FIM UDBookletEng

8/6/2019 FIM UDBookletEng

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.Aspiration.In my limited experience and observation as a recording producer and audiophile, I have noticedthat many times the sonic quality of the end product of a recording, i.e. the CD, falls shortof my expectations--sometimes to a disappointing extent. This too-frequent phenomenon isbeyond the control of the recording producer/engineer. Once the mastered DDP file is sent toa replication plant for production, its fate is in the hands of the replication professionals. Theproducer/engineer has no control over the jitter and block error rates during the replicationprocess. It is frustrating to see that all the efforts made during the recording and masteringprocess have been in vain, or, at least, not been optimized.

The driving force behind the Ultimate Discproject is my passion and determination to explorea new production method whereby every step in the replication process can be under stringent

control, and the quality of each production disc can faithfully vindicate the musicality andsonority of the original recording.

.What is The UD Project?.It is both a new technology and methodology capable of producing a disc with the highestdegree of excellence in faithfully preserving the sound of the original recording, no matter

whether the disc is a CD, LP, DVD, Blu-Ray, CDR, DVDR or any other digital disc.

.How aUD is born?.A UD is handcrafted following several critical steps. The four major ones are as follows:

I. RCCtreatment

II. Cleaning

III. Dynamical balancing

IV. The Absolute FidelityTM Process


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| TheUltimate Disc Project | 3

. Treatment.

RCCis an acronym for Resonance Control Coating.Almost without exception, all digital discs and LPs are plagued with resonance generated by therapid speed spinning movement, whopping, and fluttering while playing. The resonance marsthe clarity, tonality, and definition of the information content on the disc. Elimination of thisunwanted resonance enhances the sonic qualities significantly. To our limited knowledge, therehas not been to this date any effective means of tackling this problem in the industry.

RCC is a semi-fluid of special mineral and chemical mixture manufactured through a highlysophisticated process. It is non-toxic and dries in hours. A disc can be coated with RCC byspraying finely on the label side. The coating will effectively damp and minimize the unwantedresonance. The result is a presentation of the recorded content with much better transparency,solidity, imaging, and definition, whether the content is music or video. You have to listen,watch, and compare to believe.

This new formula is derived from a similar material called AVM (Anti-Vibration Magic)

developed by UNIKO. AVM chiefly deals with resonance elimination in electronic equipment,while RCCis for the disc media. The RCCproject is a joint development between FIM USA andUNIKO, Canada. This proprietary technology is patent pending.


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.What is the problem with discs in general?.Not all discs are created equal. To name a few of the differences:

- Some are thinner than normal, which may cause excessive vibration and resonance.

- Some are non-eccentric and not perfectly flat, causing excessive fluttering andwhopping.

- Some are not perfectly flat and even, causing irregular rotational speed changes.

- Some are not in perfect circular shape, hence dynamically unbalanced.

- Some with multiple, heavy, and colorful designs printed on the label side, causepossible distraction and non-linear reading of the laser head.

- Some are made of poor quality dyes, foils, and polycarbonate material; the reflectivityof the foil is poor, causing the laser transmitter to misfire and misread.

- The glass stamper is made with excessive jitter rate during the conversion.

- Some have excessive block error rates.

- Some have excessive numbers of pin holes in the foil, or the foil is too thin.- Some have micro- or glaring defects, overlooked in the computer or visual checking

process.

- Some are produced with sub-standard quality control.

The high-speed spinning of a disc amplifies these flaws, and electronically and mechanically

generates a significant amount of unwanted resonance. Apart from all these inherent sourcesof resonance, there are other areas such as airborne vibrations in the proximity of the CD playercoming from loudspeaker sound waves, circuit boards in the CD player, hum and vibration frommotor and transformer inside the player and from neighboring equipment, all of which addvibration and resonance detrimental to the reproduction of clean music.

The RCCcoating on the disc minimizes all these sources of vibration and resonance.


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A FIM technician is careully spraying the discs with RCC material.


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.Cleaning.We know that dirt, finger prints, and other contamination on the disc can easily be cleaned withproducts abundantly available in the market.

