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Bedini Dual Beam Ultra Clarifier

kuroyume0161

Graduate Poster
kuroyume0161
Joined
Oct 26, 2001
Messages
1,628
This is hilarious! These are supposed to be 'technical audio specialists' (Home Theater & High Fidelity). Now we know what the 'High' means - they've been smoking something! ;)

What part of "DIGITAL" audio on DIGITAL AUDIO CD did they miss? You can't 'clarify' anything digital by spinning and beaming EM at it. The only way to enhance DACD is to increase the quality of the digital recording from a master (or using superior audio rectifying software) and rewrite the disc. Are they idiots?!

There is a mantra for anything digital - Garbage In, Garbage Out. Succintly, it means that the input quality or resolution cannot be increased to reveal more quality or detail. Yes, there is software capable of specific quality rectification using very sophisticated algorithms. It does not 'increase' the quality of the input, it only rectifies it based on specific criteria.

Anyone stupid/gullible enough to buy into this scam should be forced to buy a truckload of the putrid junk just to reinforce the lesson - and maybe they'll learn...

Robert
 
I too laughed at this item. A Google search revealed plenty of people who claim the Clarifier works. (One site even claimed it could also improve the performance of computer CD-ROMs, making "video files ... require less memory capacity and achieve faster CPU throughput with improved visual characteristics". Wow!).

However, I did find one review that had a plausible-sounding explanation for how it might improve audio CD performance, by eliminating static charge that could otherwise induce noise into the sensitive analog parts of a CD player - see http://www.audioreview.com/Others/PRD_117775_1590crx.aspx . Any comments on this explanation?
 
Did you know- if you drill holes in DVDs it makes them lighter, so they spin faster and the bits have a way to get out faster!


No. Really!
 
In the article he talks about the static charge on the disc affecting the potential of the pickup when it spins (Seems moderately plausible, or at least not technically impossible). Then he says:
For an experiment, take your favorite cd and play it. Notice where in the image the high frequency stuff is (bells etc). Now take your disc and place it against a color tv picture tube when on (about 30,000 volts static charge while running). Now play it again. You will notice an enourmous degradation of sound. Now use the Clarifier (or a bulk tape eraser;start the erasor from about 1 foot,bring close to disc,hold near disc for about 20 secs,then move out to 2 foot before turning off,it works the same just not as convienient as the
Clarifier). Now listen again. There should be a readily noticable difference in percieved noise floor and clarity on the highs.
Click to expand...

How in the hell does a bulk demagnetizer (or a degaussing wand), remove a static charge from a plasic disc?

Also, if it is static electricity that damages play quality, wouldn't a better soloution be wiping the cd with an anti-static cloth? I use them to clean my glasses every day, and they only cost like a buck.

Bottom line: I think the guy who wrote that review is making it up.
 
Even then, the (albethey) sensitive laser components read 1s and 0s from the media. If there were any static charge interfering with this process, you would get skips, not noise.

And I must agree with wittgenst3in. I've handled CDs and DVDs (Audio, Video, and computer) many thousands of times. Not once have I ever had an exchange of static electricity. Maybe I need to rub one on a balloon for a minute to get a build up?

And, finally, as we are all aware, static charges induced into sensitive electronic components usually induce failure, not noise.

Anyway, if a minor induced static electric charge is 'enhanced' by spinning the disc, wouldn't it be enhanced even further by spinning the disc faster? Well, these days, to get read/write speeds of 8/16x or 16/32x on DVDs, they spin very fast (so fast that misalignment could cause the disc to literally explode, shatter, and physically damage the sensitive components). Wouldn't the effect become more noticeable and start plaguing all of our disc reading and writing? I haven't noticed any degradation of the reading/writing process...
 
kuroyume0161 said:
Even then, the (albethey) sensitive laser components read 1s and 0s from the media. If there were any static charge interfering with this process, you would get skips, not noise.
Click to expand...
I think the hypothesis is that the digital data is being read correctly; the alleged problem arises because the static charge on the spinning CD somehow penetrates the analog audio circuitry, causing noise and degrading the output sound quality.

It sounds plausible ... but, as wittgenst3in points out, if this really did happen then an anti-static cloth ought to fix it. There's no need to waste money on a Clarifier.
 
One thing I feel obligated to say in favor of this device.

It makes a real spiffy sounding title to a thread.

I couldn’t wait to see what the hell you were talking about.
 
You know, somebody sent me an "Auric Illuminator".

I should mail it to Randi. Maybe he could have fun with it, after he blows the dust off the top.
 
jj said:
You know, somebody sent me an "Auric Illuminator".

I should mail it to Randi. Maybe he could have fun with it, after he blows the dust off the top.
Click to expand...

You didn’t try it?

It has such a neato-torpedo name I figure it’s just gotta work.
 
Blue Monk said:
I couldn’t wait to see what the hell you were talking about.
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See http://www.bedini.com/clarifier.htm for full details - only $189.95.

