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thanks for reading my post with real comphrension

Posted by jeromelang (A) on December 9, 2009 at 19:16:08

In Reply to: If this were for some odd reason true... then it makes no sense posted by Enchantment1.6s on December 9, 2009 at 12:58:19:

=> then the instant that CD touches the disc tray the plastic of the tray would change the sound.

this is indeed very true. i am glad you have read my posts carefully and have given thoughts to the implications that come after.

i have actually done some prelimary test with different CD player trays from different players. it involves first "dis-infecting" a disc, to remove or to minimise the residual effects of coming into contact with cd jewel cases. a simple way is to lay the cd disc on a flat anti-static material. both sides of the disc are laid on the material for a short period, taking care not to shift the disc in anyway while it is laid on the anti-static material - just in case the movement (rubbing against the surface of the material) generate unwanted other sonic artifacts.

a very effective anti-static material that i have used is the "black panther cloth" used by photographers to wipe clean camera lenses to minimise dust attraction.

See link here:

http://kinetronics.com/store/panther.html

the "dis-infected" disc is then placed on the disc tray of another player (SCD-XA9000ES with plastic tray, and a Yamaha model with rubber on the tray) before being played in the main player being used for testing (in the case, a Sony SCD-1). i also repeated the whole procedure with the disc first being "dis-infected", then placed on other materials like aluminium (top-panel of pass lab X2.5), dark arcylic (gyro se turntable platter) before being played through the SCD-1. these 4 materials were compared to direct playback on SCD-1 immediately after "dis-infecting". No surprises. they all have different effect on the sound of the disc. the surprising thing actually is that when the disc is being played on the SCD-1, the sonic changes that came from touching all the 3 different materials earlier is still audible. having said that i am sure that the cd disc would probably have gained some other sonic artifacts when it was being loaded on the SCD-1, since this process involves loading a heavy stabilizer on top of the disc. although there is a layer of felt underneath the stabilizer that prevents actual contact with the metal material, it is difficult to eliminate this last stage of "contamination". but still, touching the earlier materials, the sonic changes in the disc is still audible played through my scd-1. the aluminium top panel induce a thin bright sound, with forward imaging. the dark arcylic patter also cause a bright sound, but the soundstaging is more open, and imaging more recessed.

i also tried this test in a Hifi store. the main player being used for testing was a sony CDP-XA50ES. no "dis-infecting" was done prior, we just played the disc straight away after resting it in turn, on the transparent platter of the clearaudio turntable, and on the graphite platter of the simon yoke. the clearaudio platter gave a dull and closed-in sound, while the simon yoke gave it a hard and bright sound. interestingly, the platters of the gyro se and clearaudio are both made of arcylic, but their effects on cd discs are opposites of one another.


other implication from all of this?

besides CD discs sounding the way they do because of their jewel cases, some CD players may sound the way they do - because of the materials used in their disc trays?

anti-static laced disc trays, anyone?

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