Back in 2004 there was this guy named George that you could send your CD’s to and he’d make a copy of them that would sound much better. Or you could buy a special CD burner and software from him for around $500. I had forgotten I had sent him a copy of Patricia Barbara’s “Live A Fortnight in France”. Just came across the enhanced and the original CD’s in my collection and compared them. I had forgotten how much better the enhanced copy sounded. Definitely an increase in resolution, clarity and analog smoothness in the enhanced copy. This might might be one of the best tweaks out there if that CD burner and software are still available. At the time George was charging $25 for every enhanced copy, which I thought was too much.
Would definitely consider buying that CD burner and software if it’s still available.
This is a scam. For this to be true, you would have to believe that Red Book error correction gives a better sound on a burned CD versus a pressed one. Why? Because if you compared the CDs using something like Exact Audio Copy’s file compare utility, you would find the CD files to be identical.
I have copies hundreds of CDs using a regular CD player using dBpoweramp with AccurateRip and I the only time I have had an errors duplicating is when the CD surface is damaged. The errors were consistent so it was not just a glitch. So errors reading a disc should to be common anyway.
If you think the “Reality Check” CD sounds better, it is expectation bias.
Not a scam at all. The difference between the original and enhanced copy is more than obvious. Read the review on positive feedback which has links to other reviews as well.
Emailed George and he said he’s no longer selling the RealityCheck duplicator, but now offers the Ultrabit Diamond Plus.
Here are some thoughts from Jena labs.
We are all speechless…ruined my evening plans because I had to start taking out CD and SACDs …to hear them like never before!!!
Stunning…amazing…BRILLIANT… My helper Bob BEGS me to order him a kit… My husband was blown over…he says he can REALLY get behind it!
George, This is the best product you have ever done!!
This reminds me of all the skeptics that didn’t think adding a high quality preamp like the BHK, could possibly improve the sound of their system, until they heard it of course.
All a CD is is a track of 1’s and 0’s of digital information. The laser just extracts that information and then sends it to the DAC.
If your CD is particularly dirty, then I can understand this working, it’s effectively just a cleaning solution. But I can’t see how it would work on a new CD, just doesn’t make sense. If you’re missing data through jitter or scratches / dirt on a CD, that’s to be expected, the answer is to look after your CD’s better.
As a cleaning solution, sure. As some miracle sound improvement, it’s not as if it can improve the laser or reduce jitter, that’s down to the CD transport.
Neither does adding another component like a preamp to the chain and having it improve the sound of your system. But the reality is, adding the BHK preamp, and using a higher quality burner like the two mentioned above, do in fact improve the sound. As always, the proof is in the listening.
That’s a completely different thing though, that’s putting something in the signal path that influences the audio signal, that makes perfect sense, taking a Raw signal and adding colour of the users preference to it.
This isn’t affecting the musical signal as there isn’t one at that point, it’s simply extracting data.
So take the original, and the “enhanced” copy, and compare the files bit by bit. My guess is there is some DSP like stuff in the software between reading and rewriting, so not a bit perfect copy.
Do the investigation, someone, so this can be resolved?
Agree, very different from the pre amp debate.
You can do this with upsampling, eq, filters (like iZotope or HQPlayer). No magic here. I have no idea what filters are being applied by the “Ultrabit Diamond Plus” but I’m sure whatever it does sounds wonderful to some people.
EDIT: Wait, I just clicked on the link… it’s a cleaning solution? FFS. Go get dbPoweramp, configure it for secure ripping, rip your disc. If it rips secure you’re good. The disc cannot be improved. If it fails, try some lemon pledge then rip again. If it fails again maybe try this stuff but… this isn’t doing anything do a disc that isn’t damaged.
It’s absolutely foolish to debate these types of topics, if who you’re trying to have a conversation with has never actually heard what it is the topic is in regards to. I posted this because I was enthusiastic about what I heard, and this is an audio site for audiophiles. If anyone else has tried one of these products and has first hand experience, I’d be interested in hearing your feedback.
If you rip both CDs with software that supports AccurateRip (like dbPoweramp) then both CDs should produce the same output. If not, then the data on the enhanced CD has been altered in some way from the original recording. Loading both rips into something like Audacity may provide clues as to what was done. You could then try to recreate what was done. But, I suspect, you’re not going to get the same result from applying some some liquid/cleaner to the disc.
I used to polish and the surface and use a green felt pen on the edge of my CDs to good affect with all my digital front ends. Interesting enough it didn’t seem to make a difference after I purchased the DMP and DSD Sr., for whatever reason. I thought maybe that would also apply to the enhanced CD compared to the original. But to my ears, the enhanced CD sounds noticeably better.
