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How to improve your CD sound quality and go blind all in one easy step!

Cars-N-Cans

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I have no words other than it looks like a hospital visit waiting to happen. My first thought was it was something to recover a scratched CD. I used to carefully dip them in solvents to dissolve the plastic and remove the scratches and then spin-dry them since I was a cheapskate in college. Not ideal, but it worked. But here, its just spinning the thing up to Dremel speed, and then cutting an bevel into the fluttering CD platter to reduce "diffraction" despite the equipment designers knowing full well how to properly design these things. And its digital... Like seriously. I'm sure this has been covered somewhere here before. But its just so absurd! Included is a probably now cliché Techmoan video (I know, *moan* lol...), which only adds to the goodness in that he just cranks it up to full tilt and sends it out of ignorance. Having experience using lathes and mills, I'm just cringing waiting for the disk to explode since its just wobbling around like crazy from all the surface vibrations. But since the video was posted, obviously that eventuality did not transpire. Somewhere, somehow, this has "raised" the bar in the subjectivist audiophile world. Cable lifters? nah... Sound condensing precious metal orbs? Nope. CD lathe? YE$$$ I'm sure this is terra cognita for ASR frequent fliers, but for the uninitiated like me it really takes the cake. But, after you get out of the hospital and go blind following an "incident", everything will indeed sound better, but likely be tinged with extreme instant regret.

 

composer

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The CD provides mechanically a burst of 0 and 1 right? The same does the double click on your WAV, Flac, or mp3 file, right?

If the burst is wrong you hear glitches or you hear nothing, right?

Indeed, let's assume that the crazy clame is true: if the CD isn't perfectly round, passing it through a lathe will make it even more perfectly unround...
 

Sgt. Ear Ache

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I like Techmoan. He's a pretty smart guy and he has lots of interesting old gadgets in his vids. He does basically get to the "this is BS" point in the vid. And oh boy is (was) it ever BS. I can't quite tell from the OP, but we're aware this is an old gadget right? I mean we aren't talking about something that's being produced today.
 
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Cars-N-Cans

Cars-N-Cans

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I like Techmoan. He's a pretty smart guy and he has lots of interesting old gadgets in his vids. He does basically get to the "this is BS" point in the vid. And oh boy is (was) it ever BS.
I like him a lot, too. Been a sub for quite some time. My comment was more a reference to the videos being linked and shared to death in some places. Still he does us all a service with the stuff he covers.
 
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Cars-N-Cans

Cars-N-Cans

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The CD provides mechanically a burst of 0 and 1 right? The same does the double click on your WAV, Flac, or mp3 file, right?

If the burst is wrong you hear glitches or you hear nothing, right?

Indeed, let's assume that the crazy clame is true: if the CD isn't perfectly round, passing it through a lathe will make it even more perfectly unround...
Pretty much. I think the biggest issue would be cutting too far and actually going into the data section of the disk, or having the foil delaminate. Also as the cutting bit wears, it will cut worse and worse opening the door to melting the plastic and chatter, which could cause the CD to come apart. I’d imagine most people will look at the platter edge-on to make sure they “do it right” which places one’s eyes in the worst possible spot, not to mention the dust and sharp swarf it can generate. And yeah if you cut it wrong and it’s way out of balance, your CD transport will transport itself right off the shelf and onto the floor.
 

fieldcar

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The CD provides mechanically a burst of 0 and 1 right? The same does the double click on your WAV, Flac, or mp3 file, right?

If the burst is wrong you hear glitches or you hear nothing, right?
From what I've noticed, when a rip doesn't conform to AccurateRip, it's missing a few samples if the disc is in good to fair condition, this is inaudible and handled by the DAC seamlessly. If you're missing tens or hundreds of samples in a short period, it sounds like a gap or skip since the buffer runs out when playing the disc or ripped data. There is also the benefit of using secure or C2 error correction rather than traditional burst reading methods.
 

