Hummm... michiganjfrog, your "solution"sounds very werid in first moment. But I supose this is physically possible, and really should works. I'll try this, and reply soon.

PS. 2 days without music shouldn't be a hell... :D

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Hey, if you find it is difficult to go without your player for 2 days, then just try the second solution I posted. It's also physically possible, not as weird, and really should work. Pure simple logic.

michiganjfrog, the last question: Baterry better should be totally flat or full charged, or it's doesn't matter?

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

For the first technique or the second one? If you mean the first one (freeze technique), then no, it doesn't matter.

I would totally do this to my player but it can't turn on so f it in the a.
i'm purchasing a new player and i will try this.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Wouldnt the LCD screen crack if u put it in the freezer?

Not that I know anything about this......But it just seems like it would.....

no the LCD screen wont crack

OK, after more than a month's of procrastination, i've finally dumped my player into the freezer earlier this afternoon.

To test on the freezing effect, i've used a line-out audio cable to record 3 different mp3s stored in my player, onto my laptop. This was before i popped it into the freezer.

When i'm done with the process in a few days, i'll record the 3 same mp3s onto my laptop again. Then compare the before and after quality. And if i find anything interesting, or if it really does work, i'll post the before and after mp3s to this thread.

That would be interesting, as I haven't done that particular type of test myself (on freeze effects), so I would certainly have a listen to your results. I did once do an mp3 recording test of another type of modification to my burner, and I could hear some differences there. I hope you also listened to your player before freezing to get a reference, because plain old listening also works. (It could be that recording to mp3 degrades the quality and minimizes the differences to be had).

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

The power pin in my USB adapter finally broke, so I bought a seperate charger and another battery off ebay, but while I'm waiting for it to come my Glacier's out of commision. So, I'm trying this freezing procedure too!

I'll leave my feedback once everything is back in order.

After i repeated the freezing and de-frosting process twice as outline by michiganjfrog in his initial post, i left the player with the casing opened to air-dry any remaining moisture for 1 day before closing it to continue with my tests.

Surprise Surprise.. i've noticed something VERY different with the after-freezing process.

As soon as i finish my tests, i'll post my findings here. Somehow this freezing mambo-jumbo did something noticeably different to the player.

interesting...can't wait for the test results

How does taping the words on the player help? I must have missed something.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

That's true.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

After a very busy week, i've finally had some time to sit down and compare the Before and After recordings of the songs in my clone.

Here are my settings used for the recordings:
Equaliser mode: Natural
Volume: Maximum (level 31)
Connection: 2.5mm to 3.5mm adaptor, attached to Line out audio cable

First major difference i've heard would be the disappearance of Distortions. Some members have reported that they hear this soft buzzing sound when no music is playing, you might need to crank up the volume on your player to be able to hear that. Well, my player does that, and the Before clip recorded them down.
But the After clip, surprise.. The distortions are not there. Well, maybe they are present, but not audible at all. The 3 sample songs are located below, and all 3 exhibits the buzzing sound in the first few seconds. If you might ask, i started recording first before i clicked on the Play button.
Oh yes, you need earphones to be able to hear the distortions. You can't really hear them on speakers unless you are blasting the volume high enough.

Next difference i've noticed (and this was after repeated hearings of the music), would be the Faster response of the audio driver. Faster in a way i would describe it, that the sudden soft to loud transition was much better in the After, rather than the Before. The Before clip had this slight slur or draggy response, whilst the After clip had an instantaneous response.
I loaded both Before & After clips into an audio mixer to view the audio waveforms. And indeed the After clip did show cleaner step responses. Perhaps Clip 2 below would demonstrate this improvement. The other clip 1 & clip 3 are kinda "noisy" music..

Here are my Before and After recorded clips:
Clip 1 Before & After.
Clip 2 Before & After.
Clip 3 Before & After.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Lattesurf,

Wow, that was interesting. I just finished listening to your samples, thanks for posting them. I could certainly hear the familiar (to me) effect of the freeze technique, between the before/after versions; less distortion. I've heard about the background noise problem some have had, and its especially interesting to hear that you observed this background distortion had disappeared after the freezing. As the player exhibits less distortion post-freeze when playing music, I suppose its understandable it would do so with the music stopped as well. Most amazing, your screen didn't crack and your fridge didn't blow up, as some people might have feared... I'd like to post test #2 on my new site, so others can have an idea of the effect before investing 2 days into it, can I do that?

michiganjfrog , would be waiting for your next tweak guide.. :D

And to those worried it would crack the screen, it does not. Unless after freezing for 12hours, you immediately take it out and drop it into a bowl of hot water. Yeah, that will crack the screen definitely.

