SID Sound Improvement Disc

Posted by: syd on 04 May 2003

Hi all
Picked up one of these for £10 on ebay a few weeks ago and thought i would give you my opinion of it. I tried it out first on my Micromega stage 5 and found that it increased focus on the soundstage, not that theres much on the Briks Smile. Bass a little tighter and better formed. Midrange was a little bit clearer. All round a little smoother and easier to listen too.

I then tried it on my Pioneer CD Recorder on playback and the difference was a lot more pronounced. Treble was much smoother and less grainy. started to notice much better PRaT than I had been aware of before from the pioneer. Again the soundstage seemed more stable with more space around the performers. Bass guitar had more bounce to it and I was more aware of strings being plucked and the differences between styles and makes of bass guitar, something that wasn't so apparent on the Pioneer as opposed to the micromega. All in all a Tenner very well spent.

Has anybody else tried it or other Discs or tweaks for CD. I don't know if it would work on Naim players though. Your feedback would be interesting.

Yours in Music

Syd
Posted on: 04 May 2003 by David Patterson
Hi SID ,sorry SYD.. how are the old Briks doing, looked at a pair of external crossover ones tonight in GGow, on the end of Krell Theta equip, sounded as bad as my ones did in my house.
Anyway, i tried a SID on a CD5 i had ,the only benefit it had was to make some harsher (older80s) discs a bit more listenable, i would not recomend it.

David
Posted on: 04 May 2003 by Mark Dunn
Jeepers Syd.How did you get that great big pice of space hardware into that little tiny slot?

Best Regards,
Mark Dunn
Posted on: 04 May 2003 by Geoff P
I came by a SID as a giveaway for a really cheap Marantz CD player I have for bedtime music.

It did do "something" to the Marantz which sounded better, the sound got richer and more mellow. So for fun I popped it on the CDX2 downstairs.

No effect apart from the pain of trying to get the thing over the silver disc properly to avoid the famous "Err" message. This was not a surprise just confirmation that you can make a cheap crap CD player sound better BUT once you get a really good player it ain't going to do anything to improve the music, in fact I think the SID probably made it worse.

It's back in the Marantz!

regards GEOFFP
Posted on: 04 May 2003 by Olly
Has anyone tried one of these in a CD-ROM drive on a PC and if so with what effect?

Olly
Posted on: 07 May 2003 by Ed R
Hi all,
Got a SID to go with my Linn Mimik about 18 months ago and noticed that it improved depth and clarity of bass and took the edge off harsh treble. The net effect was less fatiguing listening and a more "musical" presentation.

Trouble is, the effect varies from disc to disc although older discs do tend to do better along with those without an opaque printed lable. That said, I've never heard it sound worse than without SID in place.

The biggest surprise was using it with my CD2, and getting the same results as with the Mimik. In fact, it has become essential to me now as it renders unplayable discs playable due to the extra thickness. Yes I know a new puck would probably do the same but why bother?

I've not tried it in a computer drive as I don't tend to get too nerdy about my PC!

Regards,
Ed.