Early in the days of CDs I had a similar product, but they were much wider than the small black ring in that photo. They came in a variety of colors like green, red and blue. I think they may have been manufactured by the Monster Cable company. I could never hear any difference, but then my equipment was only so-so at the time. Even so, I left them on, since I was afraid they’d leave some unremovable residue behind, or that in removing them I’d somehow damage the label side (remember the dire warnings about that?). I finally had no choice when I got my first slot-loading drive, and off they came. No damage or residue after all.
And I would never consider the Discwasher snake oil. At least not the brush. The fluid, maybe. Sure, there were more effective methods, but it wasn’t bad. Before I digitally archived all my old albums, I cleaned them with the manual Orbitrac system, which was a pain, but judging by the grime left on the pad, it was effective.
I used to race motoX… I armor-alled my seat once… ONCE…
I literally could not ride the bike. Had to borrow a seat off another bike like mine to race my motos.
I am not sure, but I have some theories related to the playback system differences that are involved (none of which are really original thoughts):
“If the bits are the same then either the transmissions of those bits or the conversion to analog are somehow suspect [different].” – Paul McGowan
“So, the question of which medium sounds better is really better asked—which retrieval and playback technology is on the current forefront of digital audio reproduction?” – Paul McGowan
“It isn’t the storage medium that matters. Rather it is the means by which we handle and process the data that determines how it sounds.” – Paul McGowan
CD/SACD player systems May be different/“noisier” than hard drives when it comes to the physical retrieval and transmission of the bits into the signal path leading to a DAC
Hard drive systems May be different/“noisier” than CD/SACD players when it comes to the physical retrieval and transmission of the bits into the signal path leading to a DAC
This last bullet intrigues me and rings the most true (no pun intended), based on my limited reading.
It is my understanding that @tedsmith has focused on two priorities with his DAC designs and FPGA programing: 1. the virtual elimination of noise on the line, so to speak; and 2. minimization of jitter. In theory, the better the playback system is at minimizing general noise and noisy jitter, the better the result.
I have a hunch that, to date, my system is configured such that file playback is less noisy/jittery than disc playback.
I also found these linked videos referencing Ted Smith talks addressing jitter to be very informative – if not mostly beyond my technical understanding:
Why Jitter Matters
Jitter’s audible effects
Jitter and clocks
I have much more to learn, but I hope the above is at least helpful in prompting some further research and thought on your part.
