diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 09ed101..4898b68 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -6,9 +6,8 @@ FEBRUARY 2011, version 0.561 Con Kolivas
 * Delete temporary files generated when testing from stdin.
 * Don't call perror on failures that aren't system related.
 * Improve visual output.
-* Significant multi-threading speed-ups - Use one more thread than CPUs, and
-use a smaller buffer on the first thread and slightly more each next thread
-until the next stream. Then repeat the cycle.
+* Significant multi-threading speed-ups - as the spawning of threads is
+partially serialised, use one more thread than CPUs.
 * Don't split up the chunks into multiple threads when no back end
 compression is being used.
 * Take into account the precise amount of overhead that the memory hungry
diff --git a/rzip.h b/rzip.h
index 2ad5b5e..a95390b 100644
--- a/rzip.h
+++ b/rzip.h
@@ -301,7 +301,6 @@ struct stream_info {
 	int num_streams;
 	int fd;
 	i64 bufsize;
-	i64 max_bufsize;
 	i64 cur_pos;
 	i64 initial_pos;
 	i64 total_read;
diff --git a/stream.c b/stream.c
index 1c6a444..8384122 100644
--- a/stream.c
+++ b/stream.c
@@ -814,24 +814,14 @@ retest_malloc:
 	free(testmalloc);
 	print_maxverbose("Succeeded in testing %lld sized malloc for back end compression\n", testsize);
 
-	sinfo->max_bufsize = MIN(limit,
-			     MAX((limit + control.threads - 1) / control.threads,
-				 STREAM_BUFSIZE));
-	sinfo->bufsize = sinfo->max_bufsize;
+	/* Make the bufsize no smaller than STREAM_BUFSIZE. Round up the
+	 * bufsize to fit X threads into it */
+	sinfo->bufsize = MIN(limit, MAX((limit + control.threads - 1) / control.threads,
+					STREAM_BUFSIZE));
 
-	/* We start with slightly smaller buffers to start loading CPUs as soon
-	 * as possible and make them exponentially larger approaching the
-	 * tested maximum size. We ensure the buffers are of a minimum size,
-	 * though, as compression efficency drops off dramatically with tiny
-	 * buffers. */
-	if (control.threads > 1 && sinfo->max_bufsize > STREAM_BUFSIZE) {
-		sinfo->bufsize = sinfo->max_bufsize * 63 / 100;
-		sinfo->bufsize = MAX(sinfo->bufsize, STREAM_BUFSIZE);
-	}
-	
 	if (control.threads > 1)
 		print_maxverbose("Using up to %d threads to compress up to %lld bytes each.\n",
-			control.threads, sinfo->max_bufsize);
+			control.threads, sinfo->bufsize);
 	else
 		print_maxverbose("Using only 1 thread to compress up to %lld bytes\n",
 			sinfo->bufsize);
@@ -1072,9 +1062,6 @@ static void clear_buffer(struct stream_info *sinfo, int stream, int newbuf)
 			 i, cthread[i].s_len, stream);
 	create_pthread(&threads[i], NULL, compthread, (void *)i);
 
-	if (control.threads > 1)
-		sinfo->bufsize += (sinfo->max_bufsize - sinfo->bufsize) * 63 / 100;
-
 	if (newbuf) {
 		/* The stream buffer has been given to the thread, allocate a new one */
 		sinfo->s[stream].buf = malloc(sinfo->bufsize);