Gold CDs sound Darker?

I don't think there's too much of a difference. It might be less of an improvement for gold ones, but it's hardly perceptible. Maybe fractions of a percentage point of the difference, for what it does with aluminum. (Realize that what's happening to the CD with the Bedini has as much to do with the plastic polycarbonate, as it does with the data layer.) Even CD-R's are vastly improved by both the Bedini and the Laser Guide (and there's zero metal of any kind in them). On your favorite CD's, even several applications of the Laser Guide (buffed properly) get it a little closer to "analog", making the digital "grit" a few more dB quieter. It's not as if the polycarbonate is truely "optical quality", even on DVD's or SACD's. Even the best Carl Zeiss glass lenses for cameras, binoculars, and telescopes must have complex coatings on all surfaces to get maximum performance (called "ultra-multicoating"). If any of these lenses were made from the polycarbonate that CD's are made from, it'd be like looking through dense fog, and you couldn't see much of anything at all. Yes, we're talking about a very thin layer for a CD, but we're also talking an EXTREMELY small area (thru this thin polycarbonate layer) when it comes to what the laser must focus on/through. Much smaller still for DVD and SACD.

Interesting. So perhaps the difference in Gold releases is that the whole package is better. From the masters used, to perhaps the polycarb medium as well, that accounts for some of the sonic differences, with or without the tweaks. Overall, I have prefered the Gold version in probably 90% of the ones that I've shelled out for.

Hi Carl, sorry didn't followup this post sooner. BTW what is Bedini Ultra Clarifier? and what exactly does it do? I have my friend to check out the two subject CDs on his hi-end Marantz cdp and I haven't the result yet. The alum and the gold in question are both made by Sheffield LabUSA. Jazz pianist/composer Pat Coil album names "Just Ahead" and "Pat Coil Gold". The gold is described as audiophile ref. system 20=>16 if i remember correctly. There is a Japanese company here manufacturing the raw polycarbonate for the CD manufrs hope to check that out too with the material technologist. thanks. Phil.

I tried to answer you earlier, but every damn time I want to post something, Audiogon's server somehow crashes! Give me a break, you dunderheads! I don't have the particular CD's you are referring to. Go to bedini.com for more on it. Basically, it's a motor that spins the CD at several thousand rpm, over magnets fixed in its base. They claim it has a polarizing effect on the potential stored energy/static electricity of the CD. I know that it works, whatever it's doing.

As far as a magnetic clarifier having an effect, "SHOW ME THE BITS!!". Has anyone done a comparison of the bit stream coming from an ordinary CD and that coming from the same CD after "clarification" (or any other tweak for that matter)? I'd like to see two factors assessed: the change, if any, in the actual set of 1's and 0's presented to the D/A, and the jitter in the D/A output clock. If these two characteristics are identical "before" and "after", why should the D/A output (and hence, the sound) be different, "before" and "after"?