Best Audio Tweaks to Greatly Improve Your CD Audio Quality
This Blog Post incorporates parts of an earlier article I posted on this Blog as well as newer writing points. In the above picture of my Stereo System on top is my Denon AVR 3801 7.1 Receiver and my Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 Tube Buffer to its right, next row my Jolida JD-100A Tube CD player,next row DVD player & DVD Recorder,HD DVR on next row and my Monster Power Center on the bottom. To the right is my Orb Supereight Subwoofer on a platform
Here are some tips and different options I’ve learned by trial and error over the years on tweaks to improve your CD sound quality. Each of these tips can be done independent of each other or in tandem. I mainly listen to classic rock and blues CDs and my tastes are geared to this music. One thing to note if you listen to CDR’s, if you record them at below 256 kbit/s, you will definitely notice the audio quality is inferior to the original quality. At 320 kbit/s, CDR Audio Quality is quite good.
1. Clean Your CDR Player’s Lens. This is one of the easiest and cheapest tweaks. Once a week, clean your CD players laser lens by running a lens cleaner disc. This takes all of 20 seconds to a minute and you will be startled by the difference in audio sounds especially if you never cleaned your lens. I recommend Maxell Lens Cleaner CD-340 which you can get for under $12. All you do is put the disc in, push Play and then stop when the Disc tells you to.
2. Buy a Musical Fidelity X-10 V3 Tube Buffer and a pair of Acoustic Research Performance Series Directional Cables. I found this Tube Buffer when connected to your CD player and receiver, somehow gave a night and day improvement in the audio sound and quite simply makes music come alive with depth you’ve never heard before. It doesn’t seem possible but it does. It doesn’t matter if your CD player is solid state or tube, it still will improve the sound to a level you can’t imagine. If you make one improvement, this should be it
You should be able to get the Tube Buffer Online from Audiogon or Ebay for around $200-250 used as the entire series has been sold out new. It originally retailed new for $400. The cables you should be able to get at Best Buy for around $15 or so and I found they gave the best neutral sound.
3. If you’re using a DVD player to play CD’s stop and replace it with a CD player. No matter what stores say, the sound from a CD player is better and more natural. I would consider one of the 2 CD players I’ve listed above.
4. Experiment with other audio cables as long as you can buy them with a return policy. I prefer Neutral cables like the cheap Acoustic Research Performance Series Directional Cables you can get for $15 at Best Buy but other people prefer much more expensive cables. I also recommend you use a Monster Standard THX Subwoofer Cable for around $30 if you want smoother bass. The one thing to understand is $500 cables can produce much more revealing sound on a CD and if the album was recorded say prior to 1990, you might hear sounds you don’t care for.
5. If you put your subwoofer on a stand, I use the Auralex Gramma Isolation Riser 23″ long x 15″ wide x 2.75″ high which costs about $50 including shipping online, it will help reduce a booming bass and is especially helpful in an apartment.
6. If you have a Tube CD player, you can change the audio sound, by using different tubes. I myself have a Jolida JD-100A Tube CD player that I love and use a pair of JJ/Telsa ECC83 12Xa7 Tubes Standard Only (Do not get anything above standard nothing higher) which you can buy online for $20 from Tube Depot. In my opinion these gave my audio the best neutral sound. Different tubes can affect tube sound significantly as mentioned above.
7. A Power Cleaner/Power Center will Reduce Your Electronic Noise. Of all my tweaks, this seems to be the most controversial as some people say a Power Cleaner/Power Center doesn’t improve audio quality but in my opinion it does. I have Monster Home Theatre Reference HTS 3600 MKII PowerCenter with Clean Power Stage 3 v.2.1 Circuitry which lists for $400 but I got for $150 new at the time from Amazon. This also acts as a surge protector and I use with my HDTV to get a better picture too.
I would ignore tweak materials and products you find online because in my personal opinion, they don’t make the sound better, aren’t worth the money, and in fact take the life out of most recordings. This is my personal opinion and I’m sure others would disagree.
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