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1. hearing differences in cable brands, is it possible?
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Yes, but mainly if you're testing very different types of cables. I personally can't hear the difference between my $100 Oehlbach and my $400 Oehlbach cables at home. So guess which type I didn't buy more of. For my studio I use Mogami with Neutrik all around.
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2. CD player which allows to add a weight on top of the CD, lessens reading errors during loud volumes? Does this really exist?
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Yes, I have one in my CD player in the studio. It stabilizes the cd while rotating which in theory could lead to less read errors under some circumstances. Read errors results in the CD player error correction interpolating the audio which degrades playback, even if it's just for a fraction of a second. It doesn't have anything to do with "loud volumes" though. As Darius says, this is part of the design with many Sony players. And a pain in the ass.
You can't simply rip an audio cd into your computer and compare it to a WAV file in your DAW by flipping the polarity, and because it nulls claim it actually is identical in the "real world". While it absolutely is identical inside the DAW, it might not be when played back on a CD player. While this sound like a bit of a paradox it's due to physics in the burned cd as the pits might be unevenly spaced or rounded which causes the player to error. But the ripped version isn't necessarily ripped in real time or the CD drive used for ripping might read the cd better. This is why the same cd can sound different on two different CD players, not considering D/A, etc.
In most cases all this is purely theory. But as this is Gearslutz AND the mastering forum, I think going into details is alright :-)