[gooberdude]

I just got this from the tweaker's Asylum, it works like gangbusters on my cd player...hard to believe
still.


http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/tweaks/messages/142301.html


placed a small 1/2" diam refrigerator magnet (it had a clip attached to it to hold notes) directly over the spindle that is inside my cdp..the tiny white disc that holds the CD when its playing.

next, i grabbed a larger magnet that doesn't seem as strong and placed it over the transformer.

By on top, i mean on the metal chassis lid not actually inside the gear.  the magnet is stuck to the lid, not the internals.

moray james piped in with a few suggestions and some info, just wondering if this is a known thing and why it works.  he explained the cd spindle pretty good, just wondering about trannies or IC's and cables and such.   wild stuff.

i need more magnets!

B4 blasting this issue to bits, run over to your fridge and grab a magnet and a beer....


matt

[gooberdude]

bump.

if any of you guys have a cheap mass produced cd player/dvd player and a refrigerator, give this a whirl.   

[JoshK]

This is a bit too tweaky for my sensibilities, but I imagine you are getting a difference in sound due to "biasing" your magnetics with this magnet.  By adding a magnet in the area of your iron, I can only assume you are causing the steady state magnetic flux to be shifted.  I can imagine the affect to be akin to shifting the zero crossing in a PP output stage, but for magnetics.  Without knowing what your really doing to the magnetic field of your tx, it seems a bit too random to me and results will likely be random too. 

[gooberdude]

thanks for the info.

one of the better replies about this on AA is from David Aiken who usually has sensible posts.   he tried this awhile back and stated the effects come and go.

[woodsyi]

Gooberdude,

My Northstar transport has a magnetic CD "weight" that keeps the CD locked in place.  It definitely "clicks" on to the metal base to clamp the CD -- it's a top loader.  Transport works great, especially after Steve Nugent went over it.  I always thought that it was a mechanical thing but may be there is more to it?  Ask Steve at EA.

[Dan Banquer]

Inducing a magnetic field in analog domain has been known to shift the phase of the current. Reducing these effects by using low magnetic field power supply transformers and twisted pairs for wires has been used successfully to reduce the effects of magnetic field.
It's so nice to see that folks add magnets to increase magnetic field. 
             d.b.

[daj]

Has anyone tried just grabbing a beer? Kidding.

Seems like good thinking, there, JoshK, with the concept about biasing the core. No doubt that the saturation power would be lower, but also that this would move the point in the waveform where hysteresis effects apply. It would be a cool little project for someone with a spectrum or distortion analyzer to test the effect on the waveform and resulting harmonics of applying various amounts of core bias.

Oh, and P.S., this ties in great with the absolute polarity thing. A decent hypothesis would be that if the hysteresis distortion can be pushed off of the half of the waveform that creates positive pressure from the speakers, and onto the half that is heard after reflection from a surface, an audible improvement may be possible. 

No idea about the CD spindle, but when you spin a magnet, that produces a spinning magnetic field that will induce AC currents in nearby wires. Seems like a bad idea. Likewise, adding inertia to a CD spindle and increasing the thrust load on its bearings seems unwise.

[woodsyi]

Who know?  How does a vaccine work?  Why do you dither?  The clamp is very light but it does grip the CD in place with magnetic force.  I would imagine a perfectly level spinning is good for the laser pick up? 

[Joules]

  Why do you dither? 

Isn't that what the beer is for?
But seriously how do we know that the magnet isn't just damping a noisy case? Particularly right over the sensitive laser.
or the metal case over the transfo may be vibrating from stray 60 Hz mag fields.  CD players are very sensitive to vibration.
 ... I don't know, just a thought

[woodsyi]

Joules,

I meant digital dither as in introducing bits of junk intentionally.  I didn't mean dither as in dithering old fool. 

[daj]

Who know?  How does a vaccine work?  Why do you dither?  The clamp is very light but it does grip the CD in place with magnetic force.  I would imagine a perfectly level spinning is good for the laser pick up? 

Not knowing how vaccines work or why we dither . . . yikes. We're not in Kindergarten, here.

[gooberdude]

I always keep a flat small heavyhat MS brass weight on top of my cdp.  it seems to help a tiny bit.