AdamG

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I think the machine is malfunctioning? No smoke ? Must emit smoke to work properly. Maybe could hook it up to a bubble machine, then perfection! :facepalm:
 

ZolaIII

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When you see it coming and before it's permanently demaged (that you still can make AccurateRip) make a copy (supposing it's legal) and use something like Verbatim MediDisc for a new media (supposing you want it to stay as it whose a CD and last for long). Don't do a crazy shit and give a brake to medical professionals.
 

dorakeg

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Indeed, let's assume that the crazy clame is true: if the CD isn't perfectly round, passing it through a lathe will make it even more perfectly unround...

Passing it through a lathe will make it round. The only issue would be how much material has to be removed to make it perfectly round.

But it only affects poorly manufactured discs have this issue. Does happen from time to time esp. with bootleg copies of an album. Normal ones doesn't have such an issue.
 

mansr

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Passing it through a lathe will make it round. The only issue would be how much material has to be removed to make it perfectly round.

But it only affects poorly manufactured discs have this issue. Does happen from time to time esp. with bootleg copies of an album. Normal ones doesn't have such an issue.
If the data spiral isn't properly centred, shaving the outer edge will do nothing to fix it.
 

JaccoW

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I'm mostly just jealous he managed to find the discs in the SACD version for 8 GBP each. Those are expensive most of the time.
 

dorakeg

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If the data spiral isn't properly centred, shaving the outer edge will do nothing to fix it.

I am referring to roundness of physical disc. shaving the outer edge will allow a disc to be properly rounded and technically will reduce vibration. Of course, this assumes the disc has a uniform density (uniform density isn't much of an issue for cds).

No doubt it can't correct the position of data spiral but reducing vibration will make it easier to read the data since vibrations directly affect reflection of the laser bean.
 

restorer-john

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The reason first generation polygram CDs developed so-called 'rot' was due to the process use to align the centre hole to the data spiral. They were drilled after being optically centred and both the inner and out edges had exposed sputtered alumium where oxygen could attack and rot the Al layer.

The Japanese process was different and ultimately adopted by everyone else. The inner hole and outer edge were sealed in polycarbonate.

Grinding off the edge is a sure fire way to enable the setting in of disc 'rot'. Just a dumb idea.
 

DonR

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No doubt it can't correct the position of data spiral but reducing vibration will make it easier to read the data since vibrations directly affect reflection of the laser bean.
But that is generally not an issue unless the disc is deeply scratched or the laser or pickup is faulty.
 

Blumlein 88

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It was sometime I think in the 1990's. Someone made a device that you put a CD in it, and rotated it round, and it "coined" the edge. Put grooves in it like an American Quarter. The idea was the smooth edge let light reflect from disc edge and make reading the disc harder. You coined the edge and it scattered these reflections.
 

DonR

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I really don't understand the purpose of this thread. This CD lathe first appeared around 20yrs. Its no longer manufactured and pretty much vanished long ago...
Techmoan, everyone's favourite music media forensic archeologist, just put that video out. Many, many people never knew it existed and he is just highlighting a blast from the past that actually sold quite well at the time.
 
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Cars-N-Cans

Cars-N-Cans

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Techmoan, everyone's favourite music media forensic archeologist, just put that video out. Many, many people never knew it existed and he is just highlighting a blast from the past that actually sold quite well at the time.
News to me, too. The idea is so patently absurd and stupid one would think such a thing would never exist. Its a problem searching for an even bigger problem to create. Can you imagine if someone did their entire collection with it? Not to mention the possibility for damage, but the "rot" pointed out earlier by restorer-john is a more obscure thing you would not think about at first. Usually something I only had happen to CD-Rs that had been abandoned under car seats, or sometimes to CDs that I tried recovering by dissolving the polycarbonate to make them useable, esp. ones that I had scrounged for free. It would also damage the protective acrylic lacquer. Here your CDs could slowly rot away to nothing but plastic with a fancy bevel on the edge of them.

But hey, great time to upgrade to vinyl, right? :p
 

CapMan

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I like Techmoan. He's a pretty smart guy and he has lots of interesting old gadgets in his vids. He does basically get to the "this is BS" point in the vid. And oh boy is (was) it ever BS. I can't quite tell from the OP, but we're aware this is an old gadget right? I mean we aren't talking about something that's being produced today.
Loved the video - very self-effacing and understated! He was respectful of the loons that buy into this whilst making his objective points :)
 
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