My curiousity got the best of me, so I ordered one of these a few years ago. The improvements were immediate and impactful. I know the term "sounds more analog" is overused, but does apply here. It made me aware the those littlle computers inside those DACs are really good at slight of hand and are pretty slick at substituting interpolated (guess at) information into the bitstream without us detecting it. Interpolated data doesn’t shout out "Wrong!" in most cases -- it just isn’t true to the source. I went thru my collection of favorites, shaved each one and, without exception, the sound was "more analog" with a reduction in harshness, more detail, tighter bass, etc. My wife purchased one of those Time Warner compilation CDs that sounded so bad I had to leave the room when she played it. After shaving them, the sound was not close to a reference recording, but had hints of audio resolution, delicacy and less glare. We now listen to it -- together.
I’ve also tried the cutter on BluRay discs. If you own one of these and you haven’t tried it, you’re in for a treat. The improvements are consistent with CDs. Also experimented with CD ROMS and ripping. My experience is that ripped shaved original CDs sound better when streamed from a computer, and shaved CD ROMS sound better than untreated.
I’m also a fan of UltraBit cleaner and treatment. The results are different than the CD cutter, but used in tandem do some interesting stuff to physical media. I place these into the "everybody knows" catagory. "Everybody knows" that CDs are concentric. And, "everybody knows" that new CDs are clean. Until you find out that they’re not.
