Intelligent Chip and quantum dots, question to the experts ?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

"WVK" <wvk@swbell.net> wrote in message
news242k5027ua@news4.newsguy.com...
>Keep Laughing:
>
>"Speaking of C^Ds... What's the sonic improvement? Put it this
>way: ^More like analogue. Nor am I the first to remark this. The
>listener immediately notices a seeming rearrangement of voices,
>in which each strand becomes clearer, relieved of a haze that
>masked its individual contribution to the musical texture.
>Soon thereafter an awareness arrives of each isolated note's
>magical decay. Thereafter a wonderful likeness to the live
>instrument engages one's attention. Also a good deal of digital
>edginess disappears and, as with several other treatments, bass
>articulation in this highly-touted-flat-bass medium noticeably
>improves."
>
>http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue18/intelligentchip.htm

I read that article and it was indeed entertaining.

The chip is simply placed on top of a CD player while it is
playing a CD. It is alleged to not only improve the sound but to
actually create a *permanent* improvement in the CD, by patching
it up somehow.

Now this would require capabilities that are outright magical.
No mere quantum dot would do. Quantum dots are new technology,
but not really new physics. Everything they can do is explained
by good old fashioned quantum mechanics, the same thing that
makes atoms work. And nothing in quantum mechanics could explain
the magical capabilities of the chip.

If the claim was merely that the chip improves the sound of CDs
while it's in use, I could at least imagine semi-plausible
mechanisms of action -- for example, it could contain a battery
and a tiny transmitter that adds subliminal amounts of noise to
the output of the CD player, which might be interpreted as a
warmer, more analog sound, free of digital "harshness". But for
it to make a permanent improvement to the CD itself, as claimed,
an improvement that stays in place after the chip is gone, it
would have to make a change to the bits stored on the CD. If it
could do this, it could be easily and objectively verified --
just output the before and after bit streams to a file and do a
diff. The fact that no such objective evidence is provided is
telling.

Now which is easier to believe:

1. Some brilliant inventor discovered a radical new principal in
physics, and instead of publishing his results, and then heading
straight to Stockholm to pick up his Nobel prize, decided to
apply it to that vitally important area of human endeavor,
agriculture^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
medicine^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
energy production^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
um, high end audio tweaking.

2. Many audiophiles are predisposed to hear a difference when
they make a tweak, and as a result do hear a difference, even
when there is no actual change to the sound produced.

If you picked (1), then by all means spend your money on foolish
tweaks. Somebody has to keep this post dot-com bust economy
moving.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.high-end (More info?)

John P. Green wrote:

> I read that article and it was indeed entertaining.
>
> The chip is simply placed on top of a CD player while it is
> playing a CD.

If you ask me, it sounds like a high-tech variation of the standard Buffalo
Chip.

michael