A CD rom drive (OEM) can cost under $5, and can read 700Mbytes without a single bit error, yet, apparently kilobuck CD players cannot do the same ?
I don't think bit errors are an explanation.
Some people have pointed out that the digital data is in fact an analog waveform, or eye-pattern. If the player derives its clock from the sampling of the eye-pattern and if the eye pattern is improved by felt markers or disk-trimmers then a sound improvement may be heard.
However, any modern kilobuck player that does not buffer and reclock data to decouple the data demodulation from the DAC clocks is IMO using outdated technology.
Take Meridian as an example, they use CD-rom drives, often with multiple read passes, and buffer the data through RAM, before using a separate low jitter clock to pass the data through the DACS.
If you've spent thousands on a CD player, and putting markers on the edge, or using a "lathe" improves the sound then my conclusion is that the CD player is not correctly designed. If you've spent $50 on a player and the sound is improved then that is more understandable.
I don't think bit errors are an explanation.
Some people have pointed out that the digital data is in fact an analog waveform, or eye-pattern. If the player derives its clock from the sampling of the eye-pattern and if the eye pattern is improved by felt markers or disk-trimmers then a sound improvement may be heard.
However, any modern kilobuck player that does not buffer and reclock data to decouple the data demodulation from the DAC clocks is IMO using outdated technology.
Take Meridian as an example, they use CD-rom drives, often with multiple read passes, and buffer the data through RAM, before using a separate low jitter clock to pass the data through the DACS.
If you've spent thousands on a CD player, and putting markers on the edge, or using a "lathe" improves the sound then my conclusion is that the CD player is not correctly designed. If you've spent $50 on a player and the sound is improved then that is more understandable.