Chisto Disk Analoguer

Chisto Disk Analoguer is a product that you spray on the data side of a digital disc (then wipe dry with an included cloth). The claim is that it makes the disc sound more "analog." I had read some positive reviews about a similar disc treatment, Mobile Fidelity's Shine-Ola. I was curious. I ordered the Disk Analoguer.

I was able to find a couple of sets duplicate discs in my collection to use for testing. For one, Duncan Sheik's Phantom Moon, I had two identical copies. For another, CSN&Y's Deja Vu, I had two different pressings of the same mastering. I listened closely to the discs and didn't hear any differences between either pair. (I know that some people can hear differences in different CD pressings of the same mastering -- Barry Diament says he can, and I don't discount that. I have little doubt that Barry's ears, and his hardware, are much better than mine, however.)

I applied the product to one disc in each pair, and listened again. To my ear, the treated copy in each case sounds different -- smoother, a more "round" sound. In other words, more like analog. I wouldn't say the difference was dramatic, but it wasn't hard to hear it, either. When I did a blind test (I shuffled the discs myself, purposely not thinking about which was which), it was easy to identify the treated disc in each case. But I still wasn't sure that it was all in my head.

So, I tried it on my wife. She's musical, played several instruments when she was younger, and likes music, but isn't a serious collector or an audiophile in any way. I think she has a pretty good ear. I told her about the product and what it was supposed to do. I played her both pairs of discs. In both cases, she quickly identified a difference in the discs, and without prompting, described the difference pretty much the same way as I did -- the treated disc having a smoother, rounder sound. She easily guessed which disc was treated in each case.

Interestingly, she said she preferred the untreated discs. She said she thought she heard more detail on those, and preferred that to the smoother, more "blended" sound of the treated discs. (Not everybody wants a more analog sound?)

My conclusion is that this product does seem to have an effect on the way the disc sounds. I've heard all the arguments that these products are snake oil, and that the digital data retrieval process isn't affected by products like this -- and to the degree I understand those arguments, they make sense to me. Still, I was curious enough to spend some money on this to try it out, and I think it works. My wife, who isn't the least bit interested in justifying my purchase, backs it up (I chalk up her preference for the untreated discs to personal taste). I don't think it makes my CDs sound like vinyl, but I do think it makes them sound MORE like vinyl.

I am not affiliated with this company or anybody who works for them. They aren't paying me anything to post this. I thought for a few days about posting, knowing it will probably start some kind of heated discussion about disc treatment products. But I believe that some of you who are willing to give this a try might be glad you did, so I wanted to share what I found. Of course, your results might be different, and I don't assume any responsibility for the effectiveness of this product. I'm just passing along my experience. Take it for what it's worth.

Go.

 

Have you ripped the same track from each disk, and checked to see if the digital data is the same?

 

I ripped the same track from two discs to my hard drive, and after they're ripped, they sound the same to me. I opened the tracks in Audacity, and the waveforms look identical (I don't know much about Audacity -- I don't know how to see if they cancel each other out).

 

I've heard this effect with several disk treatments, and decided that they were actually degrading the playback in some way.

However, the fact that it did sound slightly different still boggles the mind.

The changes were not consistent from disc to disc or player to player in my case. (I first did this with home wax polish and my philips CD100 player in 1983)

 

That occurred to me, too -- I think it's possible that it's degrading the playback. I like the way it sounds, though.

Even though the rips to my hard drive sound the same, when I play the discs in my computer, they sound different.

 

That's right. When you 'play', the application puts the CD drive into player mode and routes the output to the sound mixer. No software is harmed

 

The difference you are hearing is most likely psychoacoustic. You've been pre-conditioned to expect a difference, so you hear one. Whether there is a real difference is unproven.

Some say that cleaning cd's, even with tap water makes them sound better. Over time they get a layer of household dust on the playing surface that the eye cannot see. Cleaning it off makes the laser read thr pits easier so there is less error correction/jitter etc.

 

No, this is incorrect. Let's not go down this road again...

 

You left out where I prefaced that comment with "Some say...."

If you think this is incorrect I'm interested to hear your take on it. Note that I am fairly new to the forum so don't know what's down the road you mentioned.

Thanks,

Mark

 

If you've got hours of spare time on your hands, I'll refer you to the closed SHM thread.

My background is in optics, and I worked with optical data storage for ten years. Basically, I got annoyed at theories that involve transparency of the disc substrate material, variations in pit length, and other optical effects, which are just plain wrong. Your comment about cleaning off household dust falls into the category of optical theories that are just plain wrong.

I won't tell you what you will and won't hear, which are analog effects, but I will direct you away from faulty theories in the digital domain that involve the optical path.

 

LOL!

-Bill

 

They will be the same but this is not relevant, as your changing more than one variable.

I've tried a similar product and noticed an improvement on all treated CD's.

 

I'm reasonably sure that I'm hearing a difference between the treated and untreated CDs. I don't have an explanation (I wish I did), but I don't believe it's in my head. And believe me, my wife would have enjoyed telling me there was no difference to her ears. But she couldn't say that.

BTW, I don't hear a difference with SHM discs. I've got a SHM of Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry, and it sounds identical to the US remastered version to me. And I was kind of expecting to hear a difference.

 

I was just pointing out the lack of scientific rigor in presuming same data = same sound when playing the two discs

 

Yes, good point. My intention was to add to that thought by giving some more details about my comparison. Sorry if that seemed like I was questioning your post. I'm no technician, but i suspect it's not as simple as reading 1s and 0s and feeding them to a D/A converter.

Or is it?