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Black Discus - Free Sample Alert

I recently requested a free sample of Mad Scientist Audio's black discus tweaks.
They arrived from New Zealand in a week! I was rather hoping that they would not work since cash for tweaking is tight, but, alas, they were remarkably effective in doing what they claim to do. The pucks were placed on the positive speaker outputs of the amps and were held in place with a dab of blu-tac. There was an immediate increase in apparent soundstage and the perceived 'air' around the instruments. I also felt that some low level details were more clearly resolved. I have no idea how it works. The web site has some info, but the fact is that it did work for me. Now I just have to figure out how to rob the cash from the budget to fund getting the full on product. As a side note, Mad Scientist states that the samples are a scaled down version of the actual product to facilitate mailing via letter post to hold down costs. That seems reasonable to me and I'm hoping for a greater result when the real deal Black Discus products arrive. I'll post a follow up, then. In the mean time, order free samples at your wallet's risk.
shyood
ross_carlson
4 posts
 
I tried some BlackDiscus free samples. I gotta buy more of these!

My first holy S#!T moment was from placing a small BlackDiscus on the XMOX chip of a WaveIO USB to IS2 board. The music was more real and flowing. I'm going to cut up one these to fit them on some DAC chips.

Putting the large BlackDiscus on the parafeed transformers of my DIY 12B4 SET amps cleaned up the sound so much that I no longer have to convince my wife that I need to install "ugly" room treatment pads in the corners.

I also placed them on flat IEC power cord connectors with a smoothing and cleaning up of the sound without any loss of detail.

Either they help or do nothing. While the entire musical spectrum is benefited, the bass is especially brought into focus. This is an affordable no-brainer tweak.
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,579 posts
 
Here is my take on the Black Discus.
The free discs are interesting, they do add a little improvement based on where they are placed.

But, I was surprised when I was going to order some that they seem to be quite pricey.
davidpritchard's avatar
davidpritchard
866 posts
 
Ozzy how can the Black Discus be pricey when what you are using were free!. Two medium size discs are $80.00 including shipping from New Zealand. The bigger the disc the greater the effect. On my audio system the two free sample discs placed on the front of my Marantz SACD player made a dramatic improvement in soundstage quality. Trying the other locations mentioned at the Black Discus Audio website, the effect was excessive. However on my home theater system a teriffic improvement was seen and heard. Medium discs were placed on the IEC end of two Pangea AC 14 power cords ( powering the sound bar and TV), one on the HDMI cable going into the TC connection ( major visual improvement), and finally one disc on the circuit breaker to the room with the home theater.

As the web site states the effect is hit or miss. At certain spots the effect can be stunning and I think the possible improvement is worth the time and money to try them. The cost to try them is $20.00 in round trip postage.

Part of their cost is sending "free" samples to audiophiles.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,511 posts
 
...and here is my take.... I tried putting the discs all over the system. When I placed one on the power cord input of the CD player, it made an appreciable difference. (Ayre C5xemp). There was more 3 dimensional presentation...an elimination of tizzy highs (although I didn't know they were "tizzy" before....it was kind of like putting on a new prescription pair of glasses where you were satisfied with the old ones. I was sent 2 discs, and try as I might, I could not find another place that in the system that would want me to buy more. I eventually stuck it on the back of the case of the preamp (Ayre K1xe)...and it was maybe a bit better, but not demonstrably so. I tried them on speakers, power amp, cable, anything I could, but the best place was on the CD player.
justubes2
203 posts
 
As anyone compared them to Alan Mahers products. They look to be some polymer crystal/quartz mixture.

I have felt crystal based tweaks do seem to have both positive and negative effects.
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