Must have accessories

Hi guys

Last night,i was reading an old copy of "hi-fi world" and came across an article by Paul Rigby,if i'm not mistaken,about the effects of bedini clarifier.
I do not own the four beam one but i do own the handheld and the twin beam one and i totally agree with Paul,the improvement is stunning.Now,i know this is an expensive piece of equipment but there is a considerably cheaper one and it's effect is similar if not better.The "Isotek Full system enchancer & rejuvenation disc" but let me start from the begining.A few years ago,i bought the "XLO/Reference Recordings test/burn-in cd" and was quite hooked by the improvement it had on music.When isotek produced it's own version,i bought it too.I also have the "Purist Audio Design system enchancer revision b" which is said to be the king of all,but never try it since it takes more than 4 hours to "treat" a system.Actually,it is a one hour signal which you have to play it quite loudly for 4 consecutive times (4 hours) and then once per month to keep your system going.Problem is,i keep saying to myself "do it on the first of the month so you can remember every 1st the month to play the one hour part but when the date comes,i forget lol Anyways,both the xlo and isotek have long and short versions of the signal and i quess you treat them as with the PAD disc,although the instructions are not so clearly laid out.Until 3 days ago,i was using the isotek disc for reasons that actually don't matter here and played the short(5 minutes) version before sitting down and listening to music when last Friday,i put the disc in the cd player,hit play and left home.
When i came back,the disc was in "stop" after playing both long versions and the short one.When i put a music cd on the player,i couldn't believe my ears!
Even badly recorded cds sounded quite good.Gone was the stridency and sometimes "shouty" quality that normally affects those cds.The sound gained more body,the bass became bouncy and alive and all instruments gained a more balanced perspective.Guys,i honestly can't tell you in words how much better the music became after trading my system with the isotek disc.This is something everyone should try.I honestly can't wait for the 1st of the month to try the PAD disc.Do i hear laughs? lol
Now,regarding the bedini clarifier.Sometimes,when i treat a disc with the bedini and the system with the short(5 minutes) track of the isotek disc,i detect some form of distortion as if the system is overloaded.I would appreciate any comments from other users.

I finally did it lol Treated my system with the PAD system enchancer and here's what i think regarding its effect on my system compared with the isotek full system enchancer.
The effect on music,as with the isotek,is quite pronounced but in a different way.The PAD gives you more "attack" and "smoothness" but also makes music more analytical sounding,wheres the isotek makes things "warmer" and "fuller".Personally,i preffer the isotek effect but as we all know,it all comes to prefference and system matching.if you feel your system is too warm and full sounding,try the PAD.if you feel your system is a bit on the cooler side of things,try the isotek.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yiangos

I finally did it lol Treated my system with the PAD system enchancer and here's what i think regarding its effect on my system compared with the isotek full system enchancer.
The effect on music,as with the isotek,is quite pronounced but in a different way.The PAD gives you more "attack" and "smoothness" but also makes music more analytical sounding,wheres the isotek makes things "warmer" and "fuller".Personally,i preffer the isotek effect but as we all know,it all comes to prefference and system matching.if you feel your system is too warm and full sounding,try the PAD.if you feel your system is a bit on the cooler side of things,try the isotek.

---

I have a PAD burn in disc which was supplied with the 2m Dominus digital cable that I picked up 7 years ago S/H. PAD cables go off if you move them (crazy, ridiculous:doh:;)) so it needs a burst of the PAD disc, to quickly bring it back on song. Something to do with the fluid in the cable moving. I must say I use the disc to burn in new gear, but have not noticed a change in tonality. I have an AMR, Isotek burn in discs so I should compare them to see if I can hear what you have heard....interesting.



Regards D S D L

Hi Neil

I quess everything is a bit crazy in hi-fi world (not the mag) lol
Yes,there is a change in tonality,although subtle,but what i've noticed with the PAD disc is that it makes certain frequencies "stick out" wheres the isotek disc makes the system complete smooth without losing in attack.It would be easier for me to defend my PAD purchase since we all know how much it costs but i believe the isotek is better.
P.S. Was your PAD disc recorded by the same crackpot engineer who had the bright idea to stick the serial number label on the playing side ? lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yiangos

Hi Neil

I quess everything is a bit crazy in hi-fi world (not the mag) lol
Yes,there is a change in tonality,although subtle,but what i've noticed with the PAD disc is that it makes certain frequencies "stick out" wheres the isotek disc makes the system complete smooth without losing in attack.It would be easier for me to defend my PAD purchase since we all know how much it costs but i believe the isotek is better.
P.S. Was your PAD disc recorded by the same crackpot engineer who had the bright idea to stick the serial number label on the playing side ? lol

---

No...label REV B on label side...