For this guide, i'll say it is 99% safe for your player. 1% is left for those who actually drop their players into the hot water directly after freezing.
To be absolutely safe, you could always remove the battery, or else just switch the On/Off button to the off position. This way the battery and player are electrically isolated.
Also, i'll recommend leaving the casing open and air-drying it for at least a day after the final freezing process, this is to remove any excess moisture that might short-circuit your player.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

If you're referring to mp4 tweaks, I already gave Clackers the next one. Doesn't take 2 days to do, and there's a lot less chance of the screen cracking.

ALL:

Inspired by Lattesurf's idea of posting recordings of an experiment, I decided to do something similar. For those who are curious about these things, I am making available two test files, for your listening pleasure and scientific curiousity. The experiment is just to see if you can hear differences between the two files, or if they sound exactly the same to you. I'm not saying there should be differences or there shouldn't.

I'm also not saying what I did (or didn't do) to produce (or not produce) differences between the two. (Or not). I will only say it has nothing to do with the freeze effect. Once I get some feedback on whether people can (or cant) hear differences between the two tracks, I will explain what I did (or didn't do) with each version (which I named after the colors BLACK and WHITE).

Sorry, I didn't think to cut the mp3's down, so I'd say this is for hi-speed customers only, cos each file is 8MB, so its a 16MB total download!

BLACK:

http://www.savefile.com/files/597074

WHITE:

http://www.savefile.com/files/597155

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Has anybody just frozen their player only?. Or does everyone through the headphones in there also when freezing their players. I just want to experiment something here to see if it's not just something to do with freezing your headphones.

I know you said it will make both sound better. But if freezing just the headphones works well then there is no chance of harming your player if you dont need to freeze it. So everybody please post rather you have frozen both or just the player.

Then we will see what is most likely working better. I might even take 2 of my chipods and just freeze 1 of them and 1 pair of headphones but plug the frozen headphones into the unfroze player and the unfroze headphones into the frozen player. Then see which sounds better. By the way we are all crazy!. :lol:

michiganjfrog , will try out the taping of those printed words. Though i can't figure out scientifically how it would even help improve the quality.

As for the Black & White tracks, i can't really hear a difference. At the first moment, Black seems to be better, but the next minute they sound the same. So i'll say they are the same tracks, and are neither before nor after recordings.

Pocket_Nano , i just froze my player, without the earphones. But with the samples i've posted, i'm pretty sure the freezing of the player would do a better job, for my player that is.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

I'll tell you right now, you're looking through the wrong shrubbery. Freezing your headphones -will- help, but that doesn't mean "its only something to do with your headphones"! Anything you freeze will help your sound. But only doing the headphones is not going to have as much of an impact obviously. If you're nervous about wrecking your hardware, you shouldn't try it. I'm not, and I will repeat the fact that I have put many
players and every audio component you could imagine through the Big Freeze process, and I was -not- careful like Lattesurf. I never put anything in plastic bags, I never opened the players up to let them air dry, and I never even checked to see if they were turned off. I never had a problem (except once when I froze a chipod and needed to turn it on before it had completely thawed, and while it was still a little cold. The buttons weren't operating 100%, so I just left it thaw out a bit more).

Sure, try that. Experimentation is a fun way to learn about the process. If you do, be sure to let us know what you discovered.

I would have to respectfully disagree with you on that. I'm not crazy. But if wanting to improve your sound and getting more enjoyment out of the music is crazy, then I'm a raving lunatic! (And if you think this idea is crazy? You have -no- idea what crazy is, because its one of the most rational audio performance improvement ideas that I indulge in! At least with this idea, I can tell people who require rational-sounding explanations for everything... "Well it changes the crystalline structure in the metals that was deformed during the manufacturing process blah blah blah...)

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Until one has determined for themselves whether the experiment produces any changes, the "how" doesn't really matter...

