Arista CD Radial Cleaning System — Disc Cleaner with Solution

Arista CD Radial Cleaning System — Geared Radial Wipe, 18 mL Cleaning Solution Included, Takes Any 12 cm Disc

A hinged case that cleans a compact disc in the one direction a compact disc should be cleaned, and does it the same way every time.

Almost everyone who has wiped a disc has wiped it in circles, the way a record is cleaned. On an LP that is correct: the groove is a spiral traced by a stylus, and a circular wipe follows it. On a compact disc it is the worst available choice. The data is a spiral too, but it is read by a laser, and both the tracking servo and the error correction behind it cope far better with damage that crosses the tracks than with damage that runs along them. A mark running across the spiral interrupts each track for a fraction of a turn and gets filled in without the listener ever knowing. The same mark running along the spiral takes out a long unbroken run of a single track, which is the case the correction cannot rebuild. That is why every serious disc-care instruction says the same thing: from the centre outward to the edge, never around.

This kit mechanises that instruction. The disc sits in the base on a platter with a toothed rim, playing surface upward. The lid carries a felt pad on a toothed rim of its own. A small idler gear at the hinge couples the two, so with the lid closed and the platter turned by hand, the pad rotates against the disc rather than with it, and the contact path sweeps across the tracks over the whole surface. It does that identically on the fiftieth disc and on the first, which is more than can be said for a shirt-tail.

The cleaning fluid is included rather than sold separately: an 18 mL bottle of Arista Compact Disc Cleaning Solution, isopropyl alcohol and distilled water, which happens to be the mixture the disc-care literature recommends to people who want to mix their own.

Worth stating plainly, because this category attracts overclaiming: it is a cleaner, not a scratch repair kit. It lifts fingerprints, dust, oils and the fine haze a disc picks up from years in a sleeve. It does not fill, polish or remove a scratch and it does not resurface anything. What it does very well is settle the question that arrives the moment a disc starts skipping — dirt or damage — quickly, and without anybody reaching for a shirt-tail.

The case is badged for compact disc, and the tray takes any standard 12 cm disc, so DVDs and game discs sit in it the same way. Closed, it is a flat case that stores like a jewel case beside the player, and the whole thing runs by hand with no batteries, no motor and nothing to fail.

These are new, unused stock.

Features

• Geared dual-rotation mechanism — the pad turns against the disc, not with it
• Cleaning path runs across the data tracks rather than along them
• Compact Disc Cleaning Solution included, 18 mL, isopropyl alcohol and distilled water
• Felt cleaning pad mounted in the lid
• Hinged case is both the mechanism and the storage
• Entirely manual — no batteries, no motor
• Tray takes any standard 12 cm optical disc

Specifications

• Cleaning solution: 18 mL, isopropyl alcohol and distilled water
• Disc capacity: one standard 12 cm disc
• Drive: manual, geared pad-to-platter coupling via an idler at the hinge
• Power: none required

Dimensions: (Width x Height x Depth) 8 x 1.4 x 10 inches (203 x 36 x 254 mm), as packaged for shipping
Weight: 0.36 lbs (0.16 kg), as packaged for shipping

An inexpensive, mechanical answer to a problem that costs people discs they think are ruined. Available for pickup by appointment in Kanata, or shipped across Canada and internationally — we have sent equipment to fifteen countries in the past year, each piece packed in-house in 275 lb test double-wall boxes. Live shipping rates for your address are calculated at checkout.

Backed by Radique Audio’s Bumper-to-Bumper Warranty, you can purchase with confidence.