Regards D S D L

Sounds like you guys need the Proburn from Blue Horizon. To quote from the item in the August edition of HiFi News magazine (p.6):

"...designed to accelerate the burning-in of cables to around 24 hours. It generates a sequence of ultra-low frequencies to penetrate the core of the conductor, and ultra-high frequencies to penetrate both the conductor and dielectric. To keep cables performing at their best the manufacturer says you should use the £695 Proburn to condition them for a period of 24 hours, very six to eight weeks, to nullify any negative charges and static problems."

Well they would, wouldn't they?

Neil,here's an "update". Since you allready have the PAD disc,you know that once you treated your system with it,you should repeat the procedure once,not 4/5 times,every month.If you do it in less than that period,you'll end up with a sound that probably would be "bad".Had you done so,you should wait a month or so for the effect to wear off.
As a said on a previous post,i did not like the effect of the PAD disc.It made my system acting pretty weird,like some frequencies were missing and i feel like the notes lost some of their decay.Anyway,2 days ago i said to myself "what the hell.i'll try something stupid and if it doeasn't work.i'll wait for a month for the effect to wear off" and played the short version (5 min.) of the Isotek disc (that is less then week after i treated the system with the PAD disc) and to my amazment everything went back to the way they were before.I really don't know how to explain this but for me,the Isotek disc is better than the PAD and wayyyyyy cheaper :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yiangos

Neil,here's an "update". Since you allready have the PAD disc,you know that once you treated your system with it,you should repeat the procedure once,not 4/5 times,every month.If you do it in less than that period,you'll end up with a sound that probably would be "bad".Had you done so,you should wait a month or so for the effect to wear off.
As a said on a previous post,i did not like the effect of the PAD disc.It made my system acting pretty weird,like some frequencies were missing and i feel like the notes lost some of their decay.Anyway,2 days ago i said to myself "what the hell.i'll try something stupid and if it doeasn't work.i'll wait for a month for the effect to wear off" and played the short version (5 min.) of the Isotek disc (that is less then week after i treated the system with the PAD disc) and to my amazment everything went back to the way they were before.I really don't know how to explain this but for me,the Isotek disc is better than the PAD and wayyyyyy cheaper :)

---

I generally only use it to run in/burn in (new gear, cables etc) and restore the Dominus cable; if it gets moved :doh: My disc came free with the Dominus cable. I must say I have never heard a negative effect using the Pad RevB disc...so can't explain your experience. Being honest the effect is fairly slight with most of these discs (those I have tried so far) except with helping to run in new gear, but a fully run in set up (my system)....I can't hear a huge change; but no bad one either....go figure.


Regards D S D L

Hey guys !

Last Thursday,i was reading articles regerding tweeks etc and as i have a ton of such things (which i never used lol ) i decided to experiment a little.Those of you who began knowing me,you know i never egagerate regarding my findings.Those "profound" differences reviewers,usually end up as being "where the heck is the difference"?
Anyways,here's my findings regarding 2 accessories.
The first is the Totem Audio "acoustic beaks" . I trust you know what those "beaks" are otherwise it would take 2 pages to explain :) Yes,they do make an audible difference although not the "profound one" one reviewer claimed.I wouldn't call the difference "hard to hear" but neither was THAT profound.A second pair made an additional difference but that WAS hard to hear.Mind you,4 beaks are quite expensive (140 uk sterlings per pair if i remember well) and although there was a difference (fuller sound,better instrument separation,blacker blacks)the differences were so small,if i could get back my 280 quit, i would ! lol
Second accessory is the Vibrapod isolators.After you guys motivated me to setup my system again,i had my pre-amplifier sitting on a Clearlight Audio RDC apsect rack without any footers.I placed 3 vibrapods (no 3) underneath it and OMG.i couldn't believe my ears.
Now,this is what i call profound differences ! For those of you who think sorbothane footers produce soft sound,better think again ! I've read somewhere than vibrapods produce stronger bass but my findings are differenc.I found they produce a tad less bass but tighter than without footers.Also,certain instruments tha were burried in the recording such as triangles were more pronounced.Before,i was struggling to hears them but now they are clearer and feels like they jumped out of the loudspeakers and were there in front of me.Tonally though,the vibrapods produced a kinda brighter sound albeit much more dynamic,so,if any of you wish to try them and have an allready bright sounding system,beware. Today or tommorow,i will try and compare the effects of vibrapods vs black diamond racing mk3 cones/pits (which i favour a lot) and let you know my findings.

