Do you demag or destat your CDs/DVDS?

Jea,

Either you missed my point, or didn't care to address it. I'm not talking about the demag product or any other tweak. I'm talking about the term "flat earther." Flat earthers believed the earth was flat because they trusted their own senses and religious beliefs and mistrusted scientific evidence. This parallels the audiophiles who trust their own senses (perceptions) and believe the marketers (of which I include most reviewers) and shun scientific testing.

As for tweaks, I'm one of those who believes every change I make in my system or in my listening room has an effect. If the change is made to the system then the signal is affected. If the change is made to my listening room then the sound waves that reach my ears. If I swap out an IC in the signal path, it has an effect on the signal. If I set a new pillow on the seat next to me it, has an effect on the sound waves reaching my ears. If I change a tube in my amp, it definitely has an effect.

This leads to two questions. Can I hear these differences? And can these differences be measured?

Not all changes I have made were audible to me. I have heard some changes, including cable changes. I have used after market power cables but have not heard any difference, could be bias as I wouldn't expect to.

Whether the changes are measurable will remain a mystery as no one is going to that trouble for me. At this point in my life I no longer find listening to tweaks interesting. Swapping in a new power cable and straining to hear a difference is not important. Years ago I was all into it but no longer. Enjoy.

"This parallels the audiophiles who trust their own senses (perceptions) and believe the marketers (of which I include most reviewers) and shun scientific testing."

That's a pretty big assumption. I trust my own perceptions, but I don't buy marketing/reviews. I stopped reading reviews because I disagree with them more than agree. Shun scientific testing? Not at all. If science can help, I'm all for it. Audio products are made by scientists. (Please don't call me out on that statement with some ridiculous tweak made by a "scientist". Yes, I get that.)

ZD542, I'm not calling anyone out. Although I have met a few Agon members personally, I don't know any who fit that description. But reading through the threads here it does seem as if there are members who do.

My thanks to Jea48 for supplying ample information on the Furutech RD. I notice there are no US or Canadian distributors of the Acoustic Revive RD 3, only overseas sales on Ebay that are not endorsed by Acoustic Revive. I could buy one from the dealer in England, but price is now over $600 USD. I spoke at length with my high-end retailer, here in MN, who swears by the Bedini Quad Clarifier. He states he never uploads a disc to his solid state drive or plays a CD that is not first placed in his Bedini. I trust this guy, who works with the top lines in his store every day and has listened to dozens of different systems he has set up for customers to listen to. If this guy sez it works, that's enough evidence for me--I ordered one.

07-12-14: Jafreeman
I spoke at length with my high-end retailer, here in MN, who swears by the Bedini Quad Clarifier. He states he never uploads a disc to his solid state drive or plays a CD that is not first placed in his Bedini. I trust this guy....

A point to consider, regarding the mention of ripping to an SSD (or other hard drive): If in fact demagnetizing a CD accomplishes anything, and if the explanation of how that might occur is as described in the long quote from IAR which Jim (Jea48) provided on 7-9-11, the resulting benefit would only occur during real-time playback in a CD player or transport. The effect described in that explanation has no applicability to playback of a computer file that has been ripped from a CD. And that is especially true if the rip is performed using software that assures bit perfect accuracy, as it should be.

The IAR explanation, btw, involving introduction of electrical noise into circuitry in the CD player or transport, is the most plausible explanation I can think of for how these things MIGHT make a difference. And if that explanation is correct, whether or not a benefit will be realized, and its degree, figures to be highly dependent on the happenstance of the design of the particular player or transport.

Regards,
-- Al