Clean away old CD treatments

side effects may include drowsiness, suicidal thoughts, pathological gambling... ask your doctor if Abilify is good for you :-)

. . . "right" for you. ;-)

Dawn dishwashing liquid should remove any waxes or oils on the CDs.  You might also try ROR - residual oil remover, a liquid made for cleaning fine camera and microscope lenses.  It's available from Amazon or most camera stores.  But the Dawn should be fine.  

Interesting response chayro, I use Dawn as well. Seems to work just fine.

Dawn is the go-to product for auto detailers that want to strip the old wax from cars before a detailing.  Very good on windshields to remove the greasy buildup that makes wipers streak.  It's also good on dishes.  

Dawn is better for this purpose than a different brand? I was going to use some biodegradable stuff from Costco.

Dawn is used to remove oil/grease from roadways after accidents. It really does its' job. Even animal rescue organizations use it to clean off animals caught in oil slicks.
In fact, if you do use it, be sure to apply some skin moisturizer to your hands when you are finished cleaning CD's as they can get a bit dried out, as well.

 
gdnrbob
Dawn is used to remove oil/grease from roadways after accidents. It really does its' job. Even animal rescue organizations use it to clean off animals caught in oil slicks.

That's great. But can it remove the electric static charge?

Can it core A apple?

Sounds like good stuff. Who knew? I'll stick with Dawn. Today's the day. I'll need more distilled water.

I boil water to get steam...hold disk over to get steam cleaned a couple times...

 So did any of these treaments bring about any improvement to the sound.  I have used optrix with mixed results

there are many things wrong with CDs. they can develop electric static charge, magnetic field, they presumably have mold release compound that has been absorbed by the polycarbonate, the CDs are often out of round, which the reason for that CD trimmer. not to mention that coloring the CD, e.g. green pen, reduces the amount of background scattered light getting into the photodetector, at the the visible red portion.

After I began using Optrix, I couldn't listen without it. Even my grunge sounded grungy. When Optrix was discontinued, I switched to Shine-ola, which I found to be much better. More analog, more vibrant. So I decided to try the Ultrabit, which is supposedly the best. I am undecided about the Ultrabit. The clarity is stunning. But I think it made the discs sound bright, almost glaring. Initially I found the discs difficult to listen to, but now I might be getting used to it.

I've treated about 50-60 of my discs total. This weekend I am washing them all, going back to the beginning. Then I'm going to do a small test with just a few CDs between the Shin-ola and Ultrabit. Anyway, Ultrabit is discontinued now, so this is the end of it. I might try L Art du Son also, but enough is enough.

Geoffkait, the OP wanted to remove old cleaners, for which I suggested Dawn. Introducing magnetism and static charge to the conversation seems a bit off field. In any case, the OP can get a demagnitizer, which I would endorse, as I have noticed a marked sound quality difference after using it.-And, I really was expecting it to make no difference!
Some of these tweaks aren't snake oil sometimes.

gdnrbob

Geoffkait, the OP wanted to remove old cleaners, for which I suggested Dawn. Introducing magnetism and static charge to the conversation seems a bit off field.

Not really off field since many CD "cleaners" do more than just clean. As i already pointed out, since some cleaners remove MRC you cannot really "start over from scratch" since once treated with many cleaners the CD will always be better than its original state. besides many CD cleaners such as Optrix employ an anti static agent. Dawn may or may not remove MRC, I don’t know. And most likely it doesn’t contain anti static agents, but anything is possible.

cheers

In fact, I've been thinking about getting a demagnetizer, such as the HiFi Tuning or Furutech. I've experimented enough with various tweaks to know that they do provide a benefit. But I wish I could hear the demagnetizer, considering the cost. And I presume it's true that there will always be some residual effect from the previous treatments. But now that I've seen that there really is a benefit to these spray treatments, I want to think more carefully about what I'm doing before I go any further. I think I might just stick with Shine-ola. Or I might take one last stab with the L Art du Son.