I need to make a correction here.i said above that the vibrapods produced a tad less bass.Actually it is quite the opposite.After extensive listening i realized that the vibrapods
produce more bass and fuller sound than the BDRs.

I was looking into buying a de-tox/burn-in disc a few months ago and was pretty much set on getting the Isotek disc but then I stumbled across THIS. The description was suspiciously similar to the Isotek disc but it was cheaper than I could find the Isotek disc at the time, so I decided to give it a try. Upon receiving it I found that it was the Isotek disk and even had their name on the back. To be honest I've not heard much of a difference from using it but I do find it useful for burning in new gear and warming up my system before listening.

For £10 I think it's a bargain.

Edit: I've just noticed that they've now changed the description to add references to Isotek and to say that it's custom made for Monitor Audio speakers. To be honest I'd take that with a pinch of salt but I'd be interested to know if there is any difference between the two.

Edit 2: I've been thinking about trying the Totem Beaks. THIS is the best price I've found them at so far.

Hi Dave
I did check their web site and the only difference i could detect between the two is that the MA disc has 3 track and the isotek 3.Also,isotek's 2 full tracks are 60 minutes whereas the MA's 20 min.
Anyways,i am really amazed when ppl tell me they don't hear any difference.Isotek disc , the Bedini clarifier and the Marigo disc are the 3 accessories that make "night and day" to my ears at least. Cones,footers,racks etc make less of a difference and yes,i know this sounds crazy but i find it harder (mind you,by harder i do not mean impossible :) ) to hear those difference.As for power cables,nope,i can't hear any but we all have to remember one thing,accessories that interact with the sound perform differently between systems.For example,when i was using a separate transport/dac in my previous system, i could not hear any differences between the cheapest VDH digital cable and a VDH "the first' but when i installed the drive/dac in my recent system,the differences were clearly audible. Also,one could argue that the effect of the isotek disc is actually the time it takes a system to warm-up ie you play the 60 min. track to "treat" your system but the difference you hear is those 60 min. of warm-up,not any effects from the disc but that is not the case here.I never turn off my system.The pre/power/cd player are allways on.

Hi, thanks for clearing up the difference between the two discs, I guess the Isotek disc is worth a bit more if it has more stuff on it.

I think you're spot on about the fact that different tweaks make different changes to different systems. Also, like you say, it depends on whether you leave your system on all the time etc. I turn mine off completely after each use to save electricity as I'm trying to save as much money as possible to put into upgrades. Once I've got my system the way I want it I'll probably try leaving my pre-amp, DAC and other lower powered bits on all the time and see if that makes a difference.

Personally I've found quite a big difference when swapping between any sort of cables, power, speaker and both analogue and digital interconnects even though I was very sceptical about being able to tell a difference before hand. I was actually amazed at how much of a difference they made, so I know it wasn't just that fact that I'd spent money and expected an improvement. I actually hoped the new cables didn't make an improvement so I could get my money back. :lol:

I'm almost at the stage with my system now where I'm going to start trying out more isolation products and other little tweaks like that to see if they make a difference. I'll be very interested to see if they do make a difference as I'm quite sceptical. But I think that's the best way to approach these things. I think it's also important to not knock things until you've tried it. I see a lot of people dissing this and that because it "can't possibly make a difference" or whatever.

It's ok to think that something won't work but you can never truly know until you've tried it. :)

I use a Densen DeMagic burn-in CD and run it about once a month. It makes a small perceived difference, but not nearly as much as the Cleanwave button on my PS Audio Powerplant Premier, which I run every day and which makes a substantial improvement to system clarity.

l use the aformentioned Totem Beaks, l got them at a good price ( other wise l would not have bothered) and for curiosity value and........... blow me down they do work! Please do not ask me why because l do not know, but l gained quite a nice performance lift, better everything really, and l have tried taking them off and the sound was not as good, and they look quite cool too:). All in my humble opinion of course.