At FIM, we have purchased all kinds of cleaning products with a view to finding out which wouldbest meet our requirement. These products do the function of cleaning with varying degrees of

effectiveness. Yet some fluids did not remove the de-molding agent on the disc. The de-moldingagent is a kind of chemical liquid used by the disc replication plant to separate the disc from thestamper. The agent may not be cleaned from the disc at all, or not cleaned thoroughly enough,at the plant. For better laser reading, the de-molding agent should be cleaned off thoroughly.

According to our tests, a very high percentage of the fluids did clean the dirt, but leave behindresidue of the fluid itself in the form of a subtle layer of veil or fume on the disc. This is whythe tested cleaning fluids all sounded differently. The other concern was that some fluids

are alcohol-based. We suspect that some alcohol-based cleaning fluids may eventually, if notimmediately, chemically tamper with the integrity of the polycarbonate of which a disc is made.Clearly, we prefer not to use such fluids.

After years of research, we have finally found a product that meets our requirements: deionizedpure water. It has absolutely no negative effect on the polycarbonate and, after cleaning, the CDsurface is absolutely spotless, leaving no residue, marks, veil, or fume. The disc is immaculately

clean. Deionized water can be easily distinguished from normal tap or distilled water by a visualcheck. Tap or distilled water spreads over the surface of the disc and drains away, whereas thedeionized water, due to its strong surface tension capability, stays on the surface of the discin the form of large, crystal-clear pools of dew. The user can wipe the water away, or put thedisc in the vertical position so that the water will drain off the disc. The only drawback of usingdeionized water as a cleaner is that the apparatus is big, heavy, and expensive. It is also not user-friendly. Nevertheless, for love of the best sound, we still choose deionized water to clean all ourUDs. We also bottle the solution in small packages for audiophiles who want to shampoo theirdiscs, like we do. The spray bottle enables the end-user to clean their discs easily.


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Shampooing the UDs with deionized water.The deionizer apparatus


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.Dynamic Balancing.To tackle the problem of dynamic imbalance, we use the German Audio Desk System.

Care is taken not to tamper with the edge of the foil, or leave residue and dust on the disc afterbalancing. This is a timeconsuming process requiring patience and care.

Balancing an RCC treated disc with Audio Desk cutter.


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.The Absolute FidelityTMProcess.

This process is twofold:(a) Find the best CDR

(b) Burn a CDR using The Absolute FidelityTM Process

.(a) Which is the best CDR?.There are hundreds of kinds and models of CDRs on the market, with pricing ranging from a

few cents to $14 each. But which is the best?

We judge the quality of a CDR mainly by two parameters--measurement and auditioning--notby price.

We utilize the following procedure:

- We measure a particular blank CDR using Plextool, whereby we can produce two specificationsheets showing the block Error Rate, C1, C2, and CU data of that particular CDR.

We choose the one with the lowest distortion, of course.- We burn the selected various kinds of CDRs with our special Plextor Premium-2 using the

same music. We audition the sound and identify which is the best.

After a span of two and a half years, we have finally chosen a particular model of silver foil CDR(not aluminum) which can be archived for over 20 years, and a particular 24 K gold CDR, whichcan be archived for 300 years. Our discussions with our friendly manufacturer helped speed up

our research process. (Please note that the life span of some budget discs may be as short asjust a few years.)


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1. Extract the music from the original CD using ExactAudio Copy (available for free atwww.exactaudiocopy.de) using Paranoid mode.Make sure that you do proper detection of thefeatures of your CD drive (accurate stream, cach-ing, C2 error) before using it to extract the musicdata. When you use Paranoid mode, the softwarewill warn you that it is not recommended, and youwill damage your drive, but proceed anyway. ItWILL wear out your drive, so use a cheap CD-ROM drive as using a better drive makes no dif-ference at this stage.

