Rain-X as CD Enhancement Treatment

The problems that polishes and green markers address has nothing to do with "jitter". LASERs can and will mistrack/misread, if skewed by scratches(microscopic or otherwise)on the disc's surface, or if picking up stray/reflected LASER light. Treated the inner and outer edges of the disc with GREEN marker has the effect of cancelling the reflections, as GREEN has the proper wavelength to absorb the LASER's red wavelength. I've tried green markers on some discs and did notice a slight tightening in the bass when played, but not enough to warrant continuation of the process with my other discs. Using UltraBit Platinum on my discs is another story altogether. Everything becomes more "focused" with regard to separation between voices(intrumental or vocal) on whatever is played. The video store I frequent has a great deal of trouble with sloppy people handling their rentals. The discs typically have a lot of scratches/abrasions, and the store uses an abrasive liquid and polishing machine on them(more damage). Over half the time, neither of my DVD players will read the DVDs without going mosaic, stopping or skipping to the next chapter at some point during play. When I treat such discs with the UBP, they play without a hitch, and the picture is noticably sharper as well. Neither of my DVD players are cheap, or have anything wrong with them. My CD player is a Balanced Audio Technology VK-D5 and needs nothing with regard to performance enhancement. Using a good polish to fill and eliminate anything on your software(CD or DVD) that might affect your LASER's focus will definately enhance it's performance, and the resultant playback sound/picture. Then again- Your ability to appreciate the improvements would depend on your systems resolution, and/or your aural/visual acuity. No doubt the possibility one's convictions being found wrong stops a lot of people from ever trying some things. Yet they never hesitate to voice their unfounded opinions. Freedom of Speech IS precious though.

BTW: The Rain-X concept is(filling and polishing micro-scratches) to make glass too slick for water to adhere, and has worked wonderfully for me. I had my wipers go out on a Camaro, in a thunderstorm, some years back. Found an auto parts store, bought and applied the stuff. Never did bother to get the wipers fixed as long as I owned the car. If you live in a snow-belt state: Ice removal from the treated glass is simply a matter of hitting it once with your scraper, and the ice pops off in one sheet(no scraping). I've not tried it on any of my CDs, but don't doubt it would aid a LASER's ability to focus through a disc's surface .

Shadorne, You believe in a process that's slow and neigh unto imperceptible which changes components over 1,000 hours, but you do not believe that disc treatment can immediately influence the sound of media (or how a player audibly processes it).

You are skating on thinner intellectual ice than I am.

I can demonstrate my process/change in about two minutes and ten seconds (about two minutes to process the disc, and about ten seconds of listening to experience/verify the change). How would you demonstrate yours?

I'm not accepting your anecdotal evidence. However you can move from my anecdotal evidence to certainty in about two minutes. :)

Here is thorough early treatise from Stereophile on the subject of these tweaks. Includes technical discussion of related optical and electrical factors.

http://www.stereophile.com/reference/590jitter/

Relevant extracts from the non-technical sections of the article:

"The intensity of my interest in the subject was heightened by a product called "CD Stoplight," marketed by AudioPrism. CD Stoplight is a green paint applied to the outside edge of a CD (not the disc surface, but the 1.2mm disc thickness) that reportedly improves sound quality. I could not in my wildest imagination see how green paint on the disc edge could change, for better or worse, a CD's sound. However, trusting my ears as the definitive test, I compared treated to untreated discs and was flabbergasted. Soundstage depth increased, mids and highs were smoother with less grain, and the presentation became more musically involving."

"The makers of CD Stoplight claim to have measured a difference in the recovered analog output signal with a treated disc. They played a pure tone from a test disc and measured the spectral content on either side of the tone. Reportedly, a CD Stoplight-treated disc produces lower-amplitude sidebands around the pure frequency. Just as this was going to press, AudioPrism faxed me graphs made on a Hewlett-Packard spectrum analyzer that support their findings. Without knowing all the measurement details, the graphs do appear to show a slightly lower noise floor after the addition of CD Stoplight."

"From my measurements, it is apparent that none of these CD tweaks have any effect on a player's error-correction ability or on the amount of jitter in the HF signal. However, it is beyond doubt that they increase the musicality of CDs. Just as in analog audio, there are things going on in digital audio that have not been identified, but influence sonic characteristics. There is a real need to explore these questions through empirical measurement and by listening. I am convinced that undiscovered optical phenomena in CD playback affect sound quality. Only by combining critical listening with the scientific method can these mysteries be solved.

"All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.""

You believe in a process that's slow and neigh unto imperceptible which changes components over 1,000 hours,

Actually I don't - at least not for my crap target gear.

My example was just taking the attributes commonly ascribed to a designated "audiophile component" by yourself and others and making a logical conclusion.

Now you say burn-in is imperceptible - well if it is imperceptible then how come so many people claim to hear it?

I see no point to going any further as this is becoming ridiculous - it is becoming just an argument for arguments sake. I don't want to continue to contribute to this. i'll finish by saying that this statement by stereophile just about sums things up

From my measurements, it is apparent that none of these CD tweaks have any effect on a player's error-correction ability or on the amount of jitter in the HF signal. However, it is beyond doubt that they increase the musicality of CDs. Just as in analog audio, there are things going on in digital audio that have not been identified, but influence sonic characteristics.

There are indeed things going on inside the head of the listener and this has been documented tens of thousands of times: a very well understood scientific phenomenon called "The Placebo Effect". Humans are not machines. We are not instruments of precision. Our perceptive senses are significantly modified by our expectations.

The only question is "Why do some people refuse to accept the obvious conclusion?" I explained in several posts above with a reference to Jung and Myers Briggs...a lot has to do with personality as to whether a particular individual is willing to accept that his/her own perceptions are easily modified by his/her expectations.