Thanks for listening to my test trax. You're right that they are neither before or after recordings. There was however a change affected, but not that kind of change. I can hear differences bewteen the two, and I have a definite preference (although the differences are not of the same character as the freeze effect). But if no one else hears differences between them, then it doesn't really matter what the differences are.

That's correct, but the overall sound would have been a bit better still. had you included the headphones.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

I CALL BULLCRAP.

Taping paper / words to a physical device doesn't change scientific sound reproduction. At best, it can change one's PERCEPTION that its sounds better, but in the end it will never change what actually is.

Its like saying if a tree falls in a forest and you weren't there to see it fall, did it really fall? You're saying no. The rest of the scientific community says yes, because its just a fact.

As for 'freezing' the cheap mp3/mp4 players, I would agreed that freezing the player MIGHT work (not brave enough myself) because it has been proven in nascar engines that freezing the metal parts helps them last 5x-10x longer.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Anyway...

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

I froze my Dick and now my Girlfriend says it feels better and she can now hear me cumming!. :shock:

So now my ChiPods are in the freezer for my test's. :P

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

loll best comment everr.

give michiganjfrog a break lol hes just trying to help us. i dont see any reason why it wouldnt work, ill chuck the mp4 in after i finish skinning it :D

My two chipods are in the freezer right now. I put them in a plastic bad because the freezer has a tendency to create massive amounts of ice cristals.

I take it that some of you never listened to music while waiting for the bus or walking home in -30c weather. I've done this with my Panasonic Shockwave cd player (the aluminum casing would get so cold I could barely touch it a few seconds) and with my Sony Minidisk player. Both never suffered from it and played flawlessly. The only drawback was that the LCD wouldn't work when cold.

To add to that, there are millions of electronic components being frozen and thawed everyday worldwide. CARS!! Yes the cd player in your car, the engine management computer, the cd changer, the navigation unit, the amps, etc. None of these suffer from being frozen and used in this state.

I can't say for sure that freezing electronics will make them sound better, but I can assure you that it will not cause damage.

Good arguments about stuff that's always getting frozen! Hadn't thought about any of that. Let us know what your findings are once your player has slow thawed.

lol, i get it

Well the players went thru "operation big freeze" succesfully! I reviewed both players here prior to the operation: http://www.mympxplayer.org/15-2gb-an...ew-vt5428.html

I gave them 6/10 for sound quality. After the freezing, the 1.5" unit would be a 8.5 to 9 out of 10. This impressive result is in part due to the "upgraded" isolation I used on the electronic components to get rid of the interference. The freezing process made the music more vivid even thru the sh*tty earphones it came with (which were also freezed).

The 1.8" unit sounds much better but isn't on par with my standards. The music is vivid and really crisp (better than the 1.5") but there's so much background interference from the player itself it's unbearable. Constant popping and buzzing. I tried to isolate it better to no avail. I'm still looking around for a fix.

As for the freezing itself, DO IT!!! It's free, little time consuming and well worth the effort.

Springtime, sound is in bloom.
 

Glad to see some people took advantage of the freezer idea, and were able to improve the sound of their players. Seems no one tried any of the other ideas I threw out. Guess compared to the freezer thing, they were too "out there". That's understandable. So I came up with something else that's a lot "safer", ideologically speaking, and more tangible. Plus it takes advantage of the fact that its spring, and all is in bloom. This is mainly for GLACIER owners. All you need is a simple blade of grass. Snip it to about 1/2 inch. Place a piece of tape no longer than the grass over the -upper surface- of the blade of grass. Tape the blade of grass vertically (pointing toward the ends of the player) over the gold hologram on the Nokia battery (you did get a proper battery for your Glacier, yes?). Enjoy improved sound. Hope y'all have a good summer.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Hi I'm trying the freeze now with my shuffle. Need my chipod for tomorrow so it will have to wait. Glad this thread got bumped because I meant to do this a while back and forgot. I'm definitely looking forward to the results.

I do have one question that pertains to sound quality, but not a freezing question or maybe it is. Has anyone noticed a difference in 2.5mm adapters? I've got two cable and two straight jacks and it seems like the ones that plug straight into player have better volume and less interference. However, I really like the cable ones better. Has anyone noticed this or maybe I just got sent crappy cable adapters? Threw one of the cable jacks into the freezer too, maybe that will help? :?

*Has anyone noticed a difference in 2.5mm adapters?*

All adapters exhibit differences, and as well, there are differences in different types. It would make sense the hard-bodied type sounds better, it's more direct, less signal travel.
The best adapter though, is no adapter.

