Take any cd and play 20 seconds of the first track....then squirt a few drops of Armour All and wipe clean...The surface will be "smoother"....now play that same 20 seconds and the improvement is startling. Better readability of the laser dramatically improves all aspects of the sound. I've been doing this for many years and it does NOT hurt the disc. If anything, it preserves it. If you're scared, try it on a disc you don't like...You may just start to like it a little more. It really makes a difference for the better....The beloved Auric Illuminator works on the same principal but the AA is much less costly and I think it sounds better. Remember LAST......Enjoy the music...not the Electronics !
CDs And Green Markers. Please Don’t Laugh.
I’m sorry. I apologize. If anything has been done to death, it’s this. And yet . . .
I was pulling “Darkness On The Edge Of Town” out of my CD player the other day and wondering if Bruce had really made peace with his father when I noticed the edge of the disc was green. Looking through my collection, I found a bunch of them so marked. “Let It Be” by The Replacements. “Murmur.” Stuff that came out during the brief period after the introduction of the CD and before the green pen became an embarrassment.
I should give a quick kudos to the albums that have survived countless culling that keeps my active collection at about 500 discs. Discs that are easily stored because I always take the discs and printed media out of the ridiculous plastic “jewel” cases and put them in DiscSox, an invention I can’t believe has been overlooked by the Nobel committee. 500 discs fits into five trays from Office Depot and the whole collection takes up about 16x30 inches and the height of a CD. I can’t imagine living with the original packaging.
I never A/B’ed any of the albums with the green marking. Never looked into the science of the green pen. Back in the day, it was cheap, it was easy, and it was supposed to work. Why not try it? When it became a laughingstock, I stopped.
But like skinny ties, I assume that green markers have come in and out of vogue many times since 1982. I love a good tweak and wonder if anyone has justified the use of the green marker. I’m not looking far a scientific explanation. Herbie’s Super Black Hole actually works but without anything close to a reason for doing so. I’d be thrilled if the same was true if green pens.
Besides, those looking for science in audio forums should familiarize themselves with a priori reasoning, and the problems attendant upon it.
Where have I gone? Why so much wandering? Is it because the initial question is so stupid? Still, I’d like to know: Has anything happened since, say, 1985, that would make greening the edge of CDs sensible?
If not, I promise to apologize and slink quietly back into the darkness.