I found a disc stabilizer out in the wild and couldn't dig up any info on it. I'm curious to try it, but also wary of putting something inside my player on top of a disc. Just seems like a bad idea. The back of the package claims it will improve picture and audio quality, but I'm skeptical...does anyone know the science (if any) behind this claim?

It feels like a glorified piece of craft paper, like very thin card stock. The instructions indicate there used to be some weak adhesive tape to affix it to the disc; this also seems like a terrible idea. But the adhesive is no longer on the paper. Probably fell off with age.

Wonder if it will make star wars look better?????
Maybe they can add that cut scene from the death star back in the 77-25 cut.

Seriously don't stick that thing into any LD player, this is just a bad gimmick all around trying to milk more money out of the LP collectors who converted to LD.

I shave my LDs before green markering them. That’s the only way to keep all the laser energy in which leads to max video clarity. More laser=better, always. Thats math. Look it up. I did my research, now you do yours.

Thanks for posting, interesting to see!

A bit cheeky that they gave it a model number that was the same as Pioneer's first front-loading player - and looking at the line drawing, that's the player they had in mind for it - perhaps they were hoping to fool people that this was an 'official Pioneer' accessory...

It looks as though "Infra Noise Laboratory" (aka "Ortho Spectrum") produced some other similarly dubious products including:

1) The Cremona CD Stabiliser (probably the same thing as this, but smaller)
2) The HM-8 "Harmonizer" (a special cloth which smears "Acoustic Damping Fluid" on to your CDs/LDs - ewwww)
3) The Ortho-Spectrum ML-206 Musicalizer - some amazingly expensive thingamajig to connect between speakers and amplifier...

That is Hi-Fi snake-oil of the highest order!

Hopefully few people fell for such a blatant scam.

Julien

Also, when I saw the threat title, I was about ready to assume that it was either some huge, weird stabilizing clamp/weight that sat on top of the player OR some goofy "isolation feet" that apparently for audiophile markets you only need 3 feet in a triangle and not 4? Never understood that one, or any of the tweaks. Lol.

I shave my legs before spraying myself with green paint. It always improves my video performance. LOL

I'm too lazy, wasn't there a video of some machine that you could shave the edge of the CD with a razor blade attached to a lathe somehow so the
light wouldn't escape the edges?

It was someone doing a review of an older product recently.

Edit: Found it.



Idiots.

Yeah, I was gonna say I recall seeing a thumbnail somewhere.

Lol. You need to make sure you spent $800 on triangle isolation feet for your LD player as well. Wood-wrapped choke filters around the input cables as well. Different types of wood give the video different characteristics. I prefer silver maple because it gives it a sense of "urgency" in the picture and the soundtrack.

In all seriousness, I love the buzzwords for audiophool and videophool stuff. What is "urgency"? It can mean anything.

Ha, “urgency” is great. I think “warm” used to describe a sound is just as useless as anything. I apparently like gear that is called “warm” by others but I don’t know what it means and they can’t tell it to me. When a video monitor is warm it means it favors higher frequencies and is more red. Does that mean a 70s Marantz favors higher frequencies? Anything but, in fact they overdrive low frequencies. So it must be something else…but what?

As for triangles though…they are more balanced than squares. This is a fundamental engineering concept. The straight six engine is perfectly balanced not because it has two more cylinders than a four cylinder but because it’s actually two three cylinders giving you the perfect primary balance of dividing the crank cycle into thirds and perfect secondary balance by spacing the two sets of thirds 180 degrees out from each other countering each others inertia in the process.

An easier way to say it might be to consider making a table. The three legged table is easier to tip over, but much easier to make sit flat. With a four legged table all legs need to be absolutely the same length and sit on perfectly flat floor, otherwise it wobbles. The three legged table overcomes this. Even if one leg is an inch shorter it will put all three legs down.

This particular LD product is marketing towards addressing a very real problem with every LD player yet made when it was first sold: the f***ers vibrate too much. Your LD player was always going to be the loudest most vibrationally intense thing on your rack. A decent turntable is inaudible when it spins. It makes noise only when the needle is vibrating and you are very close. You can hear an LD player in the next room. I see why someone would want to fix this. I just don’t think 35g of paper is going to do it, especially since it’s spread evenly across the entire disc with no regard to center of gravity or anything. It’s made to dampen resonance…OK…but LDs don’t exactly ring. They already damp a lot of vibration.

It would have been cool if someone made an inverted LD player like a Forsell CD player with a huge platter that the LD could sit flat on. Essentially thats an industrial level design but it would probably allow for less post processing since the base signal would be so stable.

Thanks for that. Not an engineer so was unsure of that.

The noise doesn't bother me so much, but I could see for someone else it may make sense to have it in another room in order to dampen the noise. Depending on cable length may need a distribution amplifier.

Well, if the reputable sound people at TechRadar gave it 5 out of 5 stars, we must be in the wrong. Because TechRadar is just brimming with the revolutionary audiophile insights I simply can’t live without..

I've Always interpreted the Term to be inferring that the Audio Component in question presents a Sound Character noticeably Rolled Off in the Highs,
to the Degree that the lower registers feel emphasized; imparting this sense of "Warmth" to tonal bias of the Soundscape overall.

Though i've never had opportunity to listen to one, i understand that Vacuum Tube-based Audio Amplification by it's very nature sounds quite "Warm"

I Remember that several of the Compact Cassette Mixtapes full of FM Airchecks my father made back in the early/mid-80's
all had a distinctively Rolled-off-in-the-Highs, "Warm" Character about their sound as well...

An audiophile warm sound is richer in the midrange. The frequency range does not roll off in the highs, rolling of in the highs is a limitation of the format it was recorded on. If you take a LP (record) that is a quality pressing, half speed mastered for example, like MFSL Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab and use a quality turn table and amplification it has all the high end as in a CD recording.

The only way I can describe a warm sound is listening to a bitstream DAC verses a multibit DAC. For me if I sit down to really listen to music I get tired of listening to a bitstream DAC where a multibit DAC is more satisfying. Multibit DAC is closer to the sound with a LP record. The DSD or newer CD bitprocessing is like multibit warm sound.

This doesn't matter if you are watching movies so I wouldn't worry about it but if are just focusing on music there is a difference if you have an audiophile system where it reproduces the difference.

Vacuum tube amps do have the richer sound in the midrange but are highly dependent on the Vacuum tubes used and who made them. But again for watching movies on LD you may never notice it.