Dick way back before the stat mat was on sale, - it was around the time an article appeared in one of the hi fi mags about the light source on CD being lost out of the sides of the disc, - i tried a home made dampening mat made of a thin rubber sheet cut to shape of CD,- this did in fact give improvements in sound also on DVD used this on old CD player until i replaced player, -this new one will not except a damper - got to say the price of these CD mats are ridiculous - but none the less they do work. Cheers .....Carl.
Carl, yes the Focus Live disc does have Pupilla-Tommy-Pupilla on it, and, like you, I also name this as one of my favourite Focus tracks of all time - originally appearing on the album "Moving Waves".
At the same time I bought the Focus "Anthology" dvd for a very reasonable price .
Dick, I agree with what you say about older recordings. Somehow the ambience seems better preserved on them and they seem to sound more natural, although it depends a lot on the source material.
With analogue, there is always a noticeable difference between original recordings and compilation albums as the latter by their very nature are Secondary Masters and the transcription process isn't quite as 100% efficient as CD. Not sure if this could be inherited by CD or if they always digitise the original recording then re-compile? It makes sense to always use the original if available.
The chap that wrote the article on light dispersion on Cd's, i phoned him at that time, after i had tried his green on the edges of CD, this i could not hear a difference sound wise - but the CD looked terrible in green so i used black permanent marker to black it out, and after i played this i did notice a slight difference with sound,
About a week after discussing this he phoned me with his result on his tests - On high end player no change, - on mid priced player slight change, - but on cheap player he said that this was a definite improvement in sound,
He did give me the precise readings at that time but that was so long ago that the data i then had has faded into history. Any change for the better is a change in the right direction. Cheers ...Carl.
My daughter arrived back from a shopping expedition (hungry) so we ordered a pizza accompanied by M&S Santini Tomato Salad....
(Call me lazy )
Earlier I was upstairs bolting new drawer runners into a dressing table while the cooker was busy malfunctioning, then shortly after discovering the oven problem, the dining room light bulb blew...
....It's going to be one of those nights....
Clifford T Ward is a familiar name....blast being the operative word
Nowt wrong with pizza and salad in moderation MMmm - hope you get cooker sorted.- Bulbs - Why is it that one blows then two more follow suit - its a bit like when you drop toast the butter side is always face down ?
And why is it that at renewal of motor tax you get reminder within the expiry date - but when you go to pay for it you end up paying more than what is on the form - has any one else noticed this - or am i the only one - surely this is going against the trade description act, if you go and buy an item in store you would not expect to pay more than the listed price - once at the till ????
I think I have got life all wrong, I thought this was a forum, this thread was a chat about 'demag', apparently I got that wrong as well.
It seems to be 'the problem page'. OK Carl on the 'TOMMY' album, I had it and it was fantastic, unfortunately part of the vinyl collection I sold in 1999, sorry did I say sold, more like gave away.
Carl I forgot to mention the scientific principles of toast previously, the reason toast falls butter side down is simply because that is the heavier side, no mystery, no bad luck, simple physics.
An area of life that so many do not understand. It continues to baffle me as to the many intelligent people I meet in the Hi Fi circles, and the fact that Hi Fi is the result of physics, innovation, and science just how much complete hype is out there.
Glad to hear from you hope you are well - toast yes but how can you explain the light bulbs -if they where all from the same batch i would under stand but this one has stumped me? Cheers ..Carl.
OK Carl I will attempt to do my best, ordinary tungsten light bulbs are very critical of supply voltage, lets suppose they are rated at 1000 hours at 230 Volts, now if the voltage were 5% higher, not uncommon, then the life would be more like 500 hours, if your bulbs were on dimmers that require you to turn them up from zero, I think you will find that they last very many years, so by running a bulb say 10% below rated voltage it may last far longer than you expect, a design project I have in life is the light switch replacement that will 'underrun' bulbs for that very purpose, and provide a 'warm' start to avoid the inrush currents that so often cause failure. A project like that could be a success in its own right, or it could be a success in the bulb companies buying me out to not make it, either way it could be a success.
Sounds like good plan and i wish you luck, but with the so called green energy saving bulbs would this work with them - having noticed that they start dim and take a few seconds to reach their full glow?
Yes I don't understand that either, now in my hallway I have neon, now that is similar to CFL, it is basically a mercury and argon gas plasma, but it comes on full brightness in milliseconds, very bright as well, and as efficient as any CFL light, now the real future of lighting has to be 'sulphur plasma' rather expensive right now, but twice as efficient as CFL, a spectrum like the sun, a lifetime of 50,000 hours, a physically small size, what more could anyone want, unfortunately the companies who are planning to make them never realized the demand, err what, create a new light source that is better than anything, then be surprised if demand is a bit high, so have not been able to even get a sample yet, I was informed that they could make me a one off for £25000, even I thought that a bit pricey for a light bulb, don't misunderstand me here lighting is my passion, even greater than Hi Fi, but not as great as earning a crust.
Perhaps you should have ordered ten bulbs, to be on the safe side??!!- did they offer insurance with that price ?
The bulb industry i suppose would not like to change the current bulb design because of the expense on replacing a cheap known product that will need replacing regular with one that overall will last too long - loosing them profit.
So as i see it your plan may come to fruitition, - The only down side as i can see would be the legal expense/Patent etc: Best Wishes ..Carl
Yes john this thread has gone stale on the subject title - apart from the welcome addition from Mr Fong,
Looking from all the views this thread is still getting i would have thought that more members would share their thoughts or tell us if they had tried the disc - and outcome!, obviously not every CD player will show audible differences after using the disc ?- but it would be nice to find out ??
But while all are checking out the disc, we will chat on. Cheers ..Carl.
Remember K Tel records these lost the warmth of the original - But the cheap Music for pleasure records kept the ambiance, -crazy what??
No mystery whatsoever. KTel had their discs cut at about 6dB lower than was typical at the time, as well as removing a fair bit of bass in an attempt to keep the overall level reasonable for those with ordinary record players who wouldn't really notice the loss of bass*. It is also highly likely that considerable extra compression was applied in an attempt to counter the worsened noise due to the lower cutting level. All these things make up the plughole down which your ambience and warmth went. Why did they do this? Simply to cram about 50 minutes onto an LP which would typically have contained 35 to 40 minutes of material at that time. They also had tiny scrolls between the tracks, making it very difficult to drop they stylus into the gap; another space-saving measure.
* It takes a lot more space on the vinyl surface to cut convincingly good bass. Less bass, more playing time.
Had a feeling that was the cause for difference but great to have it confirmed.- only bought three albums by them did my head in - sound was crap !! Cheers ..Carl.
- hope you get cooker sorted.- Bulbs - Why is it that one blows then two more follow suit - its a bit like when you drop toast the butter side is always face down ?
