Best way to clean my old CD’s

@buellrider97 

I agree with those who say leave the CDs alone if they're clean.  If you ever do clean one, it's important that you don't use circular motions, just radial motions with the cleaning cloth.  I have an old Maxell kit that includes a scratch remover, a cleaner and lint-free round cleaning wipes.  You might want to see if you can find one of those.  It actually has worked on audible scratches on a few of my CDs.

I rip my CDs to my NAS with my Melco Optical Device.  I keep the CDs and still play them.  The Melco is very finicky and won’t rip a CD unless it is apparently pristine, even when the same CD will play in all my various players without issue.

Also I have been buying many big box CD reissues.  Many of the individual discs are so tightly enclosed in their sleeves that in order to extracted for their initial playing without destroying the sleeves it’s difficult not to scuff the CD.

  The upshot of this is that I have had to clean a lot of CDs the past few years.  I laid out my preferred cleaners in an earlier post on this thread
 

Detergent based cleaners are bad news.  After applying them both the Melco Optical device and my actual CD players won’t accept the disc until I’ve soaked the disc in warm water for some minutes to remove the gunk.  And detergents are unnecessary when something like isopropyl works so well.  I also find it interesting that some individuals advocate don’t do anything to a CD unless it’s really in bad shape then advocate using an unnecessarily aggressive and potentially deleterious cleaning method.  It’s the proverbial kill a fly with a hand grenade when a fly swatter will do.

I get new CDs that my Esoteric player won't read. One quick clean with Shine Ola.....no issues.

I would be careful with any product that may damage the layer on the CD and probably only use CD recommended products.

Thanks to all for the input. I’m absolutely on board with NOT using a product that could damage the surface or leave a coating that would hinder the reader. I like the idea of 91% isopropyl and maybe distilled water to rinse. I’ll probably buy some Shine-Ola as that seems pretty popular. I have microfiber towels that I wash without any fabric softer or static pads to ensure they do not scratch. These are all commercial CD’s that I’ve acquired over the last 35-40 years. What’s interesting is some of those older CD’s are super thick and rigid. I have an Oppo 105 and a Musical Fidelity transport and I’ve not had any reader issues. Also any thoughts on the cleaner discs for my units is appreciated. The units have been in the closet for many years and I’m getting back to building my system. I’m grateful for your advice , Mike B.