"Shaving" optical discs

[ar surround]

I had a Sony CD player circa 1985. I bought some of those stabilizer rings with self adhesive that got put on the outside of the CDs. I bought a pair of duplicate CDs to test. One without the ring installed. The other with the ring installed.

I and numerous others felt that the rings had somewhat of a positive effect on the sound quality. However, when I upgraded to a Nakamichi CD player in 1989, no one thought that there was any difference between the treated and untreated CDs.

Perhaps the Sony didn’t have as sophisticated an error correction system as the Nak; or perhaps didn‘t have as good of a digital clock as the Nak and therefore suffered from jitter; or perhaps we were all full of shit. Just too many variables, such as better DACs in the Nak, etc.

Remarkably, that early Sony is still doing its job 37 years later at a relative’s house while the magnificent Nak is long gone to component heaven.

 

[Sal1950]

I remember some talk about using WD40 on optical discs.
Some swore they sound better.
Until the solvents start to destroy the plastic. LOL

 

[JulesRules]

Ugh... One of my pet peeves. It's French for, "there it is," and it is spelled, "voilà."

 

[jaybird100]

Anyone tried www.russandrews.com ReVeel and ReleeS spray? An audiophile friend and I spent way too many hours one night doing A/B comparisons on our favourite CDs and..... there was DEFINITELY something happening. Curious!!

If you expect to hear a difference, you will, whether it's real or not.

 

[Sal1950]

If you expect to hear a difference, you will, whether it's real or not.

Yep, and when you listen more intently you start to hear details you didn't before. LOL

 

[kap'n krunch]

SAGA!!!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I still believe, the best way to improve the sound from your system, is to invest in better speakers.

 

[atrocity]

How about ripping the disk before and after treatment and comparing the ripped data.

That was my first thought as well. A flac -t command applied to each file would get to the bottom of it immediately.

 

[kap'n krunch]

I still believe, the best way to improve the sound from your system, is to invest in better speakers.

Darn tootin'!!!
since this is about CDs I wil leave out the other two things that are crucial, one for home audio, BEST STYLUS you can afford (that is why I have a $35 fine line nude Ortofon), and for recording, BEST MICROPHONE you can afford (my humble Neumann TLM-103 which is a no frills U-87)

 

[Sal1950]

Neumann TLM-103

NIce mic!

 

[quadsearcher]

$35 fine line nude Ortofon

$35? Really? is that a typo?

 

[kap'n krunch]

$35? Really? is that a typo?

just checking if anyone was paying attention!!!

 

[tonyE]

just checking if anyone was paying attention!!!

I was paying attention, I think the box my cartridge came in costs more than $35... and Mr Stylus came well dressed, not nude! Tuxedo and all.

But I was sidetracked with the Telefunken U-47. As Frank Zappa used to sing:

The guys in the crew
Have got a present for you!

A present for me?

We got a present for you!

Whaddya got?
Whaddya gonna give me?

It looks just like a TeleFunken U-47
You'll love it...

 

[kap'n krunch]

I was paying attention, I think the box my cartridge came in costs more than $35... and Mr Stylus came well dressed, not nude! Tuxedo and all.

But I was sidetracked with the Telefunken U-47. As Frank Zappa used to sing:

The guys in the crew
Have got a present for you!

A present for me?

We got a present for you!

Whaddya got?
Whaddya gonna give me?

It looks just like a TeleFunken U-47
You'll love it...

Yeah , it's definitely $350...
Love the Zappa quote!

 

[ssully]

I totally understand the concept of 1s and 0s and without supplying charts, graphs I can ONLY report what I SEE and HEAR. IMO, the ultra bit and black marker pen PERHAPS increases the reflectivity of the physical disc thus resulting in a more refined presentation to the optical laser .......

They don't work. Placebo works. Especially well on you.

 

[ssully]

I remember some talk about using WD40 on optical discs.
Some swore they sound better.
Until the solvents start to destroy the plastic. LOL

Sam Tellig advocated applying Armour All to CDs to achieve better sound from them.

A terrible idea, as the credulous (aka Stereophile readership) soon found out.

 

[Bill B]

Sam Tellig advocated applying Armour All to CDs to achieve better sound from them.

A terrible idea, as the credulous (aka Stereophile readership) soon found out.

Why? What happened with the Armour All?
I did a quick search on google and, from what I saw, the consensus is that it probably does nothing.

 

[jefe1]

I used to put Milk of Magnesia on my cds in case they had a stomach ache.

Where did all of these ideas come from? Im sure this stuff wasnt good for the cd player mechanisms.

 

[Bill B]

I used to put Milk of Magnesia on my cds in case they had a stomach ache.

Where did all of these ideas come from? Im sure this stuff wasnt good for the cd player mechanisms.

I heard storing CDs at absolute zero when not in use extends their life by a good 10 years.

 

[ssully]

Why? What happened with the Armour All?

What happened is that Tellig had to issue instructions for how to remove it after touting the 'magic' audio qualities it imparted to CDs.

I did a quick search on google and, from what I saw, the consensus is that it probably does nothing.

Maybe you had to be there. A 'quick search on Google' shows me a few mangled versions of the story and a fair number of half-witted comments on same.