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Rain-X as CD Enhancement Treatment

I have used the Auric Illuminator treatment on my CD collection for several years now. I am a believer in the AI, and repeated A/B tests of identical treated/untreated CDs bore out significant improvements after treatment with AI.

I ran out of the fluid and my marker dried out, so I was searching for mew treatments on the market before buying another AI kit or choosing something new. That's when I ran across this article by Greg Weaver at Soundstage, where he talks about having used Rain-X and a green marker(Staedtler Lumocolor 357, price about $3.00) as a treatment on his CDs to great effect.

http://www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize200005.htm

Being the complete geek that I am, I had to try it for my self. I found the marker at Office Depot, and picked up a little bottle of Rain-X for $2.99. I treated a couple of CDs that I have ended up with duplicate copies of (Grant Green's Green Street, Frank Sinatra Sextet Live In Paris)and tested the Rain-X/marker treated vs. untreated disks.

Well, low and behold, the treated disks sounded notably improved; the music was clearer and louder, especially the midrange, the soundstage was larger with better definition and separation of instruments and the bass was tighter and deeper.

I can't say that the Rain-X treatment was or was not better sounding than the AI, but at the least very it is close, for a fraction of the price.

Has anyone else ever tried the Rain-X treatment?
craig_hoch

Showing 2 responses by nasaman

nasaman's avatar
nasaman
464 posts
 
Hi all,
This Rain-X treatment thread/ tip is such an interesting subject and I will give it a try sometime this weekend and will post the result.
The 2 minutes and 10 seconds "proceedure" should be simple but for this little A/B test like this may take me probabpy half a day just to prep. to get an accurate result. Like let the system warm-up, pick out then listen to a track over and over before putting the treated disk in, etc.

However, with all due respect, what can we do to keep this thread interesting and not going off course? Either ones BELIEVE it or NOT, we, as readers, already got your point; we already heard and seen enough. This thread is already long, there's no more need to know who performs better in bed or who's wife has a bigger boobs.... let's keep it clean and respect others' opinion(s). Show us some actual hands-on results.
nasaman's avatar
nasaman
464 posts
 
OMG, THIS RAIN-X TREATMENT WORKS. THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE.
I just tried and it works. Those that had doubt but with an open minded, please give it a try.

Well, right from the beginning of this, and any, A/B test, I knew it'd be a long night for me; I'm an skeptical guy. Anyways,I'm not going to post how I did it in details because it's going to be long and probably boring to readers. In short version, I:
1/ Played 2 movies and 1 music concert to insure system is all warmed up.
2/ Do trick and train my brain. It's for psychology purpose.
3/ Applied about 10 to 15 drops of Rain-X disc then gently buffed it off from center outward; not in circular motion. Since I have 2 identical and ORIGINAL CD's from Enya. I used 1 for the treatment and used one untreated for reference.

First, I noticed that in mid high, about 1K -5Khz was a little distored for the TREATED disc. It sounded artificial but after about 30 seconds, that seemed to disappear. Biggest improve was the contrast. I could actually hear more "silent". Intruments were slightly in clearer picture. Some purcusions instrument were more easily identified. Another word, I got sucked in the music more than the UNTREATED one. Dynamic was a bit improved, meaning it was slightly louder.
On the Untreated disc, music was seem to stick and run over lap each other. Like a little hazed or glass put in front between me and the stage.It was almost like to compare a Cassette tape to a CD. Well, not to be exact but it was a good happy ending. My hat is now off for those been hanging on this forum trying to convince others.

I'm really glad I did this. I have lots of red book CDs so it's not too difficult to guess what I'm about to do with them now..... Happy listening.
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