Technical possibilities
Before I go into that, I would like to say in advance that I have great respect for the tremendous power of the Philips engineers who developed the compact disc and its players in the 1980s.
The development had taken place in the Dutch Philips laboratories in Eindhoven.
Many dozens of German, French and British engineers had spent years calculating, designing and designing until the silvery-round "digital revolution" finally worked.
I would never be so presumptuous to suggest that with a few simple steps, a simple bridged circuit or the premature replacement of some components can improve a very high-quality CD player with just a few hours of work.
Revox B225, metronom analog board
To judge where something is possible and what not, you have to go back about 30 years.
Let's start with a look at the components.
In the past, only resistances of inferior quality were available.
They not only had large tolerances of 10% and above, they also had a lot of noise.
Their temperature behavior was questionable in practice, even a small warming reduced the resistance considerably.
For the capacitors used at the time, deviations of more than 10% of the rated capacity were normal.
In many places, components were therefore inevitably used whose accuracy was more in God's hands than on the drawing board of an engineer.
The series variations of the devices were correspondingly large.
Revox B225, advanced remote control module
Today resistances are available with an accuracy of 1% and better.
For capacitors, the same applies in principle.
The quality of the components has progressed rapidly in these 30 years.
Conversely, nowadays, with reasonable cost, it is no longer possible to construct a drive as elaborate as the CDM-0 or CDM-1 of a Revox B225.
It would also cause too high a cost for a large-scale production.
The result is that so-called high-end vendors have inevitably fall back on DVD mass drives of cheap design, if they even want to offer CD players - instead umzuschwenken on cheaper to be produced network player.
The missing inner values are compensated by noble housing and high expenditure for marketing and advertisement.
Sometimes only a thick bottom plate makes it a seemingly heavyweight from the technical lightweight.
CDM-1 Laser Drive
What argument would argue against combining the best of the past and present worlds?
Even looking at a photo shows that the mechanics of a Revox B225 are second to none and will probably never be produced again.
These drives will still turn when the remnants of today's high-end players have long since been recycled as PET bottles and car bumpers.
Digital misbelief resolved
Videos youtube:
Digital Audio: The Line Between Audiophiles and Audiofools
Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org)
Samplerates: the higher the better, right?
Opinions
Why push back against 24/192?
Because it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, a business model based on willful ignorance and scamming people.
The more that pseudoscience goes unchecked in the world at large, the harder it is for truth to overcome truthiness...
even if this is a small and relatively insignificant example.
Christopher "Monty" Montgomery, Xiph.Org.
The Xiph.Org Foundation is a non-profit corporation dedicated to protecting the foundations of Internet multimedia from control by private interests.
Audio industry salesman have been promoting faster than optimal sample rates.
The promotion of such ideas is based on the fallacy that faster rates yield more accuracy and/or more detail.
Weather motivated by profit or ignorance, the promoters, leading the industry in the wrong direction, are stating the opposite of what is true.
Dan Lavry, Lavry Engineering, Washington: weblink
Since you have done a great job!
That a CD player is capable of such musicality at all I have not believed so far.
After many years and many CD players was the topic for me actually "eaten"; thank you very much, that you once again opened my ears (and I am comparing here on a high level - with a Studer professional machine and master tape copies).
Such unity in the musical flow and above all, such a great presentation and physicality of instruments and voices I have never heard of a digital source.
The intonation is consistent, from the bass to the highs, the timbres are rich and the timing just perfect!
A. Sandreuther, Nόrnberg
Out of amazement, I came out only after some time.
I remembered how much money I already spent on finding perfection.
In relation to the devices that used to play for rankings "recommendations" of various hi-fi gazettes, my new 304 can not compete with them - in the price!
I feel like a man who always blinked and then bought a new eyeglass cleaning cloth.
Suddenly, I see clearly, before it was gritty and blurry.
I should have come up with this idea earlier.
Gerhardt Wengenroth, Hemer
I compared the modified CD 304 together with friends on different weekends with some other players in the price range 2500.- to 7000.- in extensive listening sessions.
I do not tend to exaggerate, so I must emphasize that the five players were not separated by huge worlds.
It should be noted, however, that the CD 304 was audibly superior to other players in almost every musical material in terms of the closedness of the sound, the clarity of the orchestra and voices, the fidelity and precision of the other players.
Last but not least, the freedom from fatigue is to be praised.
You can hear for hours with the 304, without any sign of acoustic stress.
Hans-Peter Storz, Freiburg
After unsuccessful attempts to get a "stuck drawer" and the flickering display of my Philips 304 repaired by two "experts", I came across you via internet research.
The Philips is now running properly and makes me happy - thank you very much.
Also in the communication, I noticed that you standing out from the chatter of self-appointed specialists.
Hannes Scholten, Stuttgart
Founder of HiFi magazine Audio and former editor in chief Stereoplay