Finally finished cleaning the CDs. I put them through three rinses in distilled water after washing with Dawn. What a chore.

Actually there were not 50 discs, but 150. Long day.

I left four discs that had received only the Ultrabit and four discs that had received only the Shine-ola. Listening last night, I think the Ultrabit treatment might be mellowing over time. It doesn't seem so aggressive now. The clarity and detail are very compelling.

Clark Johnsen did a review of quite a number of CD treatments for Positive Feedback titled Lotions Eleven. 

Rfprice, I bought the Hifi tuning demagnitizer. As I said, I was skeptical, but thought 'What the heck'. Well, I was surprised when I and my friend noticed a significant difference when comparing the discs before and after.
If you want, you can borrow mine. I have been indulging in streaming music for the past 6 months. I love it.

Thanks! for sharing- rfprice

link to Clark Johnsen's article on CD treatment comparison, Lotions 11

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue26/cjdiaries.htm

gdnrbob, thank you so much for offering me your demagnetizer to sample. I just sent you a private message.

geoffkait, thanks for the link. I like how the writer doesn't really pick a winner. Actually I'm unaware of some of the treatments he describes. His Ultrabits are the previous formulas, not the Diamond Plus, but there probably isn't much difference between the them.

I'm becoming more and more curious about the L Art du Son. I know that Absolute Sound magazine also did a comparison and the fellow declared L Art to be the best. Still, I'm not sure I want to toss another $50 on liquids. At some point you have to stop. But I've begun to get a sense that three treatments are worthwhile: a cleaning spray, a demagnetizer, and a trimmer (although I've never actually tried a trimmer). Ever since I began collecting Japan-made discs, I've become a strong believer in the importance of the physical disc itself. I think that you would have to spend thousands on hardware to make a poorly manufactured disc sound as good as a quality disc.

@gdnrbob    Just curious, you said you heard a "significant difference" between a demagged disc and one not so treated.  Could you elaborate on the nature of the differences??
Thanks!

rfprice ...

You can save a lot of cash by buying a Radio Shack VCR tape eraser and using that to demagnetize your CD's. I've used one for over 20 years and they work as well as any. Just be sure to get the one for VCR's and not the smaller one that's intended for audio cassette tapes. The one for VCR's is much larger and a lot more powerful.

Also, be sure to clean the CD's before demagnetizing. If you demagnetize first and then clean,  by rubbing the CD with your cleaning cloth, you'll be adding static electricity back into the CD and you'll be right back to square one.

When demagnetizing, just wave the demagnetizer slowly over the CD about 3 inches above it in a circular motion, then very slowly draw it straight away from the CD.  I find that using this method removes the digital glare and makes the CD sound a LOT more analog like. You'll be surprised how many CD's you once found unlistenable and too bright that are really pretty darned good. 

Also, I've used most of the CD cleaning solutions out there including the  L Art du Son. A friend came up with a home made formula that kills them all.  Problem is, he won't share the formula with me. On the other hand, I have a home made cleaning solution that I came up with after much experimentation for LP's that really gets down into the grooves like no other and brings out the highest amount of inner detail and a more organic sound from the instruments ... and I don't share that formula either. When used with the VPI 16.5 the finished product is clean, clean ... and CLEAN.  It costs pennies and all of my vinyl freakoid friends use it. They bring over a gallon of distilled water, I go out into kitchen, make up the batch in ten seconds and its done.

We audiophiles are a strange lot. *lol*

Hope this helps ... 

Frank

Frank, truer words have never been spoken. We audiophiles are indeed a strange lot.

I've read about the VCR eraser method. Seems like a good idea. You mean the high-powered one that looks like a small anvil? Or you mean the wand type?

I'm mad curious about your friend's secret formula. Oh well, my grandmother never gave up her pie recipes, so I can't fault your friend either.