topheavy65, Who R U? And what might your point be?
Shine-Ola and Novus CD treatment
Thanks to Albert Porter generously sending a sample of Shine-Ola and ROR, I am writing my findings.
BACKGROUND:
I found an identical CD at the library sounded worse than the new one I had bought. The new CD sounded louder, had more detail and dynamics. There was also a little more digital hash which was not good. There weren’t a lot of scratches on the library CD and have decided it is at least partially a reflective issue.
A laser reads a CD based on the reflectivity. This is different between CDR’s and CDRW’s for example. CD treatments which can improve reflectivity could help readability.
PLASTIC POLISHES:
I have tried various auto and plastic polishes and ,ost recently Mapleshade’s “Mikro-smooth CD polishing kit”. The theory is to improve the surface finish of the “cheap piece of plastic” CD. However all of them put microfine scratches into the CD. I did not find any of them to improve sound quality. But they are good for polishing out scratches which would make the CD skip.
REFLECTIVE ENHANCEMENTS:
(My guess as to what these treatments are suppsoed to do).
Products like Rain-X which have petroluem in them may not be safe for plastics CD’s so I don’t use them.
Auric Illuminator, Shine-Ola and Novus. Auric Illuminator looks like some kind of waxy material. Shine-Ola is a clear watery liquid. Novus contains vegetable cleaners and silicone and is said to reduce static, stop fogging, and puts on a “lustrous shine”. Albert has preferred the Shine-Ola over the Novus and I did a lot of listening over 5 days because I liked the Novus better.
The Shine-Ola gives more clarity and maybe less smoothing out than the Auric Illuminator. But the differences are vanishingly small and very hard for me to detect. The best way I found to test was to limit critical listening to 5-10 minutes. After that ear fatigue and fatigue between the ear/brain connection sets in and I was not as sure about what the differences were. Shine-Ola must be doing something even if not audible because it fixed a minor skipping problem on one CD.
I used track 3 of Jamiroquai’s “A Funk Odyssey”. I first put Novus on the new CD and Shine-Ola on the library CD. The Novus was crisper on vocal atacks and sibilants were more drawn out and a little less harsh. I have a dual deck Marantz CDR-500 and can switch between discs pretty quick. It did not matter which tray the CD was in.
Used Albert’s ROR CD cleaner to remove the treatments, I put the Sahine-Ola on the new CD and the Novus on the library CD. They now sounded about the same and maybe it was my bias but I still thought the Novus was crisper. Obviously the library CD was not in perfect condition but was almost new.
CONCLUSION:
The differences were vey small and I would not fault anyone if their results were different. This could be equipment dependent as well. But my conclusion is that any coating on a CD reduces dynamics and possibly clarity. I used my finger once in putting the Shine-Ola on the CD and had sort of a plasticy feeling on my finger.
Since Novus is a liquid I would not expect it to last as long as Shine-Ola or Aquric Illuminator. Reducing static and “hot spots” may also be a benefit of it being more a liquid than a coating or wax.
BACKGROUND:
I found an identical CD at the library sounded worse than the new one I had bought. The new CD sounded louder, had more detail and dynamics. There was also a little more digital hash which was not good. There weren’t a lot of scratches on the library CD and have decided it is at least partially a reflective issue.
A laser reads a CD based on the reflectivity. This is different between CDR’s and CDRW’s for example. CD treatments which can improve reflectivity could help readability.
PLASTIC POLISHES:
I have tried various auto and plastic polishes and ,ost recently Mapleshade’s “Mikro-smooth CD polishing kit”. The theory is to improve the surface finish of the “cheap piece of plastic” CD. However all of them put microfine scratches into the CD. I did not find any of them to improve sound quality. But they are good for polishing out scratches which would make the CD skip.
REFLECTIVE ENHANCEMENTS:
(My guess as to what these treatments are suppsoed to do).
Products like Rain-X which have petroluem in them may not be safe for plastics CD’s so I don’t use them.
Auric Illuminator, Shine-Ola and Novus. Auric Illuminator looks like some kind of waxy material. Shine-Ola is a clear watery liquid. Novus contains vegetable cleaners and silicone and is said to reduce static, stop fogging, and puts on a “lustrous shine”. Albert has preferred the Shine-Ola over the Novus and I did a lot of listening over 5 days because I liked the Novus better.
The Shine-Ola gives more clarity and maybe less smoothing out than the Auric Illuminator. But the differences are vanishingly small and very hard for me to detect. The best way I found to test was to limit critical listening to 5-10 minutes. After that ear fatigue and fatigue between the ear/brain connection sets in and I was not as sure about what the differences were. Shine-Ola must be doing something even if not audible because it fixed a minor skipping problem on one CD.
I used track 3 of Jamiroquai’s “A Funk Odyssey”. I first put Novus on the new CD and Shine-Ola on the library CD. The Novus was crisper on vocal atacks and sibilants were more drawn out and a little less harsh. I have a dual deck Marantz CDR-500 and can switch between discs pretty quick. It did not matter which tray the CD was in.
Used Albert’s ROR CD cleaner to remove the treatments, I put the Sahine-Ola on the new CD and the Novus on the library CD. They now sounded about the same and maybe it was my bias but I still thought the Novus was crisper. Obviously the library CD was not in perfect condition but was almost new.
CONCLUSION:
The differences were vey small and I would not fault anyone if their results were different. This could be equipment dependent as well. But my conclusion is that any coating on a CD reduces dynamics and possibly clarity. I used my finger once in putting the Shine-Ola on the CD and had sort of a plasticy feeling on my finger.
Since Novus is a liquid I would not expect it to last as long as Shine-Ola or Aquric Illuminator. Reducing static and “hot spots” may also be a benefit of it being more a liquid than a coating or wax.