They've also introduced a "Bedini Quadri Beam Ultra Clarifier" model (at $400), which gives an even better thread title. :p

By the way, half-way down the Bedini page are a pair of BEFORE and AFTER oscilloscope waveforms showing the "decrease in electronic relaxation noise" (?) achieved by using the Clarifier. The only thing is, I can't see any significant difference between the two waveforms. Perhaps I simply lack the discerning eye and ear of the true audiophile?
 
Kess said:

By the way, half-way down the Bedini page are a pair of BEFORE and AFTER oscilloscope waveforms showing the "decrease in electronic relaxation noise" (?) achieved by using the Clarifier. The only thing is, I can't see any significant difference between the two waveforms. Perhaps I simply lack the discerning eye and ear of the true audiophile?
Click to expand...

Simple, they change colour. :)

I don't know what the heck they are trying to show with the two waveforms. I mean, who can look at a waveform and imply tone from that complex a wave? There dosen't seem to be any (to my eyes) obvious problems with the first waveform such as clipping which is about the only thing I think you can diagnose from that.

I'm no audio engineer, but wouldn't it have been much more useful to show fourier transforms (or 'equalizer bars') of the signals instead of the CRO output? That way you could look for frequencys directly, and say "ah ha! there's an odd harmonic incorrectly amplified by the system".

Looking at that graph reminds me of cold tablet ads where they apparently offer relief from flashing red pain arrows, without any explaination of what they mean.
 
Another thing I noticed is that on the web-page for the quad model it says:
If you are a audiophile or home theater enthusiast you can now truly experience the reality of the recorded media on any disc format. With the use of the new Ultra Clarifier "Quadri Beam" all pictures will be brighter and sharper, audio is crisper and cleaner.� With its patented Electro Magnetic Beam Configuration, the Clarifier polarizes the polymer in such a way as to maximize the laser's ability to retrieve stored data.� By using the Ultra Clarifier "Quadri Beam" to treat your CD's before playing, you will discover a distinct improvement in video and audio quality.
Click to expand...

Note that every time they make a claim they follow the senence up with a full-stop (period) then a question mark.?

Why would they do this.? Is it some legalese to make sure that what they said is not a claim.? Or is it just sloppy punctuation.?

Also, note how the device can apparently change the polarization of plastic. Thats one for the physics textbooks.
 
wittgenst3in said:
Simple, they change colour. :)
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Duh! How could I have missed it. Everyone knows that blue waveforms sound better than red ones. ;)
 
Blue Monk said:
You didn’t try it?

It has such a neato-torpedo name I figure it’s just gotta work.
Click to expand...

**chuckle**
I suppose I owe it one shot. If anything like that works, however, it's proof positive of a defective player.

Oh, it also included a green ink pen. I am pretty sure I know where that one came from...
 
The static electricity theory has a figleaf of probability. If there is much electrostatic discharge as the disk rotates, it will interfere with the reading of the codes on the disk. This needs not cause skips because the software of the disk player interpolates between lost codes, and this will cause sound degradation, especially in the high tones.

I don't believe that this has any practical use, however, but it would be easily and objectively testable: Create a CD with a single high-pitch tone (say, 10KHz), and measure the output, both for amplitude and distortion, before and after "treatment". If you can't measure the difference, there ain't any.

Hans
 
Or create a disc with a range of pure tones (sine waves or square waves) from 20Hz to 20KHz and see if there is any noise on any of them measured by an oscilloscope or such.

This would be a good start for testing objective evidence for any electrostatic field induced by a spinning plastic disc. :)

Good idea, Hans!
 
wittgenst3in said:
Note that every time they make a claim they follow the senence up with a full-stop (period) then a question mark.?

Why would they do this.? Is it some legalese to make sure that what they said is not a claim.? Or is it just sloppy punctuation.?
Click to expand...
Try changing your coding from "Unicode (UTF-8)" to Western (ISO). These question marks are put in place of characters that Unicode doesn't recognize.
 
MRC_Hans said:
The static electricity theory has a figleaf of probability. If there is much electrostatic discharge as the disk rotates, it will interfere with the reading of the codes on the disk. This needs not cause skips because the software of the disk player interpolates between lost codes, and this will cause sound degradation, especially in the high tones.
Click to expand...

More to the point, at least some players allow you to count the number of interpolations and/or mutes on a disc.

Except for some of these "protected" discs that don't meet the Redbook criterion (ones intended to cause CDrom drives to malf), there are almost no such errors on most discs.

There certainly aren't enough errors to cause reports of things like "less detail in the reverberation" for the whole disc, for sure.

Quite a few discs only throw one error, too, at the end.
 
The more I read about this stuff, the more I'm convinced it's time to build and market my idea for a CD/DVD rewinder. You know there will be people who claim it actually improves their discs. All you need is a "scientific" explanation. You could use static eletricity as the culprit, or if you wanted to be real modern, mention quantum spin.

I hope I'm not giving anyone ideas. :hit:
 
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