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Some new impressions of various CD fluids, including BlueMaxx

Posted by Quint (D) on January 28, 2009 at 06:24:03

I received my sample of Maxxhorn’s BlueMaxx CD cleaner a few days ago, and have been experimenting a lot with it since then, doing comparisons against other CD fluids. I thought I’d post some findings.

I compared the Maxx against Record Research Labs’ Shine Ola, Jena Labs Esoteric 3D-X, Walker Ultra Vivid, and Xtreme A/V’s Liquid Resolution. BlueMaxx and Shine Ola are billed strictly as cleaners, while the last three are actual treatments.

First off, the Maxx works as advertised. It goes on and comes off in a jiffy, and doesn’t seem to leave any kind of residue, which many CD treatments do (specifically, in this case, the Jena and Walker). It also worked safely on every disc I tried it on, including a few Sonopress SACDs.

Sonically, it cleaned up the highs and clarified vocals and instrumental lines nicely when compared against the untreated disc. It also seemed to smooth out some digital nasties, but not to any objectionable degree, unlike L’art Du Son and ClearBit, for example, which I think go too far in this regard.

Now on to the comparisons. Don’t ask me how, but over the years I’ve managed to acquire many multiples of each of the following discs: Dire Straits’ “Making Movies,” Candi Staton’s self-titled debut, and Badfinger’s eponymous 1974 effort. This made comparisons a snap. After demagging the discs to with my Acoustic Revive RD-3 to level the playing field, I simply treated a copy of each album with a different cleaner and listened away.

Of the treatments, I greatly preferred the Jena. It was the most dimensional and natural sounding, and yielded the widest and deepest soundstage. But here’s the rub, at least for me: All the treatments, while they worked to varying degrees, (to my ears) altered the sound, undoubtedly improving things, but somehow changing the fundamental nature of the recording—almost like sonic editorializing. I got the distinct impression that I was listening to the designer’s idea of what music should sound like, rather than simply an improvement in data retrieval.

The Shine Ola and BlueMaxx, on the other hand, just cleaned up the signal, leaving a bare minimum of sonic signature. Of the two, I clearly preferred the Shine Ola—which is weird, given that, in a previous shootout I did, I rated it rather poorly, saying that it did very little. However, my attitude toward CD treatments and cleaners has changed pretty radically since then. As my ears have gotten sharper, I’ve come to favor potions that leave as small a sonic (and physical) thumbprint as possible.

The Shine Ola, IMO, did a better job than the BlueMaxx at clarifying the overall presentation. This was evident on all three discs, manifesting itself particularly on vocals and guitars. Voices and guitar lines were rendered more cleanly and with greater precision on the Shine Ola’d discs. The BlueMaxx, on the other hand, seemed to smooth out the vocals more, but at the expense of upper-frequency extension and air—which is completely bizarre to me, since this stuff is supposed to be strictly a cleaner, not a treatment of any sort. But it did clearly change the sonic character of the discs more than did the Shine Ola. If that’s your thing, so be it—but it’s no longer mine.

To summarize, the BlueMaxx does work. It undoubtedly improves untreated discs, and is worthy of recommendation in that regard. It’s also relatively cheap, at $24 a bottle. But in my system and to my ears, Shine Ola is superior. It’s now my go-to CD fluid, which I didn’t think was ever going to happen, given my initial impression of it. But priorities change, and so have mine. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea—some of my friends don’t think it does much—but I now like it a lot. I may revisit the BlueMaxx at some point, but I trust my ears, and they tell me that Shine Ola is the one for me. At least for now. :)

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

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