I "repair" CD's all the time. I also do DVD's, although they seem to be a lot pickier about "repairs". I'm guessing that's about the amount of data that has to be stored on the silver layer and the need for finer laser precision when reading.
I don't use anything that's specific for that "repair" task that's "audio". All those products are just repackaged into smaller formats and charged up the hoop because it's labeled "audio" anyways.
Pretty much the only CD I can't "repair" is the ones where the silver layer is damaged/missing. The scratches are just in acrylic and that can be polished.
For just general dirt/fingerprints/etc, I just use eyeglass cleaning cloths and the solution that comes with them. Most eyeglass shops hand them out free. I currently use cloths and solution used for cleaning camera lenses. Wife is a photographer, so it's hanging around the house already.
Anything more than "dirt" that effects playback gets the "polish" treatment.
It's important to note the scratch doesn't have to be completely eradicated. It's the rough edges and scrapped acrylic (looks white-ish) that's the problem. It scatters the laser and it then can't read the data. What you need to do is make the scratch more "transparent" to the laser, not flatten the entire surface to an absolute level. It's a similar principle used in vehicle "paint correction": You don't make the scratch go away absolutely, you make it "invisible" to the eye. In this case, the "eye" is the laser.
If it's light scratching, I'll use a fine microfibre cloth and Meguier's polish. Then I'll follow up with Meguier's Gold class" caranuba wax. I have that already because I use it on my cars, so no added cost there either.
It's important to polish center to edge. Never circular.
The polish procedure recovers something like 95-98% of most discs that won't read (or skip) for me.
If it still has issues after the polish, I get more aggressive and use Meguier's compound, then polish and then caranuba. It's still a hand process, but if the disc is really bad (IE: nothing to loose) I'll get my 3" detail orbital polisher and go at the acrylic. Then polish, wax.
That's recovered about 99% of the used discs I've bought that has playback issues. The other 1% were just "un-saveable". Anything that requires something more aggressive (sanding, etc) than the Meguier's compound just isn't worth bothering with to me and gets tossed.
But they only cost me around 1-2 bucks a piece, so having to toss one that can't be recovered isn't a big stress.
My process for buying use it:
1. Do I like/want the music, and
2. Can I see through the data layer when held up to the light?
Other than that, I'll take a chance on any CD I'd like to have, regardless of scratching.
But again: I'm only risking a buck or two so no worries either way.
The "unrecoverable" ones will donate their jewel cases to ones that have been broken. Only real breakage I see in jewel cases is the hinge "tabs" get broken off. Of course, if they get sat on or otherwise "crushed", that's also cause for a new case.
I keep mine in stacks on either side of my "curio case" in the office:
Thats actually one "tower" cut into two to fit the space:
Those show up in thrift stores here all the time for a couple bucks.
All my CD's are kept in the Kenwood CD-425M, which holds 200 CD's (I have ight around 150 CD's total). So those are all just empty cases. I keep a printed excel sheet with what number each disc is in the Kenwood and the Jewel cases are arranged in the same order.
I look at the excel sheet, decide which disc I want, then can go over to the jewel case towers and pull out the case and read the info in the insert booklets if I want to.
Works for me.
My dogs are 120-ish pounders:
No interest in messing with any of my audio gear/media at all. It's not food, play or "walkies", so they don't care about it one way or another. If they break a Cd or LP, it' completely by accident and honestly, my own fault for leaving it lying around.
I also don't use a "laser lens cleaning disc". More mumbo jumbo IMHO. I simply remove the outer case on teh player to expose the laser lends assembly and then use more camera lens cleaning products to clean the lens. Hoextly, all that should be neede dto "clean" the laser lens is to remove any dist particles that have landed on it over time. I use a lens cleaning pen to brush it clean:
One end is a small glass cleaning cloth, the other is fine soft bristles. Works great. Never needed anything else. I even use them on my 10" dob telescope optics. Works perfectly.
My Kenwood CD-425m player also has it's laser assembly in a vertical orientation, so it has far fewer "dirt" issues that a player that has the laser assembly in a horizontal position.
I don't buy CD's because it's inexpensive, I buy them because I want the music. I have to be interested in the disc, which is why I only have about 150 of them. It's not wort it to me to buy a box to sift through and maybe find one or two i want to keep and toss the rest. I'd rather just buy the particular disc I want. More power to those who want to buy bulk and find that one or two little treasures in the pile though. If it makes you happy, that's good enough......
If they go the way records go (ie: upward spiraling costs) I'll probably still buy the occasional CD, but those will be new or a band I have been wanting to buy for a good long while and never got it. There's fewer and fewer of those in my wish list as time goes on....
