Cheap tweaks...What would YOU reccomend?

Jes,
The Alesis model you mention sells for $800 but has many features meant for professional sound engineer and seems geared for doing sound studio work.

I wonder if the Reality Check CDR duplication deck mentioned in current Positive Feedback article designed specifically for audiophiles to copy/improve CDs can do even better job for less money? Have you or friends tried this unit?

Jes45,

I would caution any over-reliance on one parameter to evaluate CD quality - in your case, Block Error Rate.

This counts error frames, so it counts 1 if an error frame contains only one bad bit; and similarly it counts 1 if the entire contents of the frame is erroneous.

BLER testing, according to ISO-10149, requires an average over a 10 second interval. This may give a less than accurate indication of quality should there be severely localized degeneration.

There are many CD parameters that are measured to estimate the quality of a CD. If all of these measure well, and the BLER is good, then you have a good disc.

Regards,

Megasam, No I have not tried the Reality Check duplicator yet. I did have my Masterlink modified by Tube Research Labs for $550 which made a HUGE sonic difference, especially on the quality of copies now made. Info is at www.tuberesearchlabs.com Stephaen Harrell of 6moons.com has a review of the TRL mods at that site.

These two are, really good tweaks.......................... www.dakiom.com and (Mi-Rollers)from...... www.mihorn.com . I froze both these tweaks made them even better with my Freezer Tweak.......First you put your CD's, DVD's, cables, or components in a air tight bag...I used two good trash bags and then used a vacuum cleaner to suck the air out of the bag........then take a towel to wrap around the bag and (leave the towel wraped around the bag thru all these steps).......next, put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours......after that put it in the freezer for 72 hours.....(make sure the freezer is set at its coldest settings).....after that put it in the refrigerator again for 24 hours......after that put it in the coldest part of the house for 24 hours.......after that you are ready to ENJOY!.......Richard Patrick

A very large glass of Basil Hayden's will make any system sound smoother. Guaranteed.

Dean.