I'm new to all this, and i have no idea how lazers read data off cd or how they store it and process it. and my engineering is pretty mediocre too, and my electronics, none existent.
But here's the thing.
If the hole in the centre of the CD is more likely to be accurate than the unused rough edge of the CD, then trimming the outer edge to make it more concentric to the centre hole is bound to improve concentricity.
so we have a smoother spinning CD.
Now maybe in some systems, the consistentcy this brings, mechnically, and electronically down the line to servos and stuff, might help the sound. you know like patting your head and rubbing your stomach, either is easy on it's own, but more difficult at the same time.
Maybe there's cd mechs out there that re-read data many times and store the closest-average of all the reads, maybe these mechs gain little benefit from the lathed disc as they get more chances for a correct read, or ask for a sample guess from elsewhere in the system less often.
Maybe there are crap mechs that are guessing all the time so need any help they get.
Or maybe in reality cd players are mechanical and electronic in nature and the two are so interwoven, improvements in one area always effect the other and alter the output....
Either way i'd love to hear some fixed disks.
The only way to truly find out is to save out the binary data from cd player before it goes through the dac, I2s (is that what its called?) and then compare two identical sections from treated and untreat disc
I'd bet my girlfriend that they will be more different than consecutive reads of the same discs. Didnt what's-hi-face in HFN do something similar while back.
Lets not get too hung up on the manufacturers description of how these things work...
As someone with significant experience of positioning products within technical, feature driven markets, 'you know it wouldn't be beyond the manufacturer coming up with a semi-plausable technical reason for why it works, when frankly.... they haven't got a bastard clue'
