CES & THE Show 2010 • TABlog

by Marc Mickelson | January 7, 2010

"If you cover nothing else at CES, make sure you cover this."

Luxman and Vivid Audio distributor Philip O'Hanlon made this bold statement over breakfast about something Caelin Gabriel of Shunyata Research had showed him the night before. Shunyata's Dark Field cable elevators ($295/dozen) are constructed of two types of material. The outer black layer is a special anti-static foam, and it's an effective CD tweak.

As Caelin demonstrated, you place the CD, read side down, on one cable elevator, and then use another to treat the label side. You lightly tap the CD all over, as though you're blotting up water. This effectively removes the static charge on the CD, producing immediately clearer sound, a boon in dry, static-laden Las Vegas. The treatment lasts a couple of hours -- or one play -- after which you have to do it again. Caelin posits that the CD player's circuity, as well as the disc's spinning, recharges the CD's surface.

A rather neat tweak -- and it costs you nothing if you already own Dark Field cable elevators.