Getting the Best out of CD

[LinnKiwi]

I am aware of the "dark cloud" that hangs over CD nowadays. However CD can still give really good playback and I wondered if others have tried some of these things:

Firstly: Almost all cds sound better if you copy the whole disk onto a CD-R and play that instead of the original. I discovered this out when making a compilation album one day. This holds true for many types of CD-R (tried about 6 types) and also with different software programs.

Secondly: A friend leant me a "Disk Lathe" and this device - which trims plastic off the edge of the disk, really seems to make them sound better.
(I have no interest in the company that makes these)

http://www.audiodesksysteme.de/index.php?kat=10_17_6

I played a CD-R that had been "disk lathed" to my local dealer and he was impressed, but mentioned that most of his efforts were going into setting up DS systems now days...

Happy Listening!

[plug 65]

(2009-11-24 23:39)LinnKiwi Wrote:  I am aware of the "dark cloud" that hangs over CD nowadays. However CD can still give really good playback and I wondered if others have tried some of these things:

Firstly: Almost all cds sound better if you copy the whole disk onto a CD-R and play that instead of the original. I discovered this out when making a compilation album one day. This holds true for many types of CD-R (tried about 6 types) and also with different software programs.

Secondly: A friend leant me a "Disk Lathe" and this device - which trims plastic off the edge of the disk, really seems to make them sound better.
(I have no interest in the company that makes these)

http://www.audiodesksysteme.de/index.php?kat=10_17_6

I played a CD-R that had been "disk lathed" to my local dealer and he was impressed, but mentioned that most of his efforts were going into setting up DS systems now days...

Happy Listening!

LinnKiwi the ds would be next to useless without cd. i strongly disagree with you about a cd r sounding better than the real thing,how can it sound better than the artist/producers original intensions? perhaps your system is adding something to the original sound when you play it because a rip is a bit for bit copy of the originai and should not sound different as far as i am aware.

plug 65

[dlorde]

(2009-11-24 23:39)LinnKiwi Wrote:  I am aware of the "dark cloud" that hangs over CD nowadays. However CD can still give really good playback and I wondered if others have tried some of these things:

Firstly: Almost all cds sound better if you copy the whole disk onto a CD-R and play that instead of the original. I discovered this out when making a compilation album one day. This holds true for many types of CD-R (tried about 6 types) and also with different software programs.

Secondly: A friend leant me a "Disk Lathe" and this device - which trims plastic off the edge of the disk, really seems to make them sound better.
(I have no interest in the company that makes these)

http://www.audiodesksysteme.de/index.php?kat=10_17_6

I played a CD-R that had been "disk lathed" to my local dealer and he was impressed, but mentioned that most of his efforts were going into setting up DS systems now days...

Happy Listening!

Go for it - if copying to CD-R and trimming the edges off your disks do it for you, go ahead. You could also try the green ink and some of Peter Belt's rainbow stick-on tweaks. There's no end to the stuff you can mess with if you've got the money and the time.

Many people believe there is a correlation between the perceived improvements and listener suggestibility, but you can test this relatively easily by getting a friend or partner to give you a blind test - if you can tell the difference and prefer the tweaked version when you don't know which is which, you'll know for sure you're not wasting your time and money, and at the same time you'll have done something that's never been demonstrated before.

[manicm]

I too concur that CD copies to me have never sounded better than the originals.

[LinnKiwi]

If you are still interested, try Verbatum "Vinyl" CD-R and Exact Audio Copy.

[daveredman]

CD Copies will never sound better than original pressed ones. The copies can have burning errors with disc imperfections, and could introduce others errors that cause the copy to sound worse in my opinion.

Its best to rip from an original to hard disk in flac format which is a bit copy.

All media will sound better in the original writer/copier, the same for all types of media (tapes, videos etc). As for lathing a CD, well all this will reduce is the diameter of the CD so reducing the vibrations caused by the CD spinning and could make the laser less prone to errors while reading...

[linnfomaniac]

or buy a cd12 ! I REALLY REGRET SELLING MINE !
Ok the akurate ds does sound better but it certainly doesn't look or feel better and I like the tactile experience of using the physical media. I have even gone and brought another cd player and one day when funds permit and the time is right I will buy another cd12

[Warren]

(2009-11-25 23:34)daveredman Wrote:  CD Copies will never sound better than original pressed ones. The copies can have burning errors with disc imperfections, and could introduce others errors that cause the copy to sound worse in my opinion.

I recall when audio CD writers first came out people found that making copies of CDs made them sound better. The reasoning being you were getting something made individually, rather than a CD that was the hundredth produced by the same stamper.

[daveredman]

(2009-11-25 23:42)Warren Wrote:  

(2009-11-25 23:34)daveredman Wrote:  CD Copies will never sound better than original pressed ones. The copies can have burning errors with disc imperfections, and could introduce others errors that cause the copy to sound worse in my opinion.

I recall when audio CD writers first came out people found that making copies of CDs made them sound better. The reasoning being you were getting something made individually, rather than a CD that was the hundredth produced by the same stamper.

I still can't see (hear) or (digitally) understand how you can make a digital stream sound better with a copy, something must be added in the process...

The only technical reason I would agree on is that the standard press, over time etc maybe of such poor quality that decent audio players have trouble reading, so they can be copied with average 'lower' spec (read anything) cd r/w drives in a pc's, and then can be copied to clean CDR's that may 'stablise' with 'higher' tolerance write lasers, making those copies more accurate and readable in an audio player later.

[Frog]

For that matter, how can a DS sound better...unless it has a better D/A converter in it? You rip a FLAC to a hard drive using one of the cheapest transports known to man (the one on your computer), at high speed, and then feed the same bits that are on the CD (+ errors) into a D/A converter, why should that sound better than if you just use a good transport on the DS's D/A converter? I suppose you could be doing some sort of error correction but to my knowledge there isn't any, and what would you compare it to...another copy with it's own errors?

Frog

(2009-11-25 23:49)daveredman Wrote:  

(2009-11-25 23:42)Warren Wrote:  

(2009-11-25 23:34)daveredman Wrote:  CD Copies will never sound better than original pressed ones. The copies can have burning errors with disc imperfections, and could introduce others errors that cause the copy to sound worse in my opinion.

I recall when audio CD writers first came out people found that making copies of CDs made them sound better. The reasoning being you were getting something made individually, rather than a CD that was the hundredth produced by the same stamper.

I still can't see (hear) or (digitally) understand how you can make a digital stream sound better with a copy, something must be added in the process...