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The Irrational But Efficacious CD Tweak

A dear audiophile friend gave me the Ayre CD tweak that Charlie Hanson humorously has entitled, Irraional But Efficacious!

You set your system volume at a moderately low level, if you put at a very high level you run the risk of "smoking" your speakers and play track seven that lasts five minutes. A series of very powerful tone bursts at different frequences pulse through your entire system. It's recommended that you only use this tweak about twice a month.

Well, amazing results happened in my system:

1) Great increase of transparency/clarity.

2) The soundstage got bigger with more layering.

3) Macrodynamics/slam /jump improved.

I give great credit to both Charlie Hanson and George Cardas, who came up with this thing along time ago, for their total honesty about not really knowing how it works, hence the name Irrational But Efficacious! Unlike others who would come up with some secret mumbo-jumbo explanation and charge a ton of cash. This CD tweak only costs $20.00.

If any GON members have tried this CD tweak please share if your experience was as postive as mine and if you have not tried it I highly recommend you do.
teajay
joncourage
185 posts
 
Found this, from the Cardas website FAQ:

===========================
Cable Break-In
Q.) I have all tube electronics and don't want to leave my system unattended while I burn in the interconnects. Do I need to have everything on and playing music to burn in my new cables? - Nordoff

A.) Only the originating end needs to have signal. The cable will break in even if the terminating unit is off. To break-in the cable it needs two things, signal and stability - it should not be moved. -George
=========================

Also finding other similar posts, so the answer may be "can burn in" without volume. Which would be great for everything but amp components, speaker cables, and speakers.

Was thinking about a cable cooker but given this, I'll just let my system do the cooking.

Not sure what a good workaround for speaker cables could be though.
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
It failed my Law of Efficacy miserably. I was not impressed by it. I find most methods/tweaks of improvement of sound which require re-treatment to typically be of marginal worth.
hotmailjbc
571 posts
 
i have a friend that claims after he played the disc in his car stereo a speaker that was not working started playing mysteriously. not kidding. every few months i forget to use the disc and then when i do play it i hear an immediate difference in my system. so i am in the worth every penny camp.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
This is a (small) waste of money. Have fun with it if you like, but it does nothing to improve the sound of your system...

-RW-
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,846 posts
 
Wouldn't surprise me if designed tone bursts change the sound for the better in some cases.

I get my Stax headphones to sound their best (loosened up?) by playing at what would be painfully loud volumes for a minute or two before I put the phones on to listen. Seems to work well.
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