How long for a CD to burn in? - Page 5

Right, we have these and lots of other stuff on the snake oil forums.

But seriously, why are people so stupid?

Nothing like charging $500 for $5 worth of materials and labor that will get no benefit over a cheap POS cat 6 cable from newegg.

There's one born every minute.

What's funny is that these examples have come full circle and are now example of things that are actually true. The humidity, temperature, and elemental content of your air measurably changes the way sound is transmitted through it.

It's possible that some day in the future audiophile listening rooms will contain air with a different mix of elements, which might require a miniature breathing mask to breathe safely. Who knows.

Mocking $500 network cables is one thing but there comes a point where cynicism should take a back seat to humility.

...and yet paradoxically, no less than 5 join Head-Fi every second

It's because of magnetism, try Furutech RD-2 CD degausser

There are also other tweaks you can do. I used AudioDesk CD Sound improver lathe which cuts the edges of the CDs at a certain angle to reduce interference from laser reflections. You also need to paint the edges with a black pen to dampen the light from exiting the CD. You can also clean the CD with Optrix which fills in the imperfect grooves in the CD. Also, burn your own CDs on black CD-R at low speed using vibration control and power conditioning for the CD burner. Remember to use high quality black CD-R to get better quality. Read this great guide: Saga_of_the_Black_CDs_v3.1.pdf

After spending thousands of hours on CD treatments, I found that I get better sound from copying the CDs to my computer and playing them using an underclocked nettop with USB connection to EMU0404 USB.

I actually agree with Patrick (Say it ain't so!). Copy the CD to your computer with the best error correction possible, output digitally (optical is best as you can also output hi-res files if you like) and don't waste your time on treatments.

I also agree that optical is the best because then no ground noise can travel between the components. I used dCS Verdi Encore CD/SACD transport with Firewire connection to dCS Elgar Plus DAC, the noise running through the cable was annoying. Then I plugged in an spdif rca cable from the computer to the Verdi and there was huge harshness added to the sound (music came from Verdi). Whenever there is electrical connection between the components there will be problems, I have found that underclocking the computer to get less watts gives smoother sound, you also need to unplug as much as possible, there was a noticeable difference between 1 vs 2 harddrives, I tried with 4 harddrives too but the edginess gave me a headache, I liked the smoothness from 1 harddrive. Later I switched to a lower RPM harddrive and got smoother sound. At this point when using a desktop computer with 3.5 inch harddrive I found Toslink connection to still be the best. However, when I switched into a laptop I got better sound than ever when using the USB output, I believe the improvement in smoothness came from switching a 3.5 inch harddrive into a 2.5 inch which takes a fraction of the wattage.

I have recently switched the laptop into a nettop which I underclocked, the improvement in smoothness is crazy huge! I think it takes <15 watts. For electrical connection it's very important that the transport draws as little power as possible.

I have noticed that with Toslink connection the low-level details are cut off, but it's still very smooth and clean because there is no noise added into the signal. With Firewire and USB connection the low-level details are there and it sounds very deep and full, but if the signal is noisy it sounds harsh, messy and fatiguing. I found that Firewire from dCS Verdi Encore and Toslink from desktop computer were equal overall, they just had different flavors.

I have not compared Firewire vs USB. I think Firewire takes more watts than USB? I like my nettop and EMU0404 USB, it's better than everything else I have heard.

Thousands of hours