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Rain-X as CD Enhancement Treatment

I have used the Auric Illuminator treatment on my CD collection for several years now. I am a believer in the AI, and repeated A/B tests of identical treated/untreated CDs bore out significant improvements after treatment with AI.

I ran out of the fluid and my marker dried out, so I was searching for mew treatments on the market before buying another AI kit or choosing something new. That's when I ran across this article by Greg Weaver at Soundstage, where he talks about having used Rain-X and a green marker(Staedtler Lumocolor 357, price about $3.00) as a treatment on his CDs to great effect.

http://www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize200005.htm

Being the complete geek that I am, I had to try it for my self. I found the marker at Office Depot, and picked up a little bottle of Rain-X for $2.99. I treated a couple of CDs that I have ended up with duplicate copies of (Grant Green's Green Street, Frank Sinatra Sextet Live In Paris)and tested the Rain-X/marker treated vs. untreated disks.

Well, low and behold, the treated disks sounded notably improved; the music was clearer and louder, especially the midrange, the soundstage was larger with better definition and separation of instruments and the bass was tighter and deeper.

I can't say that the Rain-X treatment was or was not better sounding than the AI, but at the least very it is close, for a fraction of the price.

Has anyone else ever tried the Rain-X treatment?
craig_hoch
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larryi
4,046 posts
 
Does anything touch the CD surface while in play? I would guess that any improvement would be purely an optical phenomenon.

My concern would be for long-term effects. Has anyone determined whether the stuff will either react with the CD surface or turn hazy over time?

I have heard comparisons between various treated and non-treated discs and a lot of treatment methods do work. I was particularly impressed with the machine that cuts a bevel on the edge of the CD. That seems to improve all CDs a bunch of us tried on the treatment. I did not buy a machine because I was concerned, again, with long-term effects (will this allow air in to the metal layer and cause oxidation akin to "laser rot" of the Laserdisks).
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
A question you may want to investigate is what could possibly be wrong with the way the transport was reading a clean unscratched CD in the first place?

Remember CD's are digital not analog - there should be no "surface noise" with a CD in good condition.
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larryi
4,046 posts
 
I wondered about the airflow issue that you mentioned. But, it could also be an optical issue. Certainly other treatments tout the improvement in the optical characteristics of the surface of the CD.

One more thing, RainX leaves haze and streaks (on windshields) unless very vigorously buffed. I would be very carefull about the buffing process. I would only use tissue paper made for cleaning glasses (facial tissue has fibers that will scratch plastic, hence, the need for quite expensive tissues for glasses). Camera lens tissue is also a possibility, but that stuff is WAY expensive and too small, thin and delicate to use easily.
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