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From: midkiff@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu (Sam Midkiff)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.high-end
Subject: Re: Armor-Alling CDs
Message-ID: <2301@uwm.edu>
Date: 8 Feb 90 18:52:37 GMT
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Lines: 35
Approved: tjk@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

In article <2299@uwm.edu> BREITMAN@INTELLICORP.COM (Wallace Breitman) writes:
>[This is being beaten to death in rec.audio; anyone actually TRY it? -tjk]
>
>In the current "Stereophile," February 1990, pp. 67-71, Sam Tellig, 'The Audio
>Anarchist,' describes a process of treating the playing side of any CD with
>Armor-All [Yes, *that* Armor-All we've been using on our cars for years] to
>improve the CD sound.  As Sam described it:
>	"Every person heard a difference with every disc, every time.
>	Sometimes the difference between an untreated disc and a treated disc
>	was startling -- the soundstage opened up, dynamics expanded, and a
>	wealth of new detail revealed itself."
>The discussion certainly seemed to be quite serious, with no tongue in cheek.
>Has anyone else experimented with Armor-Alling CDs?  With what results?  Why
>would this work with *all* discs?  What have the manufacturers been keeping
>from us?  Any responses would be most appreciated.
>--Wally Breitman
>-------
>

My suspicion is that the Armor-All increases the transparency of the disc in
the wavelengths employed by compact disc players to sample the digital signal
encoded therein.  This increased transparency would then have the effect of
increasing the definition of individual bits, such that ones would be more
"one-like" (there must be a better word for this...) and the zeroes would be
more "zero-like".  The resulting digital signal is therefore more binary,
and the true soundstage, etc. that is encoded in the digital signal can be
extracted more easily.

This theory seems to hold in both directions.  Coating a compact disc with
peanut butter seemed to cause the soundstage to nearly vanish.  A similar
effect was achieved by lightly passing a #300 sanding compound over the
surface of a disk.

Sam Midkiff
midkiff@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu