Cleaning CDs, to do or foo?

[alphaGT]

Anyone remember the green pen? Man years back, they sold a green felt marker that actually painted the edge of a disc green, to absorb any stray red laser light. Many reviewers swore by it! And claimed it made a world of difference. But for some reason they are no longer for sale, apparently the difference wasn’t worth the trouble.

A good CD cleaning solution may or may not improve sound quality, but when your disc gets dirty, it may be worth having a special cleaner for it. Something that will evaporate away without affecting the plastic, or leave a soapy film. I recall some that claimed to fill scratches. Which may be a preventative measure to keep it from skipping at some point in the future. So just because there isn’t an instant improvement in sound, doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile.

Russell

[struth]

Anyone remember the green pen? Man years back, they sold a green felt marker that actually painted the edge of a disc green, to absorb any stray red laser light. Many reviewers swore by it! And claimed it made a world of difference. But for some reason they are no longer for sale, apparently the difference wasn’t worth the trouble.

A good CD cleaning solution may or may not improve sound quality, but when your disc gets dirty, it may be worth having a special cleaner for it. Something that will evaporate away without affecting the plastic, or leave a soapy film. I recall some that claimed to fill scratches. Which may be a preventative measure to keep it from skipping at some point in the future. So just because there isn’t an instant improvement in sound, doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile.

Russell

Yes the green pen. lol think someone had a few tens of millions of them and started a world wide story.

Ive use the clear filler and also done the brasso one too. Worked for a jukebox firm who always looked for ways to save damaged CDs

Brasso webbing followed by damp cloth and a buff worked best cost wise.
The filler was hit n miss tbh

[Kit1cat]

I've used Brasso webbing to clean up a few secondhand cd/dvd's that would not play.

[Macca]

The green pen was a classic example of how conscious and unconscious bias can affect perception.

[alphaGT]

The green pen was a classic example of how conscious and unconscious bias can affect perception.

It can be easy to fool yourself. Like the UFO poster from X-Files, “I Want to Believe”.

Russell

[Macca]

It can be easy to fool yourself. Like the UFO poster from X-Files, “I Want to Believe”.

Russell

Thing is if you put some stripes down the bonnet of your car (or the 'hood' as you say) and claimed your 0-60 was 2 seconds better as a result no-one would take it seriously because everyone has a basic idea of how a car works and so they know it is impossible. But people don't tend to have even a basic idea of how digital audio works and so as far as they are concerned anything is possible.

[bobvfr]

WHAT, are you saying my attempts to beef up my Flymo's performance by having racing checker and go faster stripes was a waste of time, the bloody years I have wasted putting that stuff on all my lawnmowers, sod it...…..

[Macca]

WHAT, are you saying my attempts to beef up my Flymo's performance by having racing checker and go faster stripes was a waste of time, the bloody years I have wasted putting that stuff on all my lawnmowers, sod it...…..

You mean you didn't perceive a slight but definite improvement in how green the grass looked afterwards?

Either you're blind or your lawnmower's not revealing enough...

[alphaGT]

Thing is if you put some stripes down the bonnet of your car (or the 'hood' as you say) and claimed your 0-60 was 2 seconds better as a result no-one would take it seriously because everyone has a basic idea of how a car works and so they know it is impossible. But people don't tend to have even a basic idea of how digital audio works and so as far as they are concerned anything is possible.

An excellent analogy, i hear others saying, “how do you know this tweak won’t work if you haven’t tried it?”. I suppose a 6 year old may actually believe racing stripes can make a car go faster? (And a few adults I know) but any tweak that relies on magic to work, probably doesn’t work. I’ve never had much luck with magic.

Russell

[Duckworp]

I have some of the Art du Son cleaner. It works. I have 2 copies of a number of CDs and tried before and after cleaning comparing treated and non-treated. Before they sounded identical, after one was cleaned the cleaned disc sounded better. And expectation bias not relevant as I got someone else to play the CDs blind and I choose the cleaned disc each time.