The Audio Desk System CD Sound Improver
By Roy Gregory
Someone once wrote (and I apologise that I can’t recall who) that in assessing the true value of any ‘tweak’ you need to consider whether you are still using it, a year down the line. An extension of the “Is it better – or is it just different?” argument, it holds a ring of truth. More often than not, tweaks that go the distance promptly multiply, ultimately becoming a product category of their own (think parallel grounding devices or ethernet filters). But some tweaks defy duplication, through cost, complexity or sheer weirdness: the Furutech LP DeMag might be the perfect example. Another would be Audio Desk Systeme’s CD Sound Improver…
Just around the turn of the Century (1998 to be precise) German company Audio Desk Systeme launched a simple lathe system, claimed to improve the sound of CDs. Remember, this was when green pens, peripheral rings and self-adhesive damping layers were all in circulation. What Audio Desk Systeme’s device did was allow users to cut a precisely angled (36 degree) bevel on the edge of an optical disc. Claimed benefits included reduced edge diffraction (in what is an optical reading system) as well as improved concentricity of the disc itself, with a consequent reduction in mechanical vibration and the requirement for error correction in the reading mechanism. Mind you, at around €500 a pop, it needed to deliver significant results to justify the cost. I was editing Hi-Fi+ at that time. The product was duly reviewed (and purchased) by the indefatigable Richard S. Foster who didn’t just rave about it, he lobbied vociferously for its inclusion in the Products Of The Year listing: This at a time before commercial pressures on print magazines meant that POY awards have as much to do with a manufacturer or distributor’s advertising spend as they do with a product’s merit.
As is the way of things, with the product duly reviewed and recognised, it both passed me by and passed into history, eventually ceasing production in 2018, with the rise of streaming and as ADS concentrated on building their popular, automatic, ultrasonic record cleaning machine. Up to a point, you can see why. Actually cutting into and physically ‘defacing’ your valued software presents quite a high barrier to entry and I can easily understand the reluctance of many collectors to embrace the practice. Except that… Not only do many of those who bought the CD Sound Improver still swear by it, with CD enjoying a recent resurgence of interest, ADS’s lathe has also reemerged from the shadows, attracting renewed online comment and discussion. That piqued my interest. Not only were many of those owners still using their lathes, anything up to 25-years after their purchase, readers were starting to ask me if I had any experience with the device? Time to rectify that gap in my knowledge, I was able to intercept one of the rare second-hand units, en route to its new owner. An early sample (from 1999 I believe), it’s not exactly pristine, at least cosmetically, but it still works perfectly, it’s angled cutting blade (or Burin) replaced a couple of years ago with a spare, supplied by ADS.
