The current 44.1 KHZ sample rate CD digital format inherently results in considerable phase shifts starting in the midrange and increasing to 45 degrees (lag) at 11 KHZ and 90 degrees at 22 KHZ. This is essentially due to the sample rate itself constituting a “brick wall” low-pass filter starting at 1/2 the sampling rate or 22 KHZ. Any such filter results in a large associated phase shift. Secondly, the information above 15 KHZ is degraded because the system has only two 44 KHZ samples per signal cycle.

Almost all CD players and processors fail to correct these inherent problems. The Taddeo Digital Antidote is a patented ingenious solution in the analog domain, which also allows the device to be used between a CD player or DAC and preamp or amp. The device both corrects the phase error and in the process rolls off the degraded highs above 15 KHZ. Fortunately, there is very little musical information above 15 KHZ.

The Digital Antidote is the only analog domain add-on device we know of which addresses this problem, and we have found it to be essential for CD reproduction. The sound becomes more round and “fleshed out”, with a considerable reduction in upper midrange hardness and edge. In comparison, even very good uncorrected CD playback is spacially somewhat flat or two-dimensional, edgy and tonally unnatural.

The original Digital Antidote II has been replaced by an improved design (same model no.). The new version is an even greater advance in natural CD reproduction - much more lucid and extended in the high frequencies than the previous model II.