Somewhere on the 5th floor, around the corner and through the woods on the way to Grandma’s house, I discovered a lovely woman distributing CD Clarity, a water-based, non-toxic spray said to clean, protect, and restore CDs and DVDs. ("Reduce background noise, improve tracking and enhance musical balance, while cleaning and protecting discs from future scratches," says the label). Developed by the late Dave Herren of Oregon, CD Clarity joins an assortment of highly touted treatments, some of which include products from Walker Audio, Jena Labs, Audiotop, Classic Records, and Optrix. Add to that batch Nordost’s Eco3 static inhibitor, which can be sprayed on the label side of CDs.
I’m familiar with several of these products, having heard marked improvements in clarity and information retrieval from three of them. One of my goals is to invite some members of the Bay Area Audiophile Society to an afternoon comparison session, during which we spray identical copies of the same CD with different treatments and combinations thereof. Given that one BAAS member whose opinion I value personally endorses a treatment of Walker followed by a spray of Audiotop, the mind boggles at the number of possible permutations and combinations. Is it ever possible to keep it simple in audiophile land?
Somewhere, sometime, I shall find the opportunity to post a report.
