"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.
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. |
The plot thickens. Lesson Explainer - Infrared Radiation "In the other direction, rough surfaces such as fabric or cloth will not reflect IR well, instead absorbing it nicely." "An object with strong reflectivity will reflect more IR, meaning it must be weakly reflecting to absorb more IR." "Besides color, the second factor affecting how much IR is absorbed or emitted is the reflectivity of a surface. A highly reflective or glossy material, such as cut obsidian, will poorly absorb and emit IR, even though it may be a deep black color."
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I am running a Jay's Audio CDT2 mk3 - not exactly a slouch. Would love to have an upper end Esoteric one day, but $15,000 and up is beyond me for the time being. Not using "mats" - just abrading the edges to stop IR reflections. Finding it "worth it," The only added cost is a little time spent abrading |
I still have CDs where I painted the edge with a special, audiophile-marketed green marker. Did it help? Maybe when I played them on my first CD player, a player that went belly-up maybe three days out of warranty. I can't recall the player's brand name. In any event, I haven't painted a CD edge since. upsers portal |
