Glasse CD lathe Sound mprover - anyone tried this?

I remember years ago reading about a similar lathe - maybe it was even the same one but with a different marketing angle. However the idea of this one was to trim the CD so that the edges were perfectly equidistant from the centre (ie correct CDs whose hole is slightly off centre - like some of my flappy Decca ones...) rather than bevelling the edges. I believe that HiFiPlug recently did a positive review on the Audiodesk lathe.
I do believe that many of these tweaks work, albeit not all offer value for money in terms of the improvement achieved. However it is worrying that the manufacturers do not bother to industrialise simple changes (green edges, bevelled edges) which are suppose ot make such a difference. Surely if you invent one of these things your first port of call to get rich would be the big labels or CD pressers rather than trying to flog a few dozen over the Net?

 

Congratulations on pulling out the 'even my wife heard the difference' card.

Always a good one.

 

I can better that - so did the dog, I could tell by the way her ears twitched, she's a smart dog, oh non-believer ;-)

 

I do believe that many of these tweaks work, albeit not all offer value for money in terms of the improvement achieved. However it is worrying that the manufacturers do not bother to industrialise simple changes (green edges, bevelled edges) which are suppose ot make such a difference. Surely if you invent one of these things your first port of call to get rich would be the big labels or CD pressers rather than trying to flog a few dozen over the Net?[/QUOTE]

An extremely good point which I ponderd over myself - however how expensive would it be to modify pressing gear etc?

 

It is just anoying that CD has these traits AT ALL. We should all be glad when all our music comes from reclocked memory sticks or drives instead of a linear optical medium.

 

Inspired by the idea of trimming the noisy flab off my CD's edges, I took a belt sander to a Carpenters CD to create a nice bevelled edge, and it sounds a lot better now.

 

It's important to make sure you use proper audiophile-standard RAM when using a computer as a music server. Too many people throw in any old unbranded s**t and expect it to work - no attention paid to dropped bits, jitter, skin effect, dielectric etc. etc...

From my own experiments I've found that the widely-available Corsair RAM can give good, musical results as long as careful attention is paid to setup. I find the PC2700 (333MHz) DDR memory gives the best results - any faster gives more detail but produces a rather 'artificial' effect. In my system a 256MB module in slot 0 in combination with a 512MB in slot 2 is optimal. Do not under any circumstances use adjacent RAM slots on your motherboard - make sure there's always a space between RAM modules or you'll kill the tune stone dead, guaranteed.

On most motherboards you can improve sound quality by removing the clips that hold the RAM modules in place - these seem to have a 'restricting' effect on the music, and when you take them off you'll hear a great improvement in air and flow. (You'll need to use audiophile silver solder to attach your RAM chips, obviously.)

 

Pete I am going to assume you are taking the piss.

Either that or you have a beard and smell a bit.

 

I'd also recommend filing off the edges of the RAM modules - the side opposite the gold finger typically sticks out a bit and removing the unnecessary board brings a small but worthwhile improvement. Further space and clarity of the sound can be achieved by drilling away the unused space between the memory chips themselves, but obviously you've got to be careful not to take out any tracks.

I can only assume you haven't tried it. I wish people wouldn't comment on things they haven't heard WITH THEIR OWN EARS.

 

maybe we can do a bulk buy.

put me down for one too.

unless maybe we can diy one with a jig and an angle grinder.

 

Remember I'm living in another country where one doesn't have such high VAT like you have. :MILD:
If that thing doesn't work over here I'm sure someone will buy it from me with a 40% discount of the German price, which I believe is less than the english one.

 

I had a bakeoff back in May with no less than 8 wigwammers turning up and one of them is a dealer of hi-fi accessories. Amongst the kit he brought with him were one of these CD skimmers and an Auric Illuminator kit. My long term test CD is Dire Straits "Calling Elvis" which I know intimately considering I must have heard it upwards of 1,000 times and no surprise either that I have 3 original copies of it, so of course one of them got the "treatment" then compared with an original untampered copy.

There was a difference for the better, with added detail and ambience to the music, increased seperation between instruments, perhaps just a tad less background noise too, which 8 other pairs of ears agreed with. It was not a huge difference by any means, but in the great scheme of things it's another positive tangible tweak that adds to the whole experience and if you have a large music collection that you regularly listen to then it's a worthwhile investment. I don't have a huge CD collection so I wouldn't go beyond the handful of treated ones I had done free for me. If you have a few CD's that "sound good" with your hi-fi system and you impress your mates with then it isn't worthwhile spending that sort of money. To the cynics amongst you - you really don't know what you are talking about

 

Finally, a sensible objective response from Frank - thanks Frank. I've spent a lot on my hi-fi and wouldn't have believed I could get several extra miles of quality but this funny little gadget does it and since I have a ot of CDs I really listen to repeatedly to be able to get them into another league ha got to be worth it - that and a little sideline in lathing others favourite CDs for a small fee!!!;-)

 

Again, you also should definitely try the Nespa/Nespa Pro. It is said to offer even greater improvements then the Glass unit (alone). Then treat the CD with Auric Illuminator and demagnetize it with Furutech...

No kidding...

 

Frankly, whether or not these processes would add anything, I'm sure I'd add much more musical enjoyment to my collection by spending the hundreds of pounds on expanding my collection.

 

A rather subtle way of saying: "FFS, just listen to the music!"

 

Quite!

 

you wouldn't be able to see it - think about it; blue whales don't just live in the sea because the serpentines too small and that time thunderbird 2 went down in the jungle, even international rescue gave up looking for it

 

Fair point about expanding a collection.....However - what if one was able to hear MORE of the music through a simple gizmo and how is this any different to upgrading speakers, cables etc?. Personally I'd rather have access to, say, 50 clear emotionally involving recordings than a 1000 that sounded simply ok - if that was the way to go I'd just have the radio on in the background. I think the just buy more recordings and listen to the msuic philosophy kind of shoots itself in the foot as this is supposed to be a HI - FI forum (ie High Fidelity). It's LISTENING to the music that I'm actually interested in funnily enough.

Anyway - thanks for all the comments - what I have learnt from this experience is that those who debunk the lathe idea haven't actually heard it and those that are supportive have experience of a range of these tweaks which to my mind concludes the matter. My original question was after all whether anyone had actually had experience of this device and I think I'm going to buy one! I don't know whether anyone would be interested to hear how I get on. . . . ?

I thank you one and all!

 

Might be a tad overkill - I'd then be tempted to run it through the car wash