CD Got Absolutely Crushed By Vinyl

a major problem with cd playback is the fact that the laser light scatters inside the player.. Way back in the late 20th century we bought lenses that fit over the laser to focus the light, but it still bounced around inside. They worked, but...

Fast Forward to the 21st Century: Geoff Kait (Machina Dynamica) new version of laser correction is light years above all previous efforts. As I understand it, NEW Dark Matter absorbs the light bouncing inside the player. Much better than lenses, it is applied directly to the cd tray.

I found installation a bit tricky, however, upon startup, the music is so much more organic. Whereas digital can be light on its musical feet I had to turn my subs way down as there is body and weight in spades, especially down low

Presentation: It’s like the music is anchored in bedrock, with vinyl qualities few cd players can match

The recesses of the sound stage are much easier to hear into, whether it’s backup vocalists, Hammond organ, or large orchestra or chorus. Instruments like piano, upright bass, violin.... sound so much more real and in the room

I recently replaced a toslink cable with a prototype coax (price to be determined, but many times more than New Dark Matter) and my jaw dropped at the level of improvement, meaning other things like cables, and lack of quality isolation (see Machina Dynamica Springs) can screw up digital playback

In my system I would expect to need to get beefy multi-thousand dollar monoblocks to get the benefit I am hearing from NDM

Last night I put on Jennifer Nettles "Playing with Fire{". It is one of those excellent music horrible mastering/recording cds

I use it to test new additions, like New Dark Matter. The improvement was/is amazing, though it is not capable of turning poor recordings into proper remasters , it is now much more listenable, as are good recordings

sleepwalker

polarity, ESPECIALLY when discs are mastered in various locations (ie Greatest Hits)  OFTENTIMES is all over the place, from song to song

I flip a lot of kit, always try to get a pre or dac with polarity inverting switch (often miscalled phase), alas many/most manufacturers are/seem clueless

The biggest offender seems to be in the bass

 

another ear crusher and another insight: last night I played Wilson Philips, 3 women with high voices combined with piss poor mastering, which I can only play when making changes, though it is now sounding better.

What was especially exciting, I was able to hear the emotion in their singing

I owe it to New Dark Matter

found a review

 https://www.stereophile.com/content/machina-dynamic’s-new-product

Several cd player manufacturers have buffers that rewrite the dics until  "bit perfect' then play