Dr. AIX

Mark Waldrep, aka Dr. AIX, has been producing and engineering music for over 40 years. He learned electronics as a teenager from his HAM radio father while learning to play the guitar. Mark received the first doctorate in music composition from UCLA in 1986 for a "binaural" electronic music composition. Other advanced degrees include an MS in computer science, an MFA/MA in music, BM in music and a BA in art. As an engineer and producer, Mark has worked on projects for the Rolling Stones, 311, Tool, KISS, Blink 182, Blues Traveler, Britney Spears, the San Francisco Symphony, The Dover Quartet, Willie Nelson, Paul Williams, The Allman Brothers, Bad Company and many more. Dr. Waldrep has been an innovator when it comes to multimedia and music. He created the first enhanced CDs in the 90s, the first DVD-Videos released in the U.S., the first web-connected DVD, the first DVD-Audio title, the first music Blu-ray disc and the first 3D Music Album. Additionally, he launched the first High Definition Music Download site in 2007 called iTrax.com. A frequency speaker at audio events, author of numerous articles, Dr. Waldrep is currently writing a book on the production and reproduction of high-end music called, "High-End Audio: A Practical Guide to Production and Playback". The book should be completed in the fall of 2013.

7 thoughts on “Illuminated Sounds the Same…Everywhere I Tested It

  • Kudos to you for taking the time to research this guy’s product. He may sincerely believe he is offering something of value…

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  • Jim Humphry

    Mark Waldrep……..Dragon (ie: mythical beast) Slayer?

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  • Chris Wright

    Full disclosure first. There was a time when I’d have indulged in this sort of snake oil, purely because early CD reproduction equipment was so rough sounding and edgy. At that time there was motivation to try something, anything, that might improve the sonics. Today, of course, it’s a completely different issue and even quite inexpensive DACs are capable of quite superb sound quality.

    Therefore I think this sort of smoke and mirror stuff has had its day. I even sense that there’s a lot more scepticism surrounding cables these days. We’ve happily reached a point where these things simply matter a lot less. I’m quite happy to run my system through inexpensive Radio Shack interconnects and Home Depot speaker cable and it sounds absolutely phenomenal. Indeed, when I’ve tried a friend’s fancy Audioquest cable collection it all sounds measurably worse to my ears, probably because the cables are being over engineered when, in fact, simplicity of cable structure that’s unobtrusive to the signal is the way to go.

    The process with tweaks always seems to follow the same pattern. At first you notice a change in the sound, however small, and that may seem like an improvement, until further careful listening reveals you were better off without the system complications.

    This is such a great time to be into digital audio. My CD collection just keeps sounding better and better with each passing generation of DAC technology and, even better, I’m no longer spending money on silly peripheral upgrades that, as often as not, seem to actually detract from the music rather than enhancing it.

    All that being said, if you find some salvation in cables and pointing your CDs to magnetic North every morning then good luck to you. Hifi is all about opinions.

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    • Chris, Are you sure you installed those Audioquest cables the right way? They have directional errows so the music can flow with the alignment of the molecular structure of the wire. 🙂

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  • Mark, my hat is off to you. You went to all that work to give an honest and complete test to a product you already knew was snake oil an still report in a very gentlemanly and PC way. I could never be so nice. Lol

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  • John Rolin

    Mark, did you ever get a response on why the file sizes were different?

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    • Yes, I did. Mark Goldstein told me, “One of the manipulations I do is to increase the length of the pits and lands in the burning process. However previously this only took up more space on the CD not more time.” I don’t remember being given an option for doing this process when I’ve burned CD-Rs…maybe I missed it. But the music between the original and the processed copy are identical in length but the file is actually longer…very curious. He might be doing an analog transfer but then the bits wouldn’t cancel each other.  

      Reply

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