Help on tweaks

Posted by: Paul on 08 December 2002

For those in the U.S.A., I received musicdirect's 2003 catalog in the mail the other day and was intrigued by some of the "cheap tweaks" that they were offering. Can anyone comment on the following with respect to Naim equipment :-
1) The Sound Improvement disc...a green disc for $50 that you place (on top?) of the CD to reduce tracking error and improve musciality - will it work with the CDX puck ?
2) PS audio's power port for $50 ...which replaces the standard duplex wall outlet and is meant to improve current delivery.
3) The Marigo Audio CD tuning mat for $80 which is meant to be the best CD damping mat on the market ???

Thanks for any insight....I'm generally very sceptical about tweaks, but these looked interesting.

Paul

Posted on: 08 December 2002 by garyi

So fifty bucks for a bit of green plastic then. I assume this is in a similar vein to the antistat one some years back. I never heard the slightest difference, and why should I its a bit of plastic. It did work with the CD3 though.

Fifty bucks for a wall socket. umm, 12 quid for a decent quality crabtree one this side of the pond. I would say if you are going to get anal about it, get an unswitched one, otherwise its a socket.

Can't comment on the last one as I have no idea what it is, do you put the whole CDP on it, or is it another bit of plastic you stick on the rotating disk?

Posted on: 08 December 2002 by jayd

A friend bought a "cryo-treated" heavy duty wall socket. It made a difference. Is it better? Not sure. Audibly brighter, MAYBE a tad lower noise floor, but mostly, it just sounds different, to my ears.

Caveat: Simultaneous with installing this socket, he cleaned and Pro-Golded all connections (electrical, interconnect, speaker), so maybe that's what I'm hearing.

Posted on: 08 December 2002 by David Patterson

Hi Paul, i tried the sound improvement disc on my CD5 ( there are two sizes of hole to suit dif transports)Like most of these tweaks it had its good and bad points.It did smooth out harsh discs but i thought overall it compressed dynamics of the music.I use Russ Andrews Reveal and Release and it definately does improve the enjoyment, dont know about the freezing cds thing that RA advocates though.
David

Posted on: 08 December 2002 by Mark Dunn

Hi Paul:

The PowerPorts work. Less 'hash', smoother (but not laid back or boring) and a slightly lower noise floor. PRaT remains unaffected. Not a 'sliced bread' product but certainly worth $50, especially if you have a dedicated spur.

Best Regards,
Mark Dunn