From The Horse’s Mouth
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: freeze, audio, discs | Themes: Digital Entertainment
6. From The Horse’s Mouth
And for those who wonder if CD-R/W media would fare any differently, consider the disc structure. Recordable discs use a dye layer sandwiched between the outer polycarbonate and a reflective layer. Pits are written by a laser into the dye. Dye is sure going to deform under extreme temperatures sooner than polycarbonate will, and I can’t imagine how deforming these pits could possibly improve your audio.
Still, I’ve been wrong before, so I went to Verbatim for their thoughts on the subject.
“Regarding the freezing. Frankly this is a first,” said Verbatim spokesman Andy Marken. “We can't really comment on it because we do not recommend freezing your discs regardless of if they are recorded or replicated. There are recommended storage temperature ranges and they are provided by all reputable manufacturers for a reason. Logic says though that excessive heat makes things swell while freezing makes them shrink. So would it not be more logical (it isn't, but let's carry it to the extreme) that cooking them would be better, thus making the grooves wider/bigger? There are recommended performance ranges for any media or technology. The consumer goes outside these ranges at his/her own risk.”
Official warnings given, Marken noted having been stationed in Thule, Greenland, where people would frequently carry CDs around in backpacks during near-Arctic conditions, and this never seemed to damage the media. On the other hand, it never seemed to improve their fidelity, either.
Final note on this point: One of the commonly cited sources for this myth is SoundStage!, specifically the article at http://www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize199912.htm. The author gives this statement at the very end of the piece: “CD manufacturer Philips has gone on record as saying that they have tested the claims, but they found no measurable differences between frozen and unfrozen discs. Well shucks, why doesn’t that surprise me? You can’t measure the differences between many audio cables either, but the audible differences are undeniable and quite easily heard.” Actually, you can measure the differences between audio cables, but it requires test gear worth tens of thousands of dollars. Presumably, Philips has such equipment, and I’ll trust their findings before I trust subjective listening tests.
- Previous page Common Sense Strikes
- Next page Methuselah or Mosquito?
Pink Floyd was enhanced not by putting it in the freezer. It sounded better because of the ice cubes you took out to add to your alcoholic beverage.
Well i worked in a hospital as an anesthesia tech over the summer. Although the hospital did have a no cell phone policy, this was consistently ignored. In fact, there was a cell phone in each room for the anesthesiologists. I asked the head tech about this and he said that once upon a time, cell phones could cause interference in things like an EGK. However, they would never render a machine unusable. Furthermore, modern machines are shielded and are not significantly affected by a cell phone.
CDs are stored digitally. The data is encoded with redundancy that allows for error detection and correction.
Again if all the errors are correctable then the music stored on the disc is 100% identical to the original.
If you want to measure disc quality you can run a utility that will graph the number and types of errors found on the disc.
So Willy Winkle, Third Stage is among your oldest albums, but Boston's debut is not. Was it lost in the sands of time or did you actually own Third Stage and not Boston? If the latter, then, I really don't know what to say. :|
If you really think there's a difference, rip ta piece of both CDs to uncompressed .wav files, and compare the digital data...
A quick point... cellular phones were moderately dangerous to medical equipment and certain navigational computers on aircraft. When i say cellular phones, i mean the analog bricks we carried around in 1991 when the law was made. The phones we're using now are technically all digital PCS phones, not the analog cell phones those laws were written for.
Jitter. Also, your headphones are crap.
0 and 1, but timing: jitter. Also, your headphones are crap.
I remember trying to burn a backup of data on my Computer before sending it in for repairs. I was using CompUSA branded CD-Rs (really really cheap stuff). I saw pinpricks in the CD media before I even burned it. The reflective layer on the CDs was actually the backside of the label on the top surface, which was actually brittle and cracked with too much pressure (the reason they tell you to use a felt-tipped pen when writing on them). Oddly enough, the disks burned just fine and could be read back a few months later. I don't care about them anymore, but I still have them, and it would be interesting to see if they aren't just completely dead by now.
The part of the story I dont understand is how you made it through high school listening to Prince. I am suprised you didnt get beat up on a daily basis.
So Willy Winkle, Third Stage is among your oldest albums, but Boston's debut is not. Was it lost in the sands of time or did you actually own Third Stage and not Boston? If the latter, then, I really don't know what to say. :|
I went back for the prior two releases on CD later because I already had them on LP. ;-)
The part of the story I dont understand is how you made it through high school listening to Prince. I am suprised you didnt get beat up on a daily basis.
It pays to be taller than the other kids. Moreover, Prince was cool in the '80s. If I'd gone around listening to Air Supply and
Manhatten Transfer, yeah, it could've gotten ugly.
Back in 93 they had leaking gas fridges, that could add to the reason why pink floyd sounded so much better after sticking your head in there.
I am a pilot and cellphones on planes are not allowed to be used NOT because they interfere with instrucments (because they dont) they interfere with Cell network/carriers coverage range thats the ONLY reason!
hmmmm, so if i were to freeze a dvd would i get bluray quality? =P
You know, you gotta wonder where there stuff comes from. I mean, at some point, someone had to have come up with the idea, "Hey, I wonder if putting my CD in the freezer would make it sound better?"
You know, you gotta wonder where there stuff comes from. I mean, at some point, someone had to have come up with the idea, "Hey, I wonder if putting my CD in the freezer would make it sound better?"
I've thought that about many things. Look at escargot. How hungry did that first guy have to be, huh?
It pays to be taller than the other kids. Moreover, Prince was cool in the '80s. If I'd gone around listening to Air Supply and Manhatten Transfer, yeah, it could've gotten ugly.
ACDC, Metallica, Iron Madien, White Lion, Poison, those were cool, I do remember people listening to him. I just never could get over how much of a dousche he was. And I liked metal better.
They did the phone on the plane one on mythbusters. The solution they came up with is that it does have the potential to screw with things, but really that would only happen if wires/equipment were not shielded properly. Realistically this isn't an issue, but we are still taking the "better safe then sorry" route.
cell phones in a hospital are the same as on an airplane, "better safe than sorry" ... that being said, my wife is an ER nurse and she and her coworkers use their cells at work regularly, given they have any bars.
The part of the story I dont understand is how you made it through high school listening to Prince. I am suprised you didnt get beat up on a daily basis.
Prince rocks!