*Threw one of the cable jacks into the freezer too, maybe that will help? :?*

Yes. Throw the other adapters in as well, and the headphones, USB charger, cable and whatever other accessories you have, such as the case. It all helps.

michiganjfrog - what will happen if the player comes in contact with heat - let's say a summer day of 35 degrees Celsius. Will the "mod" still work?

later later edit: aaaaaa! I have now seen that you are the guy who wrote the iPod vs. Chipod guide. I have read that guide before I bought my mp4 player and have found this site with the help of your link. thanks :)
one thing though - I still haven't understood what that white square does :P

Which mod are you talking about, the grass mod or the freeze mod? I'll assume from context you're probably talking about the freeze mod. Although it doesn't seem like it could, once an object has gone thru the home freezer process, it creates a permanent change which as far as I know, does not get altered by anything, including heat. Try it as described, and find out for yourself. Place the player that has gone thru the process as I outlined, and if you are able to detect improved sound, place it in your car or where it gets heated to 35C, then see if the sound has deteriorated to what it was before. I say it won't.


You're welcome. You're in a good place now. ;-) I'm also the guy that wrote the bible on 4GB+ MP4 players, but that was too much truth for eBay. (They didn't like my BLACKLIST.....).

That's the $64,000 question. Obviously, not by affecting the audio signal, EMI/RFI or any of that jazz. The gross oversimplification is that it affects the perception of sound on the listener. Not by the power of persuasion but by exploiting a scientific phenomenon known as morphogenetic resonance. Which talks about an energy (resonance) created by all things in nature (the moment that something comes into being). It permeates all objects in the modern environment, and humans have a reaction to it, but purely unconscious, because we've been living with it all our lives. The reaction affects our senses, and what the squares (which I have put much research into) are designed to do, is to reduce the adverse component of this reaction in a way that sharpens the senses. Which in turn allows you to hear more of the sound that is already there. Those who've played with the freezer effect are in fact (in my opinion), playing with this phenomenon (but the squares are more effective in any case). Because when you think about it, domestic freezer temps are not anywhere near low enough to change molecular structures of metal or plastics, or align crystalline structures. The best it can do is keep your peas relatively fresh. On the other hand...

On the other hand we were unknown participants in a scientific experiment.

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

Just some quick questios:
1. Won't this make my LCD display/Battery leak? I think these MP4 displays contain mercury, and I would not like a food poisoning today... Nor tomorrow...
2. How to avoid a possible crack in the display, not only from intensive freezing, but also when I take it out of the freezer to a warmer temperature (ever tryed on a glass? Believe me, it works...)

Re: How to improve your Chipod audio/video quality for free
 

The only thing freezing can do is reduce thermal noise, and only while the components are being exposed to the low temperatures.

In other words -- unless there has been a double-blind test with conclusive results, this is nothing more than the placebo effect.

Any PHP members, please ignore this post.

i'll like to say that the freezing method really did do something to my player.

Well, i've retrieved my old test sample files of the before and after recordings.

There are a total of 3 different songs, so a total of 6 samples.

i've renamed them to suit the anonymity of the double-blind test.

So simply, each sample pair are named Song 1, Song 2, and Song 3, to differentiate between the song types.
And each before/after tracks are named A and B randomly. i'll not disclose which is the before and after.

So have a listen at all of the 3 sample pairs and give me some feedback. i'll suggest that you use earphones so that you'll not miss any softer details (if there is).

Which type (A or B) of each pair (1, 2, and 3) sounds better to you?

All sample files located here http://www.savefile.com/projects/808530969

Please do not flame me regarding the method of recording. i do not own professional equipments, but all samples were recorded using the same computer hardware.

To address a few questions...

The screens do not contain mercury as far as i know, and the battery won't leak. Neither will the screen break, just put it in the fridge after you remove it from the freezer, and then wrap it in a cloth and put it in the coldest corner of your house, because the key of this operation is that the device should warm up as slowly as possible. ;)

I have a fine ear and there clearly IS a difference after the freezing process, which REMAINS even after the device has reached room temperature.

As about the double-blind test, there are a few samples of "before" and "after" available for download, and there is a perceptible improvement in the "after" ones. Just listen and conclude for yourself.