But, when i 1st posted about this tweak I had not put the weight back on...but it is possible that 2 strong magnets could help the thin metal top to not vibe.    the knuckle rasp told me zilch last night though, the same ringing & bounce was apparent with them on or off.  these are just 'fridge magnets.     I wouldn't think that lid damping alone could be able to produce the effect i hear though, i've tried numerous damping tech's for this case over the years and never heard nuthin' like this.  and, there's about 2 lbs of permoplast on the inside of the lid for this cdp..been there for some time.

i think Moray James' response on AA about the CD spindle effect is valid, that is if the spindle on my cdp has magnets in it already then adding a stronger one on top of the case turns the spindle magnets into super magnets (just borrowing his term!), thus aiding the cd clamping mechanism somehow & allowing the spinning disc to be more stable.  dunno...his post seems fairly definitive though until he mentions putting magnets on cables.

at this point i'd like to know why, or if, these things affect transformers.  There's one the size of a go cart tire in the Belles amp and 2 real purdy ones in my TVC preamp...   haven't messed with these yet though, don't want to screw somethin up for an unknown tweak.

I have no measuring equipment, but this is definitely one tweak that i'd figure someone could measure a diff...its quite striking on the sony cdp, moreso than most tweaks i've tried, ever.   If anyone has testing equipment, i'll glady ship this cdp to you.  

i really thought this topic might avoid the 'snake oil' designation until geoff kait from machina dynamica posted on AA that peter belt has been selling magnets for years for this purpose!   oh well!  in true PWB style though, they are 'blue' magnets.  hilarious.

matt

[woodsyi]

Not knowing how vaccines work or why we dither . . . yikes. We're not in Kindergarten, here.

Dear DAJ,

vaccine, dither, magnet -- see any parallels? 

[daj]

Not knowing how vaccines work or why we dither . . . yikes. We're not in Kindergarten, here.

Dear DAJ,

vaccine, dither, magnet -- see any parallels? 

Nope, sorry, I'm trying . . . Everyone understands how vaccines and dithering work, unlike a mysterious magnet tweak. Amateurs don't play with vaccines or dithering, but we all play with magnets. Can you give me a hint?

[woodsyi]

I don't know how it would work if it did.  My rhetorical questions were intended to point out that we sometimes introduce the very same poison in controlled manner to fight it.  Could a magnet be introduced in a precise way to combat stray EMF in a box with an optical pickup?   I was speculating a possible reason for the empirical finding of improved sound noticed by gooberdude.  I realize that my infantile speculation  exposes my lack of understanding of the most basic EMF theories, and that it would bring chuckles to the experts.  But it's so embarrassing when a well established and respected expert in the field calls you out for the inaneness of thoughts.    I guess I better hit the books a lot more before speaking up again in this hallowed hall of the Lab circle. 

[jhm731]

Magnets in action:

http://www.virtualdynamics.ca/content.php?id=84

[Jade East]

I heard about this tweak quite a while ago and I beleive I still have some
magnets installed in the drawer of the CDP that I have in storage. Here
is a link that may help a bit or not.
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/furutech/rd1.html

[daj]

I don't know how it would work if it did.  My rhetorical questions were intended to point out that we sometimes introduce the very same poison in controlled manner to fight it.  Could a magnet be introduced in a precise way to combat stray EMF in a box with an optical pickup?   I was speculating a possible reason for the empirical finding of improved sound noticed by gooberdude.  I realize that my infantile speculation  exposes my lack of understanding of the most basic EMF theories, and that it would bring chuckles to the experts.  But it's so embarrassing when a well established and respected expert in the field calls you out for the inaneness of thoughts.    I guess I better hit the books a lot more before speaking up again in this hallowed hall of the Lab circle. 

Sorry, woodsyi. I get it now. Not quite the very same poison, but point taken. Pearls from oysters seeded with a grain of sand. I can't comment, though, much to everyone's relief, no doubt.

[daj]

Magnets in action:

http://www.virtualdynamics.ca/content.php?id=84

286,000 miles an hour. It's not just a good idea. It's the law.

[Joules]

Ok --- Magnets chase away bad Joo Joo