Opaque blue marker pen twice around the outside and the inside hole of the CD.
Anyone use CD tweaks
I was wondering about the effectiveness of products hyped to improved sound quality - i.e. products like Maple Shade's "Mikro Smooth" for polishing CDs and their "Optrix" surfactant product. You want to believe these claims, but sometimes they sound too good to be true. Anyone with any experience with these or similar CD enhancers??
Thanks in advance...
Thanks in advance...
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The color of marker that's most effective depends on the color of the CD label artwork. For example, Mercury Living Presence CDs (labels are Black and White) prefer Red marker on the outer edge and black on the inner edge. Most CDs prefer Green or Purple (Violet) on the outer edge and Black on the inner edge. |
I'm only digital, and only CD's, so I thought maybe it was time to treat the discs since I had pretty much tweaked everything else in my rig. I can tell you, flat out, that the Mikrosmooth / Optrix spray combo from Mapleshade is crazy good -- better air, clarity, staging, freq extension, everything. It was like a good cable upgrade. IOW, significant. And I am definitely a pessimist when it comes to this kind of stuff. I even considered contributing a testimonial to Mapleshade, but I suppose I just did... 30 day MBG. Easily worth the $40 + shipping IMO. mikro/optrix |
I enjoyed reading all the comments from all the previous posts and I would like to add the following few remarks. After many long discussions with Ric Schultz (aka Mr. Tweak Audio) I have arrived at a very crazy formula. If your OCD istry the following combo tweaks. First sand the edges of you cd inside and out. Then use Pierre Spreys mikro smooth creme on the cd's surface and then finish the job with Rob Spences Blue MAxx cd cleaner. Then use a cheap permanent marker to blacken both the outside and inside cd edges. Finally take a hair dryer use the cool setting and blast the cd for about 45 seconds (about 12 inches away) you can move it closer and further away while you "blow dry" your cd (actually this technique works better than any the above tweaks) and then place your cd in your transport and be prepared for a wonderful improvement. BTW all of the tweaks I have mentioned DO have some HMMMmmmm pretty "good science" to back up their effects. Keep in mind that all of these twaeks are a pain in the ass. Finally, because of my formal training as a "scientist" I did do a group test on Blue Maxx cd cleaner against optrix and the findings using a six people who had had approximately three glasses of great Zindindel was that the subjects thought that both Optrix and Blue MAxx cleaner were somewhat better than just plain inserting the cd into the palyer drawer. Hey have fun and don't try these tweaks with out professioal supervison. Best char |
Interesting, I also do the sanding, black hole treatment to my cds ,just prior to a demag. Just run your finger around the edge of a cd and you'll feel a lot of ridges and irregularities. I was given a demo of the Geman disc cutting machine for cd's and got hooked on trying to do the same at home without the machine. It works for me. Those ridges theoretically would influence the spin of the discs in a cd player and perhaps are a source of jitter. Now all you need to do is try to demag your cd's and lp's. I should add that I only demag the lps ,cds and dvds. All other parts of the system are not, but share the benefits. |