I have bought some rare (but new) CD's from the internet for cheap, understandably they are of low quality they of course don't have any scratches but I suspect they have a faulty reflective layer although there is no visible damage it looks rather faded, EAC can rip 3 of 5 without any errors but I'm still left with 2 CD's which won't rip in EAC or Plextools with out errors (plextools=450+-)

Now I wanted to know if anyone here has any tips on improving or repairing the reflective layer of these CD.

gday..


just give it a try: toothpaste.. a brand with teflon in it..

a old but somewhat contradicting sulution..
i never had any problems with it.

use your finger.. and brush it with and against the "track"..
wash (lightly) the cd in cold water afterwards
and let it dry in air.

ops, I get it wrong!
how are u going to improve the reflectivity?
paint a layer of silver on top?

I think it is more pactical to copy the CD into a new CDR

?!

Surely that's great for scratches on the "bottom" (reading) side, but a disaster for a fault on the "top" (label, data layer) side.

I can only imagine this idea making the reflective layer much worse.

Or was it a joke? (I'm never sure with you n68!).

btw - if all else fails, try playing the discs in a CD player and recording the digital output. Though I'd expect EAC and/or a modern PC drive to do better.

Cheers,
David.

Following hint MAY help ... notice I use MAY.

The original edge of CD is transparent and glass like clear (you can look through). Try to use 'fine' abrasive paper (sand paper) to abrase the edge of the CD until it can't see through anymore.

Then use a GREEN permanent marker to paint the edge, (if you have Audio Prism's CD-STOP Light, that's the best!) then maybe the laser beam can read more even stratched CD.

Also to improve the sound quality since less error because the green layer reduce the laser beam dispersion.

This may not affect CDDA but it help the cheap CD-player to improve quality.

gday...


@2B.
nope.. it wasn`t a joke..
but i did.. on the other hand.. missread the post.

Teflon in toothpaste? No wonder my tongue gets whiplash when I run it over my teeth. I think your talking about titanium dioxide (which is commonly used as a white pigment and is mildly abrasive).

How about using an adhesive CD label?

xen-uno

If the reflective layer is indeed damaged, you're in big trouble.

I suggest ripping twice with EAC, comparing the .wav files, and then deglitching the places where the files differ.

I seriously hope you are joking...

Or are you really saying that a green sealing of the cd´s edge will have a (whatever) positive effect on a red laser?

I have had a couple of those CDs which, although there are no visible scratches or any damage to the disc, just won't rip without errors in EAC.

What I have done is use a burst mode ripping software (but not EAC), such as foobar's Akrip component. I don't know how "error free" the result must be bit-wise, but it is audibly flawless.

In such cases, I'll settle for that.

@johnsonlam:
The "green marker trick" is a well known "audiophile" myth that has no scientific basis whatsoever and thus it is not welcome in the kind of discussion held in HA.