CD Tweeks...Improve Ripped SQ?

All of my shinny polycarbonate and aluminum platters have had CD treatment done to them.

The process I use is:
1) Optrix Cleaner
2) Audio Desk CD Lathe with black edge marker
3) Nespa Pro 30sec treatment
4) Acoustic Revive RD-3 Demagnetize

So the big question is...

Does a treated ripped CD sound better than an untreated ripped CD?

Anyone A/B a standard CD to a treated CD after ripped to a hard drive?

Thanks,
Rodge827
08-07-13

Rodge827,

I reread this thread again and I noticed, including me, no one asked you if you ran the test and listened for any differences.

So I will ask now, did you?

I recently picked up the new CD of John Mayer, "Paradise Valley".

I noticed the label is dark blue with gold lettering.

After listening to the CD a few times I thought of this thread.

Several years ago I had experimented with making a copy of a CD untreated then treated but couldn't remember the results. So I thought why not try it again.

I first copied the CD onto a CD-R, real time, in a Sony W222ES CD-R recorder.

I then spun the CD in the Bedini Clarifier, both sides.
I did a quick listen to the treaded CD and found the CD sounded a little cleaner, a little more detail. Like I said a quick listen.
I then copied the treated CD on the Sony.

For the sake of this discussion I will not go into detail of the differences in sound of the two CDs other than the treaded CD copy sounded a little cleaner, more detailed, than the copy made of the CD before it was treated.

Yes the two copies sound different.

Sound different on my 2 channel audio system. Sound different on my H/T system. Hell I could hear the difference in the CDP in the car.

I took the two Cd copies to a B&M dealer in my area for others to listen.

I did not tell anyone what I had done, just wanted them to listen for any differences in sound between the two Cds.

I used one of the dealer's audition rooms for my test.
I was able to get three different guys to participate in the exercise. Only one person entered the room at a time to listen to the two CDs.

I did not influence them at all, even when they questioned what I did to the CDs. I gave no information.

One at a time each listener could hear the difference between the two Cds. No matter how I would mix up the playing of the CDs each listener was able to distinguish between the two.

So why the difference in sound of the copy of the untreated CD and copy of the treated CD?

I have a friend that works at one of the hospitals in my area.The hospital has a high strength MRI machine. If I get a chance this week I will take a dark color label CD to him and have him take it into the patient MRI room and have him hold up near the magnet for about a minute. That should magnetize the hell out of any ferrous material in the ink of the label side and any impurities in the aluminum disc.

Any takers that want to listen to the disc in their CDP?
.

Color the outer edge of the CD PURPLE and the inner edge BLACK prior to ripping. This basic color scheme is guaranteed to improve the sound of the final product. This color scheme also works for standard CDs, DVDs, SACDs and BLU RAY discs.

Jim, my compliments on the thoroughness with which you established that the copy of the untreated CD and the copy of the treated CD sound different. I don't doubt that conclusion.

I'm not particularly familiar with how CD recorders/duplicators are designed, so I won't speculate on a possible explanation. But intuitively I don't find it especially surprising that on-the-fly duplication of a treated vs. untreated CD would result in different sounding copies.

However, I don't see those findings as being relevant to the situation the OP was asking about, in which what is being played is a computer file. The computer files that would be compared having in turn been produced by ripping a treated and untreated CD using software that assures both files have bit perfect accuracy.

Best regards,
-- Al

However, I don't see those findings as being relevant to the situation the OP was asking about, in which what is being played is a computer file. The computer files that would be compared having in turn been produced by ripping a treated and untreated CD using software that assures both files have bit perfect accuracy.
09-09-13: Almarg

Al,

I would agree that is why I asked Rodge827 in my last post if he had tried it yet.

The computer files that would be compared having in turn been produced by ripping a treated and untreated CD using software that assures both files have bit perfect accuracy.

At this point I personally can't say one way or the other for sure.

After the listening tests at the dealer's store, I told the listeners what I did to the original CD before making copies.
The dealer said, as you, he could rip the CD, untreated and treated to a computer hard drive and there would not be any difference in sound. I should add there was more in what he said about the process than I described. He went into great detail in why.

I reminded him a few years back he said he could make a perfect copy of a CD with the exact copy program on a high dollar audio hard drive unit he had in the store.
I took him up on his claim and came back with a few well recorded redbook CDs.
Long story short critical listening proved him wrong as well as one of his sales persons.

The dealer said in reply that was then and computers and programs have come a long way since then.

So, lol, on one of his slow buisness weekdays I will take a few CDs and my Bedini clarifier down to his store.
We'll see then if the proof is in the pudding.

In closing, in my mind I still see a CD transport spinning a disc 200 to 400 RPM that may be slightly magnetized, basically, a spinning rotating magnetic field. A dynamo? Who can say how it can affect the surrounding electronics and laser reading/correction apparatus of the transport?

Usually garbage in will yield garbage out.
Jim

FWIW, I can only think of one means by which the sonics resulting from playback of two computer files located on the same drive could differ, when the bits comprising their musical content are identical. And assuming that possible extraneous variables such as the warmup state of the components in the system, AC line voltages, etc., are equal when the two files are played back.

That would be if a mechanical hard drive is being used, and one file is very highly fragmented, while the other file is minimally fragmented. The slightly greater amount of electrical noise that is present within the computer when the hard drive is jumping around among different locations while playing the fragmented file conceivably might result in a slight increase in jitter at the point in the system where D/A conversion is performed.

If one of those files had been created from a treated CD and the other from an untreated CD, undoubtedly some audiophiles would conclude that the difference is attributable to treatment vs. non-treatment. But of course in that situation treatment vs. non-treatment would have nothing to do with it.

Best regards,
-- Al