[The Quality Guru]

Not too long ago I was reading the "How Do You Store Your CD's" thread and someone stated that when using CaseLogic cases their CD's became scratched. I didn't really think this was true until I shined a light onto a CD and checked. To my surprise, scratches (quite a few of them) that could only be from pulling CD's in and out, over and over, from their CD pouches, were on the CD. Most of the scratches are around 0.1 to 0.2 mm in width, and not very deep at all.

So, this is the ominous question: Will the scratches affect the sound? (They don't cause it to skip, but will the sound be affected on a different level?)

Second question: Will a "Spin Doctor" get rid of the scratches on the CD's surface (how do those things work, anyway?)?

Thanks you for any help!

Regards, Luke

 

[mezzman]

If you are interested in DIY scratch removal, I'd suggest picking up a can of Brasso which is intended for polishing brass, but works wonders on CD's. You dab a bit on some cotton cloth, rub on the CD over the affected area with a little elbow grease, let dry, then buff the CD with a dry cloth.
You may have to repeat this process a few times, but it does a great job at removing small scratches.
The best method I've found is to use a polishing bit on a dremel tool to speed up the process.

 

[sapphiremodena]

The Quality Guru - I'm in the same boat as you. I've got tons of miniature scratches all over some of my cd's, and have always wondered if the sound would be affected, but kept forgetting to ask. I'll be watching this thread like a hawk.

 

[The Quality Guru]

I have decided on this: SkipDoctor MD. It is basically a motorized CD scratch remover that polishes away the clear, protective layer of the CD until it has polished away the scratch in the process. Although the 'motorized' feature is perhaps a bit over the top, it's a good investment. CD's scratch constantly; when lending them to friends and such, after getting the CD back, it should be nice to be able to just pop the CD in and polish it a tad after your friend's had his way with it! They do, however, make a version of the Skip Doctor that is not motorized for those of you who like the concept of your own elbows doing the labor and don't care to be the sort of lazyass that I undeniably am.

This is the homepage of Digital Innovations, the maker of SkipDoctor: http://www.digitalinnovations.com

It runs for about $30 (the motorized version) at a Coconuts, Musicland, SamGoody, Fye.com, Circuit City . . .

Regards, Luke

 

[jlo mein]

At places like Electronics Boutique they have something called a Game Doctor for CD games. It basically does what that thing does except it isnt motorized. Apparently these devices only take a small layer of the CD, so you can do this process many times before the CD gets visually thinner.

Its a shame that CD wallets still scratch CD's even with those specially designed pouches, but face it, they are useful as hell. There is no way i could live without CD wallets. To be able to keep a large number of CD's in a small package is great. If they get scratched a little it is a bummer, but would you rather store them in their jewel cases all the time? Well, some people do.....ummm....what was my point?.......

...

 

[Nezer]

EAC images and CDRs... This keeps scratches on the originals to a minimum.

This 'skip doctor' things sound intresting though.

 

[jlo mein]

ya like nezer i burn SOME of my CD's to protect the originals...mainly just the CD's that are either expensive or rare. If the CD is only like $13 and available everywhere (ie Miles Davis, etc) then i just use the original.

 

[CaptBubba]

Quote:

Originally posted by The Quality Guru Although the 'motorized' feature is perhaps a bit over the top, it's a good investment.

It isn't over the top. I've used on of the non-motorized ones and after two or three cds I was worn out.

 

[Nezer]

Quote:

Originally posted by CaptBubba It isn't over the top. I've used on of the non-motorized ones and after two or three cds I was worn out.

Atrophe will do that.

I remember when I was your age we used to have to spin the vinyl by hand.

 

[ChenaynayC]

Quote:

Originally posted by Nezer I remember when I was your age we used to have to spin the vinyl by hand.

ROFLMAO!

 

[john_jcb]

I have the Game DOctor, motorized version that I got for fathers day. I have only used it on CDs that either would not play, get stuck or skip. My success rate so far has been 100%. I have done about 15 CDs. Most had tracks that would not read and it repaired them, 2 as I recall would not play at all and it fixed them as well.

 

[The Quality Guru]

Well, I got the SkipDoctor today at MusicLand! Unfortunately, they didn't have the motorized version so I had to settle for the manual crank-it-up old-timers version. Damn.

It works well; albeit with a few caveats. First of all, if you have a disc that simply doesn't work or has tracks that skip or distort, then it WILL alomst completely alleviate the problem!

Although, if you have scratches only from CaseLogic cases (that are inherently quite small) then you may not be overwhelmingly pleased for a few reasons. One, to remove the residue that has accumulated upon the surface of the CD as the result of the cranking/polishing from the SkipDoctor contraption, one must scrub with the provided polishing cloth. When that polishing cloth is used, more (tiny) scratches are added in the process! I'm guessing that it could just be the polishing cloth, however . . . the SkipDoctor contraption actually leaves a pretty miniscule trace (scratch-wise) but it has that residue that must be removed with the polishing cloth. If only I could remove that residue without that stupid polishing cloth, then I'd probably be home free, but . . .

As an alternative to the provided polishing cloth, I tried using the cleaning cloth that is provided when you buy Oakley Sunglasses. I'll report back on that later . . .

For now, I give this product a [9.5/10] for medium to medium-large scratches. As for small, and/or CaseLogic-induced scratches, this product suffers due to its dependancy on the scratch-producing polishing cloth. Although -- those tiny scratches produced from the polishing cloth probably don't hinder the playing too much, if it all (any comment on that, veterans?), so I could be very much overreacting. You decide.

 

[john_jcb]

I was also concerned about the scratches that are left after processing a CD. I have not noticed any degradation due to scratching.

 

[Vertigo-1]

Isn't polishing away layer after layer of the CD a bit of a bad idea? So one day you toss your CD into that contraption, come back, and find that it's disappeared into thin air?

 

[grinch]

it wouldn't disappear into thin air, the foil would definitely crinkle and be a huge dusty mess.

i was thinking about buying one of these, except whenever my cds break it's always the foil which you can do absolutely nothing about. i know how to take care of my cds though and i think in almost fifteen years of owning cds, i maybe have one or two that are scratched and won't play perfectly (although i have a few used cds with scratches). a few more have had the foil come off. take care of your cds and you can spend that $30 on two more cds instead of some machine to fix the ones you didn't take care of..