Review: Xtreme AV LLC Liquid Resolution Tweak


Category: Accessories

Liquid Resolution is an aptly named CD treatment product that extracts more fidelity and thus greater enjoyment from your discs. Treated discs exhibit an improved realism that delivers a listening experience more interesting than any you would have previously believed possible. It could be likened to the difference between an average performance given by a performer one night as compared with an inspired, virtuoso performance given the next.

Application is relatively quick and painless, a minute or less of light buffing being the only effort necessary. It is much easier to use than paste based products. The payback for this minimal effort and expense is hard to put into a few short words so I am going to elaborate more in this review than I am typically inclined to.

To start off, notable HF extension is observed along with improved definition in the treble region; I have never noticed this effect result from any previous tweaking effort. Midrange and bass definition are also notably increased; bass definition in particular is impressive. Nuanced harmonic detail and lovely sonority are pulled out from those pits.

Greater clarity and intensity are observed. Lyrics are more readily discerned. The presentation is crisper, snappier, and livelier. The added vitality and dynamic contrast LR delivers is probably the thing I appreciate the most. Venue cues and decay information are more apparent. Individual images exhibit sharper delineation resulting in a more realistic portrayal. The soundstage as a whole fills out and is more pleasing. This dimensional, holographic, quality is what I consider to be the hallmark of good vinyl reproduction.

The overall transparency produced by Liquid Resolution treatment is simply astounding. More open, less congested, unbound, unfettered are words that come to mind when trying to describe this aspect of improvement.

As you can tell from my description, this product has a universal effect on system performance. Without a doubt this is the Swiss pocketknife of tweaks. Discs treated with LR just have a more fully developed feel to them. Disc after disc produces a profound sense that real, live performers are doing their thing right in front of you. Of course there is always room for improvement. I’m guessing that Last Tweak Syndrome accounts for the magnitude of the performance gain experienced in my system, LR simply building on the foundation already laid by my other efforts. It’s all good.

If you are an Xtreme AV QuickSilver GOLD contact paste user you are already familiar with its excellence, the Liquid Resolution effect is equal to, and probably even greater than that of QS GOLD IME. Consider this product essential in extracting the utmost performance from your digital playback system.

These comments were originally posted at Audio Asylum.

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The Liquid Resolution is a definite tweak that is very noticable, by cleaning away a fine haze that is left over from the making of the cd itself. I did find that I preferred the L.R. disc's over the previous tweak that I was using.It gave me a more accurate and nuanced portrayal of the very subtle cues that make your best cd's real.The kit is very well thought out and is a pleasure to use.I feel that this tweak is very similar to the Quicksilver Gold in the fact that it gives you the music in a natural way.It is a "no brainer" since it comes with a money back offer !!Take care Dennis
QuickSilver GOLD™ and Liquid Resolution™ User Review

First let me say that I am very skeptical by nature and it was after long deliberation that I gave two of these products a try: Quicksilver Gold and Liquid Resolution. Before getting into my review of these products I will describe my system to give a better picture. Vandersteen 3A Signatures, Rotel RCD-1072, Rotel RB-1080, Audioquest CV-8, Cheetah’s and NRG-3’s, Pioneer 53” CRT rear projection, Denon DVD-3910, Audioquest YIQ-3.

First I will address Quicksilver Gold, however I feel there is a synergy between the two products that is magnificent. With QSG, it is vital to wait the 2-week period suggested by the product instructions. The instructions estimate that at this point the product is at about 80% of it full potential, and that seems to me to be dead on. During this period the sound changes quite dramatically. Once completed, my system sounded much more open, airy, and refined. There was a clarity and depth of the soundstage that was previously not there.

I noticed just how much difference there was after about 8 months when I disconnected ONE end of an interconnect, to demo a friends component, and thereby destroyed the polymerization process that had occurred - and my system instantly sounded dull by comparison. Keep in mind that I had the entire system down to the fuses in each component pasted, and this one half of an interconnect made a very significant difference. Although at first I felt this product was expensive, after using it and hearing the difference it made in my system, it becomes insanely cheap! A+ rating in my opinion for QSG.

Now on to Liquid Rez. LR was big surprise to me. The nice thing about LR is that the results are instant and immediately comparable as opposed to QSG - which takes a couple weeks to maximize. I have used LR on about 250 discs and/or movies so far, and in every case, it has made a substantial difference! Some discs I noticed a more dramatic difference than others, but every disc showed significant improvement nonetheless.

One disc in particular that stood out for me was Prince’s Purple Rain (this could be because this is a disc I am particularly familiar with). Now given that with all of Prince’s genius, his recordings are fairly poor to begin with, after treating the disc with LR the music was much more vibrant, detailed, and lively. There was a much stronger sense of space in the soundstage and much greater clarity or transparency. Also, in most cases, it seemed as if the sound was slightly louder (in my estimation, by about a decibel!) and definitely larger with slightly greater slam. To add to these benefits, LR also seems to give a more analog feel to these digital recordings.

As far as DVD’s go the picture becomes clearer and more detailed, while the sound becomes much more lifelike and open, applying similar results to the picture and sound of my movies as it did with my CD’s. Another A+ rating for LR.

Combining these two products has been the most worthwhile AND cost effective tweaks to my system I have ever done. I can honestly say that I will never listen or watch anything important to me again without these two products. Thanks so much Brian!
I can't agree more about the said two products especially the Quicksilver Gold contact enhancer. Big improvement in clarity, and open and higher soundstage after pasting just PC's and SC's using the Quicksilver. Same can be said about the Liquid Resolution cd cleaner. It is far superior to the pastes out there and even the Walker products and Jena Labs INMHO.(I have those other cleaners collecting dust in my storage closet) The Liquid Resolution makes a significant improvement in HF and LF and clarity of vocals. I did an A and B comparison using an untreated cd and the other treated with Liquid Resolution. I just so happened to have in my cd collection 2 copies of Joni Mitchell " Court and Spark" and "Chicago V" to use as the comparison. On the untreated Joni Mitchell cd on most of her songs her vocals sounded dull and words were not very distinguishable and this was on the Gold cd master!Mastered by Steve Hoffman. I tried the other Gold master cd of the same Court and Spark treated with Liquid Resolution and there was no comparison. The LR treated cd sounded far superior, clearer and velvet vocals now the lyrics were much more distinguishable. On the Chicago V untreated cd the horn section sounded distant and the famous horn section sounded honky and somewhat constricted.I thought it might have been the poor recording of this cd. Was I wrong, playing the LR treated Chicago cd now all the horns had life and air around them, it just sounded like real brass and not at all being constricted. I was sold right after that and I believe that these two products are worth every penny spent... Buy either one of these products and you will not regret it...
By the way after contacting Brian Kyle at Xtreme cables he suggested I paste the IC's and fuses after doing this it made everything in my audio system that much higher in performance...
Have any of the responders tried both of these other products: Mikrosmooth (along with Optrix) and Ultra Vivid (Walker audio)? Is this Liquid Resolution better than either of these? In what way?