It definitely needed 100 hours to break in. Stan related that 100 hours get it to about 90%, a month of decent use to get it to 100%. I guess I agree. The more it breaks-in the more "analog" is sounds. |
How did it sound directly out of the box? |
Follow up on March 9, 2001 --- The CD Player was worth the trouble getting. It does not quite have the "heft" in the bass of a megabucks player, but the rest is excellent top to bottom. Considering the megabuck players are 5 to 6 times more expensive, the Modified Pioneer is impressive. Very good stereo image. My old redbook CDs sound better than ever. |
Ha! Ha! Wireman, make sure you don't under cook those cross overs. I've been told they will sound sterile, maybe cold, but definitely not warm. |
I do just the opposite. I got an Easy-Bake oven at a garage sale, and bake my interconnects for about 3 hours, then turn off the oven and let it cool with the wires still in there. Speaker cables I leave in overnight, which seems to get rid of RFI. In a pinch, you can use your regular oven, but make sure you place the wires on a pizza stone, or in a Reynolds roasting bag. 200 degrees for 45 min., then turn and broil for 10 more minutes. A dash of salt adds warmth, without any loss of detail. Pepper improves soundstage width, but at the expense of depth. Not too much, though. I once used whole peppercorns and the soundstage completely collapsed. Gotta go- the timer just rang, and I don't want to overcook my crossovers. Times: 1st order- 10 min., 2nd order- 20min. NEVER bake a Linkwitz-Reilly. |
Before a critical listening session, I stick my head in the freezer for about fifteen minutes. It tightens up my eardrums which in turn allows me to hear beyond 20KHz. Due to the 22.05KHz limit on CD material, the difference is more pronounced on analog sources. In a pinch, a ten pound bag of ice from 7-11 in a salt solution will do the trick. |
I drilled holes in the back of my Frigidaire freezer. I ran the speaker cables out the back and siliconed around them for a tight fit. I set the freezer on the coldest possible setting. All my components fit nicely in the freezer rack and CD's fit nicely in the butter tray. Everything is isolated from vibration, but just in case I have the whole fridge on Symposium Roller Blocks. Components and software are always nice and cold. As far as sound quality, the only difference I notice is that when I get a beer, my turntable skips. |
Before a critical listening session, I stick my head in the freezer for about fifteen minutes. It tightens up my eardrums which in turn allows me to hear beyond 20KHz. Due to the 22.05KHz limit on CD material, the difference is more pronounced on analog sources. In a pinch, a ten pound bag of ice from 7-11 in a salt solution will do the trick. |
Stan can be reached at 541-344-3696, 11am to 6pm pst. |
i'am interested in his mod's,anyone has a telephone # where i could reach him? thank you in advance. |
How does the player sound Sugarbrie? |
Mike Vansevers freezes the electric outlets on his reference level power conditioners. He may freeze the plugs on his power cords too, but not sure. ---- Stan mentioned freezing CD's also in our conversation. He also said he a did a controlled test with someone at a Univerisity near him, where they froze cables using liquid nitrogen, which is much colder than dry ice. They also had control cables not frozen. They were all able to successfully identify the unfrozen control cables, but could not tell which of the frozen cables were liquid nitrogen and which were dry ice. Therefore, he is very happy using dry ice as a cheap and easy to get freeze. |
I, too, have heard about applying this technique to CD's. Have any of you tried it, and if so, what improvements--if any--did you hear? |
Stan freezes the circuit boards in the players as part of his MOD, including the parts he rebuilds. That is how it came up in conversation. |
This idea has been around a long time and comes up from time to time on these threads. Mostly regarding freezing Cds, but also cables. Two words of caution, don't freeze anything with a glue or chemical bond joint......and personally I would not apply any tweak to my cables or Cds
which cannot be removed/reversed. What if the sound changes
and you don't like it, you are screwed. This is my opinion
but if you feel like going through the hassle to try it good luck. I would try a sample run first! |
Ed Meitner was a proponent of cryogenically freezing wires, he told me about it 15 years ago. I never really bothered to get around to it, which annoyed Ed. He accused me of being an "audiophile" rather than a "tweak". In hindsight, Ed was right. Think I'll get some dry ice and give it a try, certainly a cheap tweak that can't hurt |
Stan had a tip. He told me to freeze (I don't know spelling "Cyrogenically"??) all my cables/interconnects. Get a foam cooler that will fit in the freezer and some dry ice. First put the cables in the fridge to cool; then in the dry ice in the freezer to get them down to -100 degrees. After freezing move them back to the fridge to partially thaw; then back to room temp. and then back on the system. He said I would notice the possitive difference. |
