[gerG]

wmcmanus, I am sorry to poke fun, but the manufacturers explanation of why it works just struck me as absurd. I get very skeptical when manufacturers don't seem to understand their own products. Maybe it is just poor add copy, or I am missing some of the physics.

In any event, you have gotten me curious about CD balance, and related nonuniformities. I am going to look into cleaning up the edge of some of my discs that wobble like crazy. Unfortunately that is only the beginning. They wobble due to warpage as much as being trimmed improperly. I have even found one disc with the spiral tracks off center. That has to be the worst. No wonder the read mechanism just gave out on my Sony 333.

Does the bevel get cut all the way to the reflective layer? I am wondering what would happen if you got to that interface. As far as balance goes, the more material off the better. I also have several awful CDs that could stand to lose all of the music tracks as well.


gerG

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG wmcmanus, I am sorry to poke fun, but the manufacturers explanation of why it works just struck me as absurd. I get very skeptical when manufacturers don't seem to understand their own products. Maybe it is just poor add copy, or I am missing some of the physics. gerG

No problem. In fact, I'm with you on this. As I mentioned, I had never looked at their literature before and their explanation does seem a bit out there. I was quite surprised to see that they had any purpose other than balancing in mind.
Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG Does the bevel get cut all the way to the reflective layer? I am wondering what would happen if you got to that interface. As far as balance goes, the more material off the better. gerG

The cut goes right up to, but not into the reflective layer. On some discs the cut does not come very close to the refelctive layer. It all depends on how wide the outer layer of clear plastic is on the disc.
Quote:

Originally Posted by gerG I also have several awful CDs that could stand to lose all of the music tracks as well.gerG

As do I. Too funny!

 

[Tim D]

If you really care about the balancing aspects, the poor man's solution is a high quality burn with high quality media and burner.

Not to mention you can get very high quality rips, and have your ripping results authenticated by online server if it is a common disc.

This way you don't modify the original, you can prove your burn is not only exact to that particular disc, but exact to that particular distribution that matches with the rest of the world.

And you can apply all the cutting and marking and cleaning solutions you want on your copies all day long.

 

[gerG]

A fun thought for some day when you are bored. Beveling one side half way, flipping, and matching the other side would give a cool compound edge. Touching the point with a straight bit would then yield a very snazy 3 facet edge. Havent a clue on the sonic impact, but it would look trick. Practice on either a blank PC disk or one of those awful ones.


gerG

 

[gerG]

Tim D, really? How do I go about this? How are errors addressed?

One of the worst offenders is an SACD that I just bought. I believe that quality standards are slipping, while drive speeds keep going up.

gerG

 

[Tim D]

http://www.accuraterip.com/

Download the plugin and use with EAC. For all I know it may be included with EAC by default, I forgot the exact installation procedure but I'm sure its documented there. It basically uses checksums and sends it to an online database which basically does all the datawarehousing/mining type stuff to figure out if you have a copy that conforms with all the copies other people are sending or not. Obviously its utility raises as more people use it. Also it does all the offset correction for you as well if you use key discs.

It does error checking to tell you if your copy conforms via CRC checksum or not, but does not do error correction as I am sure that ability would require license verification to be met in order to be legal. But that would be one great next step, to be able to verify your license and actually download patch/recovery files to apply and burn or use to your liking.

 

[edstrelow]

I was thinking about giving a review of this lathe but I searched and found it had been done quite awhile ago. Whatever happened about sending samples around. No-one seemed to write in about this.

At any rate, I have had one of these for about 6 months now and feel it is a very good tweak, rather on the pricey side, but virtually all of my discs sound significantly better trimmed. I note in particular a broader and more solid soundstage which suggests that something about the timing and phase relationships between the left and right channels is being helped.

I am puzzled about the bevelling aspect but I suspect the main advantage is to "true up" the dics so that there is less wobble. If you don't think this happens, try playing a disc on a portable cd/dvd player. I was finding a lot of shake on many discs.

My treatment of discs is rather like the originator of this thread but I also sand both outer and inner edges before I use the black marker. I have previously found this simple expedient alone cleans up sound. To anticipate the scoffers who troll this forum, if you don't believe me, try this one yourself. Otherwise back off!.

As regards the lathe however, it is expensive, I justify it on the grounds that it is a significant sonic improvement such that even if you go for megabuck equipment you will still be missing the advantages that this tweak does.

Also it does good things for the sound and picture of DVD's. However I think you need be much more careful, not to cut too much because the dvd is a "sandwich" of two plastic sheets with the data foil in between, whereas a cd is solid plastic with the data foil on the top. I have spilt the odd recordable dvd by cutting too far in although this has not happened with any prerecorded dvd.

 

[OverlordXenu]

This is so ridiculous...

 

[edstrelow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OverlordXenu /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is so ridiculous...

What - you think that a vibrating cd will play better than a stable one? Do some thinking instead of just popping off.

 

[Assorted]

Graphical analysis, like a frequency spectrum for comparison might be more convincing.

 

[Drag0n]

I hope this beveled cd thing isnt like those foil stickers you put inside your cellphone to amplify your signal from your antenna,supposedly providing a tuned counterpoise or ground-plane effect for your antenna to enhance your signal...lol.
I guess we will see.

 

[Akathisia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OverlordXenu /img/forum/go_quote.gif This is so ridiculous...

Good one. Welcome to the ignore list.

 

[OverlordXenu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akathisia /img/forum/go_quote.gif Good one. Welcome to the ignore list.

Thanks for the useless spam and inspiring message! I am so sorry, I will stop calling snake oil products snake oil when I see them!

The bits either get read or they don't. If they don't get read, you get an error. It is black and white. This is just another "some of the people some of the time" product.

 

[fraseyboy]

What... I was just cataloging all our CD's and got to a Mike Oldfield one... Discovery. I was surprised to see that the edges were kinda sloped down to be thinner than the rest of the CD. Mike Oldfields Crises also had this.

Is that kinda what this weird machine thing does or is it something else? If not, why are the edges sharpened like this?

 

[Akathisia]

Maybe Oldfield knows about the tweak...