Any thoughts on the CD "trimmer"

I've always found it interesting that a CD can deliver 40 million lines of code (i.e., Windows XP OS) yet cannot be counted on to accurately deliver the zeros and ones on a music CD without special procedures.

The only way light can cause errors bouncing around inside a CD player is to disrupt the accurate deliver of those zeros and ones - either some show up missing or extras are added. If true, this would make the installation of a computer program or the reliable storage of data impossible.

There are certainly a lot of things a good audio CD player can do to improve the sound quality it delivers, but I don't think stray light bounces are one of them. If stray light could cause this problem, then the audio CD player engineers need to walk across the hall and find out what their data computer buddies are doing better.

We're still back to the issue that programming code and data are accurately delivered by CD binary code in CD players but if that code in the same format is delivering music, it becomes corrupted.

As for the Krell MD10, the thing has a clear plexiglass top! There is an old saying that the "poison is in the dose." That particular example strikes me as a victory of visual appearance over function. (And, BTW, halogen light power supplies are an excellent source of EMI/RFI.)
As for "ones/zeros are not digitally encoded, they are contained within an analog modulated carrier envelope..." I do not believe that is a technically correct description of the digital recording and storage process. Certainly there can be vast differences in the quality of AD and DA conversion (and subsequent preamplification for analog output) but that is a separate issue from whether the binary code is accurately extracted from a CD.

> It is not difficult to hear the changes in sound produced by
> using the Audio Desk Systeme.

For the technical details of the error correction of binary data storage on an audio CD, see http://www.ee.washington.edu/conselec/CE/kuhn/cdmulti/95x7/iec908.htm which describes the IEC 908 standard that applies to every music CD you buy. (The Audiodesksysteme web site offers no technical information at all.)

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree about the impact. I've not heard a CD processed with this specific device but have had other systems that ostensibly improve the "scattered light" situation of a CD playing inside a player and have heard no change I can ascribe to that change.

I've also compared the audio quality of CD's to bit-for-bit verified hard drive copies (which involve zero light of any kind) and heard no differences (if the CD has not been damaged.)

However, I am also aware that when I am listening critically, I can move my head a couple of inches side to side or forward and back and hear subtle changes in the quality of the reproduced music. Forgetting the psychological issues that can affect our perception, there are certainly real issues that affect how things sound to us. I just don't think this is one of them.

However, this is one of the nice things about this hobby. I don't have to use the device to satisfy someone else's demands and they don't have to not use it if they believe it is working for them.