From: jwlr@gauguin.cc.rochester.edu (James Willer)
Newsgroups: rec.music.cd
Subject: Re: Green Pen Rubbish! (was Do CD's degrade?)
Date: 29 Sep 92 03:51:58 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York

eas3714@ultb.isc.rit.edu (E.A. Story) writes:

>In article <1992Sep25.235239.19465@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> crgoc@orlando.uk.cray.com (Gary O'Connor) writes:

>> I regulary read Hi-Fi magazines and have never heard about problems with 
>> storage causing degradation.

>> The ink used for the label can cause deterioration over time 10-20 years.
>Interesting... should we all scrub the ink off?.. CAN you do that?..
I wouldn't recommend it. I-)

>> Do keep them clean though, it does make a difference, as DOES the green pen
                                                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> rubbish, if you have a reasonably good Player and reasonably good hearing,
   ^^^^^^^^ NOT!!!!
>> then you will notice a difference, but now we are getting into the realms
>> of alt.audiophile which should be avoided at all costs.
If you have good hearing, a reasonably good player, and a blind A/B test
I am certain that even the most discriminating audiophile won't know the
difference. (If you *can* hear the difference, you probably need a better
CD player.)

>What is this Green Pen stuff?  I've never heard of this.. do we mark all
>over the CD with green pen? (hehe).. seriously, what is it?  Is there a

The "Green Pen" stuff is a rumor that coloring the outside edge of a disc
with a green marker will improve the sound quality. RUBBISH!
The data is stored as a *digital* stream of 1's and 0's!  Even if this
were to improve the player's ability to read the disc, (I am skeptical)
it will do *NOTHING* with regard to converting the digital data into an
analog sound wave!
(This crap was well debunked quite a while ago in several issues of
"CD Review", formerly "Digital Audio & CD Review", formerly "Digital
Audio". I'm sorry I can't give you issue numbers and dates, but I no
longer have them...)

>Do I need to open the case up and manually clean the head?  Or is it
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>like a "furry" CD that does it?  Just curious.

Again, Not recommended. (Any decent headcleaner should come with at
least a minimal set of instructions.)
Usually, it is a variation on the "furry" (or in this case "wet") CD.

>> There are all kinds of products to help get the most from CD's, from the green
>> pens, and weighted rings for the label side, which improve sound quality to
   ^^^^RUBBISH!
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ These may actually help if you
have a player that tracks very erratically, but it would probably be better
in the long run to have the player looked at if it's tracking badly enough
for you to consider this...
>> cleaners (manual & automatic) and soft pads for the inside of boxes (they 
>> protect the playing side whilst in the box) to help maintain quality.

>Green pens, weighted rings?.. IS there a FAQ for this group?
Sounds a bit like rec.arts.erotica, doesn't it?

			Jamesa Willer
{the opinions above are probably NOT those of
 anyone at all}
ps. Still a student at RIT, and working at UofR....
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