2. Just before burning, copy the files to an emptyCompact Flash Card (you will need at least 1Gbcapacity) that is DIRECTLY connected to the syn-chronous master bus of your computer, not con-nected via USB. Highly recommended is a laptopcomputer with an ExpressCard bus interface. Theadvantage of this is that the laptop is run on bat-teries during the burning process, with the screen

turned off.3. Burn the CDR using the best external CD Burner

available I recommend the Plextor Premium-2 orthe Yamaha CRW-F1. Both features Audio MasterQuality Recording mode use the fastest speedfor AMQR, which is 4x. Place the CD Burner on aresonance-controlled surface like the FIM Signa-ture Platform, and power the burner with a linearpower supply plugged into the IsoTek Sigmaspower conditioner.

4. Choose the best CDR to use in your burner:

a. Black CDRs sound the warmest and most

musical. However, they do not seem tolast, and hence they should only be consid-ered as disposable discs. Also, it is al-most impossible to find a great-soundingblack CDR these days. The MemorexBlack All-Use that is made by Mitsui isvery, very good.

b. The Mitsui plant in Colorado makes thebest archival-quality gold CDR the MAM-

A Pro Audio Gold Master. However, it issold 50 pieces in a cakebox and you willfind that the discs on the bottom do notsound as good as the discs on the top. Ifyou manage to get a fresh cakebox, storethem in a cool dark place on its side (likeyou would store your vinyl).

c. The MAM-A Archive Gold is sold individu-

ally packed in jewel cases, and these aremore consistent. They dont sound as goodas the best of the Pro Audio Gold, butsound better than the worst of the Pro Au-dio Gold.

d. The absolute best CDR to use is the FirstImpressions Music version of the Pro AudioGold Master. However, at $45 a disc, youwill probably reserve it only for your best

music.

The Absolute Fidelity processThe Absolute Fidelity process By Gary KohBy Gary Koh

.(b) Burn aUD CDR.(i) We use the RCCcoated, deionized water washed and dynamically balanced CDRs to

burn a UD, following The Absolute FidelityTM Processas laid down by Gary Koh of Genesis

Advanced Technologies Inc. Here it is.


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(ii) We use our special burner, the discontinued Plextor Premium-2, highly modified withsuper power supply and powered by our wonderful Energy Center on Isolation Platform.We burn a Direct-from-Master Edition UD, using the original master as the source.

(iii) We use a modified top model of Rimage Replicator: 5100N with FIM Energy Center on

Isolation Platform to burn a Collectors Edition UD.All production is assured with data checking and auditioning. The whole procedure is under full in-house control. (Regular FIM albums are pressed by JVC Japan, known to be one of the best replicationplants in the world.)

.Type ofUDs.

We have three models:(i) UD Blank CDR: RCCtreated, deionized water washed, blank 24 K Gold CDR, retailing

at $35.00.

(ii) Collectors UD Edition

We shall release, in limited quantity, some albums in UD format. They sound superior toregular FIM CDs, which are already famous for excellent sonority, retailing at $50.00. All

Collectors UD Edition albums are individually numbered and coded. The average block errorrate is 3 or lower! The industry standard is 220!

(iii) Direct-from-Master UD Edition

I have the simplest of tastes; I only like the best Oscar Wilde

For those who are only satisfied with the very best, we burn a UD direct from theoriginal master. This version is the closest to the sound of the original master, because

it is in essence a second master, the highest quality a consumer can obtain. It is notavailable in stores. The prospective customer has to subscribe, fill in a form withpersonal particulars, and sign an undertaking not to make any copies whatsoever, sincethe sound is so close to the master, it may be tempting for certain people to use this UDfor illegal production (though FIM can trace that particular person, as the disc is coded).FIM reserves the right to disapprove a subscription application. AllDirect-to Master-UDEditions are individually handcrafted. The CD jacket is embossed with the customers

name and registered number; his or her name and registered number are also printedon the disc. Two different certificates of authenticity of that particular disc, signed by


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Winston Ma, are included. The disc is certified with an average block error rate of 1 orlower! The cost is $150.00 each expensive, but probably the best sounding CD moneycan buy. For arguments sake, one could say that it is very inexpensive to buy a secondmaster at only $150, taking into consideration the time, energy, and care that go intocreating these discs.

