I'd be too worried that removing material from the edge would increase the chances of CD delamination or Disc Rot.

Well done on the million views

Didn't sell back in the day, aren't available anymore. That speaks volumes.

I think it must have more to do with balancing than light scatter. By far the best sounding CD transports I ever heard were all based on the pioneer stable platter design. Audio Alchemy, EAD, Pioneer all have great sounding players and transports based on it. CEC, Rega, Naim and other companies used heavy clamp weights to achieve a similar result. It’s also possible that improving balance reduces chassis vibration which could affect the clock crystal inside the player and reduce jitter. Oppomod sells damped covers for Oppo player transports.

If the procedure helps to reduce jitter it could very well make an audible difference. Probably very dependant on the CD player / transport used.

18 years ago, when this came out, I was à beginner audiophile, and I was too short on cash for this kind of product... But now, if I can find one somewere, I buy it instantly!

It’s surprising how many CDs there are whose data is not equidistant from the centre hole. So while this makes the centre hole more central to the edge of thee we disk, the data can still be off centre. I did read about some product which corrects this data alignment issue. It’s possible both could be used, as long as this didn’t make cutting the edge go into the data. I was at first hesitant to use this on blu ray disks, because often the data goes right to the edge, same with some CDs. But it’s never been a problem. I also ink the inside edge of discs and any transparent part of the centre on both sides. I’ve cut about 50 disc now with no problems. While the improvements vary disc to disc, it’s often detectable but not blatant. I have occasionally noted fine detail improvements which were easy to hear once you know what to listen for. The thing with a hifi system is the source data reading is the most important part, and it’s probably the most susceptible to problems wrt data loss. CD mat made a big difference also.

That’s hilarious 👌👌

While no longer in production, I believe you can still buy some spare parts for these.

Light travels through a clear strata, ( Perspex, Glass, etc) by a process called TIR, Total Internal Relection, treating the edge would definately have an effect on the way the light travels within the disc, so it does make some sense.

That was fun. Cool to see old ideas for improvement. Before I rush out and look for one of these I should probably upgrade from playing the occasional CD on a crappy old blue ray/cd machine.

Does just cutting the edge make any difference on its own? The disk might track better after balancing?

I saw this on Techmoan's channel and he indicated that he couldn't hear any difference. To be fair, he's always very honest and says that his hearing isn't 100% so it might just be that. For me, I'll pass: it's an expensive machine and I'm happy with the quality of my CDs now. P.s. congratulations on all the views 👍

When I lived in Leeds I used buy second hand Cds from a shop that had a good playback set up and green felt tip pens made by a company on the out skirts of Leeds designed to improve the sound and they did you could play a track then apply the pen to the outer mainly and it made on obvious difference better treble range imaging and dynamics so I bought one from the shop and yes it improved or altered the sound on any of my Cds there must have been something special in those pens as when it ran out a normal green pen made no difference I think the company stopped making them or closed this was many years ago

One drop of antistatic fluid (like Nordost) rubbed on label side, is incredible!

Techmoan didn’t leave it to a subjective hearing test, he did a digital transfer comparison and proved there was no difference. “You mileage may vary” is often used to justify people’s suggestibility. The human mind is indeed strange and defies logic and evidence… some humans I mean, but not me.

So how did it sound ??

They are trying to stop any scattered beam reflections from interfering with the reading of the disk. Next thing would be to paint the inside of the CD tray and read mechanism black to see if you could trap any reflected beams before they got to the read head.Will this do what the chamfering and darkening of the cd does?

cool.

I just use a black marker on the outer in inner edge, this works for me and is cheaper.

Different if nothing else.

I’ve ordered one of these off eBay 🤞

Mmmmm.

Entertaining, had me smiling with just the name . Off topic what telescope do you use .

Gravity one by origin live is meant to be a fantastic bit of tweekery for records 👍🏼think I’ll be getting one

Where's Enid Lumley when you need her?

Audiophiles are easily rinsed of money. It's King's new clothes. Pay hundreds on something and you are bound to perceive it as better in order to justify he cost. I'd wager that just like modern art, you could blindfold test the average audiophile and tell them that headphones, for example, are top-notch and they will perceive greatness when in fact the headphones are run of the mill bog-standard. Subjectivity is the thing.

Let's hear some before and after samples then. 16 bit will do.

Run you finger around a wii U game disc. Smoother than a babies backside.

My worry would be that the disc could crack. Having seen a CD ROM (which of course normally spins an order of magnitude faster than an audio CD) shatter and send a fragment straight through a quarter inch hard plastic CD ROM drive, I'm always wary of any physical damage.

If it affects balance, then maybe but I'd rather spend the money on a proper transport like the OG VRDS clamp drives which does the same thing without the risk.

I remember an incredibly hostile review of this machine with science thrown in. It made me angry as it seemed to know without need to listen. When cdr came in some felt that the recording sounded better than the original and copies of copies better still. It was explained that better error correction might be happening.

Nice to see you grow your channel👌always be watching. Think its more in the black marking Vs cutting it. Sonys blueray cd is black, rounded of with a Nice edge for balancing. The edge after cutting with this is awful, need too be sanded a round or 3. 800grit-1000g-1200g, dont think i can find a diffrence on just cutting it tho.

Never heard a disk treated like this so I cannot say for certain one way or the other, however a CD contains a music file, a stream of data that's over sampled to ensure data errors are corrected, and that's what you hear. I can understand how different CD players would sound better or worse due to how the software, DAC's and analogue components work, but the same disc in the same player with the same stream of data processed the same way on the same hardware sounds like snake oil. However, I can tell the difference between the Coaxial and Optical outputs on my CD player, so maybe there is more to it than we realise.

Congrats on a million views! No, really! I share your wonder that someone developed and funded this. I think they looked at that little clear rim of plastic at the outer-edge of a CD and thought 'I wonder'. They were clearly an astute business person!

Techmoan did a video on this thing not too long ago, he didn't find any difference in measurement or sound for that matter, but he is a "normie" tech enthusiast, not an audiophile. I don't lean either direction on this, whether it's worth it or not, personally, I wouldn't bother tbh.

Are we going to need Techmoan on speeddial?

I am sure one could make one using an angle grinder as a base... - to spin the CD not grind the edges that is....!

Hilarious - Better to rip CDs to FLAC and hey presto! - CD Improver!

What about CD Mats I've heard that's they supposed to work What do you think of them no!! do the same thing put it in a drill with a bolt and with 800 grit wet and dry smooth the edge

The green pen did indeed work. If anyone says it didn’t they never used it. I used it when it was available and it made a noticeable difference for the better. I know a lot more about the pen in a technical sense but I’m sure I’d get attacked by the people who never tried it and are deniers if I uttered a word about it. It is based in science not fairy dust.

Could you not just use sand paper.

My BS-senses are working overtime, watching this.

This product completely ignores the fact that the data track may not be pressed concentrically to the centre hole, so teimmingbthe edge makes bugger all difference to the action of the servo. This might balance an off centre disc to reduce physical noise, but does nothing to improve disc reading. Your astronomy analogy is weak a cd read lens accepts light only over a very narrow angle range, scatter really never gets a look in.

Honestly after this video, I can't take anything you say seriously any more which is a shame, as I was really enjoying your content.

The green pen thing was always nonsense, but because it was cheap a lot of people tried it. The laser is so intense that a thin layer of green ink wouldn't absorb more than a tiny fraction of the scattered light. It was green pen because green ink will absorb red light.