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"Tuning" CD's

Shaving Compact Discs to improve the sound (?!)

This Youtube will trigger the usual chorus of self-appointed audio rationalists, but I have a much simpler workaround that involves simply sanding the edge of the CD and then blackening the edge of the CD with a magic marker - all in the service of nullifying incident laser reflections bouncing off the glossy edges of CD's.

The results were so impressive that I now perform this procedure on all of my CD's. I should add that my system plays CD's only which are burned from downloaded flac files. The files are converted to .wav files in JRiver and burned at the slowest speed my desktop drive can achieve.

Please let us know what the you hear or do not hear.

I should also point out that the sonic graphs displayed the the Youtuber for comparison between the treated and untreated CD's are not symmetrical if you look closely.

bolong
bigtwin's avatar
bigtwin
1,236 posts
 

@tweak1 I have an Esoteric SACD player.  Esoteric states in the user manual do not use any type of tray matt or insert.  There must be a good reason for them to state this? 

tweak1
3,679 posts
 

@bigtwin 

There's always an exception, but I would first check NDM out then ask Esoteric. Hard to imagine not being able to use NDM unless you have a slot load player

ghdprentice
7,250 posts
 

Yep, they were a thing.

 

Audio Prisim StopLight pens. I still have a couple.

 

https://store.acousticsounds.com/includes/image_browser.cfm?title_id=12484

facten
2,884 posts
 

@bolong "blackening the edge of the CD with a magic marker - all in the service of nullifying incident laser reflections bouncing off the glossy edges of CD's."

New Dark Matter "The color black is ineffective for absorbing infrared light; for CDs black is effective only (rpt only) for the inner edge. When black is used for the CD outer edge or the CD label it hurts the sound"

Guess one of you is wrong.

 

bolong OP
652 posts
 

It occurred to me last night that simply sanding (i.e. frosting) the CD edge should be plenty sufficient to stop reflections. No paint or marker necessary. Since I am a furniture maker and have the requisite tools in my shop it shouldn't be difficult to make a CD edge sanding setup on my lathe thus speeding up the process and allowing for batch processing.

100 grit "coated" paper (to reduce grit contamination) is what I have been using. It is available from all the box stores or Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=100+grit+disc+sandpaper&crid=3TEK5GWZUCQPW&sprefix=100+grit+disc+sandpaper%2Caps%2C103&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

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