If a customer wishes to request his or her favorite number for use on all Direct-from-Master UDs, we shall be happy to do the extra management work. However, he or she is

requested to make a donation not less than $300 to any charity organization of his orher choice. This opportunity is offered on a first-come first-served basis. If there is morethan one customer asking for the same number, that number will be auctioned, with theproceeds going to charity. In future, we may create a scholarship or award to supportmeaningful projects or talented audio designers who need financial help.

For subscription, please email to [email protected].

For UD subscriptions and related questions, please email [email protected].

For questions on AVM, please contact www.accentusaudio.com

First Impression Music, Inc.

Winston Ma

September 28, 2008


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Postscript

I gave Gary Koh of Genesis Loudspeakers a couple ofUDslast week for his showin Florida. The following was his feedback:

From Gary Leonard Koh ([email protected])

Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 11:42 PM

Hi Winston,

I made a RCCcoated version of Happy Coat on my CRW-F1 at home, and it isabsolutely fabulous. Very critical ears here in Florida have said that they thoughtthat it was the very, very best of vinyl. When I told the audience that it was thelastest technology from FIM, they were astounded. We have two more days and we are taking orders for the non-RCCcoated version of Happy Coat, andmany want the RCCcoated one no matter what they cost. I told them that youhad to apply for the very, very limited copies, and it might be $150. Still theywant it!!.

I think that you have a fabulous hit here!

CheersGary

Sent: Friday September 26, 2008 11:43 PM

You may have to re-think the pricing, because test pressing vinyl that donteven sound as good are being sold for $200 here in Florida.CheersGary


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Far and away, the best CD-Rwas the First Impression Mu-sic Audio Master. This is a

special resonance control coated,dynamically balanced, ionic watercleaned, 300-year archival-qualityGold CD-R. They will retail at $45each, and worth every penny. Now,after 26 years since the introductionof the Compact Disc, we are be-ginning to approach the reality of thePerfect Sound Forever.

Finally, three recordings brought in by the members

were copied to a FIM CDR.The first was Charlie Hayden on thedouble bass, and while there was asubtle improvement, it was nothugely noticeable. The improvementin the second disc Children of San-chez by Chuck Mangione floored

everybody. The improvement washuge, and it was like a different re-cording and a totally different soundsystem. The improvement on thethird recording was also not subtle.

As a finale, we played This isK2 HD Sound! a sampler by FIM Recordings. This is

one of the best sounding CDs evermade. When we played the original,it sounded so good that most of the

audience thought that there was noway that this disc could be improvedupon. If there ever was a perfect CD,this would be it.

However, when we played theCollectors Edition of thisdisc, most of the members

could hear the improvement. This is

a pressed CD that has been specially

selected for outstanding quality, andthen it is resonance control coatedand dynamically balanced, and thenionic-water washed. When these arereleased, they will be in limitedquantities.

Below is an excerpt from an interesting report on a session of UD auditioning and comparisonby the Pacific Northwest Audio Society in September, 2008


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Finally, we played the SecondMaster Edition, and this wasyet another leap forward over

the Collectors Edition. The SecondMaster, as the name implies, is not acopy, but a recording made from theoriginal studio masters, and burnedonto a FIM Audio Master CDR.They will be the ultimate in refer-ence-quality CDs. These SecondMasters will only be sold to sub-scribers who have signed an under-taking not to make copies in what-ever format. Each disc is seriallynumbered and engraved with thename of the subscriber. It will alsocome with two certificates showingthe specifications of that particulardisc. Only very limited quantitieswill be produced, and they will cost$150 per disc.

WinstonMaexplainstheintricaciesofproducingthebestsoundingCDsavailableandsomespeciallimitedCDstobereleasedinthenearfuture.

YoucouldhearapindropwhenWinstonwasspeaking

Special thanks to Gary Koh, Genesis Advanced technologies, Inc. or his

generous sharing o his knowledge and experience in the technology oburning the best CDRs and other related felds.


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