CD cleaners - Bluemaxx anyone?

[mdconnelly]

I found myself running out of Optrix over the holidays.   When I did a bit of digging I came across BlueMaxx on sale.  Anyone try this stuff?   It's a bit more expensive than Optrix but you get 4 ozs (instead of the Optrix 2) and a nice, very large cleaning cloth.   I bought it and it seems to work quite well.  I haven't tried comparing it sonically to Optrix but it did help me rip a CD that EAC was having trouble with.

[BobM]

I bought a lifetime supply (1 tube) of Macguire's automotive scratch remover for about $7. A little dab of this on a cotton cloth rubbed around the disk, then a rinse with regular water and a drying always removed any scratch that I ever encountered on a CD (all but actual cracks). The resulting sound after using this on non-scratched disks is also a dramatic and noticeable improvement.

[rollo]

I bought a lifetime supply (1 tube) of Macguire's automotive scratch remover for about $7. A little dab of this on a cotton cloth rubbed around the disk, then a rinse with regular water and a drying always removed any scratch that I ever encountered on a CD (all but actual cracks). The resulting sound after using this on non-scratched disks is also a dramatic and noticeable improvement.

 Bob that is a great find, thanks.Where did you buy it ? good work professor


charles

[StereoNut]

Bob

I've read that applying or removing any "treatment" on a CD needs to be done a particular way.  

• From the center, out to the edge in a straight line

vs.

• In a circular motion

vs.

• ???

Does any of this nonsense really matter!?  

SN

[tmazz]

What you need to avoid is rubbing in a circular motion that is not centered on the disc. The theory behind that is if you put a scratch in the disc the error correction circuitry in the CD transport will be able to fill in the data that was covered by the scratch. However, if the scratch scribes the same arc that the laser needs to travel it will block an amount of data that is to large for the interpolation software to recover. Depending on how big the scratch is this can cause skipping, audio dropouts or the CD to simply stop playing.

[BobM]

You don't want to follow the spin/read pattern of the disk, so I just rub around in small circles all over the surface. I change direction and generally try and make it random. You can pick this up in any automotive store. You want the finest stuff, not the large scratch remover stuff. Basically it's just rubbing compound.

[tmazz]

I've also had good success using Simonize Clearcoat which is just a superfine polishing compound. Like you I am sure that one can will last me a lifetime. I have compounded out 2 cars and a minivan with this and only used about 10% of the can so you can just imagine how many CDs it will do. I did have one instance when this failed me though. It was a library disc that had been thoroughly abused and had s couple of vry deep scratches. Try the compound and it still wouldn't play. What did the trick was giving the disc a heavy coat of automotive paste wax, letting it dry completely and then buffing off the excess. I guess the wax filled in the scratch and then turned clear when it dried, but whatever it was it had the disc playing like new.

[rollo]

For basic cleaning the new "Greenworks" spray makes em shine. Just leave it on a fewminutes for the stuff to do its thing.
Rinse with water and dry. Sounds fine to me. I bought a pair of cotton gloves to handle the CDs and LPs. it lasted about a week before i got lazy. No fingerprints though. my wife was hysterical when she saw the gloves on. She asked if I needed goggles and a miners hat. We had a good laugh about it. She asked for a sable glove I'm a lucky guy. Glove on, helmut on seeya later.


charles

[Bill O'Connell]

For basic cleaning the new "Greenworks" spray makes em shine. Just leave it on a fewminutes for the stuff to do its thing.
Rinse with water and dry. Sounds fine to me. I bought a pair of cotton gloves to handle the CDs and LPs. it lasted about a week before i got lazy. No fingerprints though. my wife was hysterical when she saw the gloves on. She asked if I needed goggles and a miners hat. We had a good laugh about it. She asked for a sable glove I'm a lucky guy. Glove on, helmut on seeya later.


charles

Way to funny,

 For those that want an even a less expensive route, try Turtle Wax. A reviewer turned me onto this a few years back at his home

[tmazz]

I'm sure that Turtle wax does the same thing as my paste wax. I just happen to have paste wax in the garage for my car, so that's what I used. But it worked great for me as well.