cd spray tweaks?

mapleshade's internet advertisments would never make their way past federal or many states' consumer protection laws, if anyone cared to enforce them. i read through all of mapleshade's claims for their tweaks on the "tweaks & wires" section of their website (i know, BTW, that many a-goners admire their wire). they are, nearly uniformly, absolutely outrageous, unfounded and, in my estimation (as a longtime veteran both enforcing and challenging the FTC act), comprise intentional misrepresentations of the first water. shame on them for resorting to the ways of last century's snake oil salesmen. shame on you if you beleive them.

I have tried a few, Optrix, Disc Solution etc and they may clean your CD but I heard no worthwhile inprovement in sound
of CD.....have not tried Maple Shade but I expect the results would be similar. I do use Auric Illuminator which is two step CD treatment and I feel it offers a slight improvement in sound consistently. I feel to really see if any treatment works for you get duplicate CDs and compare treated/untreated CDs over a period of several days.

I have bought their brass weights for my components ( Rowland, Wadia ) and I think I heard a sonic difference. I have also purchased their CD Mikro-Smooth Kit and I think it works. I hope that I'm not destroying my dics with it ! I would appreciate any feed back on these products.

The great thing about stuff like this is, if you think it will work, then it probably will. And if you don't think it will work but try it anyway, it still might work. It doesn't, really, but who cares? It's only money.

Cornfed, I have also read the information posted on Mapleshade's website. Their claims aren't much more "outrageous" than many other dealers. I have tried their vibration control devices (brass cones and weights) and find them to be effective. Quite honestly I ignored most of the advertisements. I only tried their products based on the recommendations of other Audiogoners. Would you care to be more specific? What specific claims do you find to be "outrageous" and how did you determine this to be the case? Have you contacted Mapleshade and gotten any details on their testing methods?

gallaine: here are two claims made, verbatim, by mapleshde on the “tweaks & wire” section of its website. 1)

“Use this remarkable contact-enhancing spray on every connector in your system (RCA plugs, binding posts, AC plugs, tube pins, fuses). Improve your sound by nearly as much as doubling your amplifier investment.”

2) “We first tested this spray on our Sunny Sumter CD. The extra clarity it brought to her voice was more than could have been gained by spending an extra $1000 on our studio CD player system.”

do you not find these statements to be facially deceptive? i can virtually assure you they were not made after scientific testing and therefore are utterly without basis in fact or law. i shall contact mapleshade and ask what their bases are for these claims, and others made for their "tweaks". if i receive a response, i'll post it on a-gon.

Cornfed, thanks for the response. The claims do seem extravagent. I have spoken with the folks at Mapleshade in the past and they seem reasonably intelligent and cooperative. Hopefully, they will answer your questions.

I agree with Elizabeth that the CD sprays and green pens do work, at least in my system. In fact, sometime the change is so obvious that you need not have a duplicate CD to compare. However, I also agree with Cornfedboy about Mapleshade. When I first read this post a couple of days ago, I choose not to comment, as I did not know the facts. Now that Cornfedboy has provided us with Mapleshades exact claims, I must admit that the performance gains they promise would almost constitute a miracle. Perhaps I should buy these products, and try them myself. If the product is really as terrific as Mapleshade claims, there should be no problem with a refund if I am the only one who gets different results than advertised.

I've tried a couple things from Mapleshade. Now that Cornfed has posted some of the claims, I do remember them, altho I paid no attention at the time. I tried MS because they seemed to be one of the "good guys" -- trying to produce useful stuff without hyper-inflating the cost of buying it. So, at least their excessive "enthusiasm" is not deployed to support high prices. ........ Garebear, I don't think there's any risk to using the polish; I think the clear layer on the CD is plenty thick. I've thought about trying this kind of treatment. I have a little bottle of optical grade polish that I use on my Handspring Visor (handheld pda). Sometime when I have time to twiddle, I'll use that on a CD and listen.

Hey audiophiles, why doesn't one of us spring the bucks for a can and test it? (there is a money back guarantee). Why speculate and debate something we do not know? I'll bet in a day or two some people who have purchased the product will respond. I do agree with Cornfedboy that their advertisement is exaggerated, probably geared toward the average uneducated American consumer.

I have experienced good results applying the label side of CD's with "Endust for Electronics", first sprayed on a blue lint-free paper towel before applying. Some discs exhibit an enhancement(cleaner sound = less grain), others not. This is a similar tweak to Nordost ECO3 but way cheaper. The antistat properties work on cables & equipment, & it is a good faceplate cleaner too.