Official "Barry says" hierarchy of media formats

With a well made CD-R (burned at relatively slow speed on a high quality blank), I find the results of playback in a CD transport or player sound closer to the CD master than even the best pressings in my experience.

I think something similar occurs with processes such as SHM, Blu-Spec and HQCD, where the processes are different from usual and sometimes the materials in the disc itself are different. I recently compared some of these with their plain CD counterparts. I was pretty surprised by the degree of difference I heard and found it to be so obvious, I would have bet I was listening to two different masterings, with different EQ!

To “prove” this, I extracted both the “special” disc and the plain CD to computer hard drive so I could perform a “null” test. In a null test, two digital files are synchronized (to the sample) and mixed together. The polarity of one of the files is reversed. What results is that everything the two files have in common, i.e., what is the same in the files, is cancelled (or “nulled”), leaving only what is different between the files. To my surprise, the result of the null test was dead silence. Listening to the two files from the computer resulted in both sounding indistinguishable from each other. It was a slightly clearer version of the “better” disc heard from the CD player. Whether commercial CD, “special” material or process CD or a fine CD-R, my experience has consistently been that extraction to computer and playback from there (as a raw PCM file in .aif or .wav format) gets me the true sound of the master.

"The best advice I can offer to someone looking to upgrade their audio or video system is "Don't buy any new components". This may seem strange at first, in view of what the popular journals and websites are saying. Each month they feature the latest advances and write glowing reviews of dozens of products. Won't a new amplifier or a new set of speakers represent an improvement in system performance? Maybe. Maybe not."

"In order to provide a means of sampling what seismic isolation can do for your system, what follows are instructions for making your own equipment supports. Items 3, 6, 7 and 8 pertain to roller bearings. These can be used without air bearings to provide horizontal and rotational isolation only. Air bearings can be used to provide vertical isolation only, as in those commercial racks and platforms which use air bearings. Best results however, will be attained by using a combination of these to achieve multiple-axis seismic isolation.

1. Get yourself a bicycle tire inner tube for about $1.99. I use 18" inner tubes. The larger the circle described by the inner tube, the easier it is to balance the gear atop it.

2. Obtain a piece of plywood to use as a platform on top of the inner tube. I use 1" maple ply measuring 20" by 20".

3. Go to a crafts store and purchase 3 wooden, usually pine, Easter egg holders and some marbles for a total of less than $2.

4. Place the inner tube on your shelf. Inflate it only enough to hold the component up off the shelf. Too much air and you won't get the benefits.

5. Place the plywood on top of the inner tube.

6. Place the three Easter egg holders on the plywood platform in the largest equilateral triangle that will fit under the gear you are going to support. I suggest trying your CD player first, though the benefits will add up as you float your other components as well.

7. Place a marble, or even better, a ½" steel ball bearing, in each of the Easter egg holders.

8. Carefully place your component atop the marbles, so they alone support it, holding it up so its own feet do not make contact with the plywood platform.

You have now constructed, for a cost of approximately $5, a simplified Enjoyyourshelf©. Of course it can be improved upon for added expense but the point here is to demonstrate and share the concept. If you like what you hear, you can always take the design further."