Good comments from Audioengr regarding CD read problems, but as a Redbook man with an ARC CD5, I find it ironic that as the demand for CD is dying, the mastering and production quality of a CD is at an all-time high. (very high quality for jazz and classical).

"06-23-13: Geoffkait
Rrog, I can certainly understand what you mean, everything's relative. Weird the way we get used to the distortions , eh?"

Like the distortions in vinyl?