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I received my Ultrabit Platinum Plus (UBP-P) kit early this morning and spent about four hours stacking it up against L’Art du Son, Shine Ola, and a beta version of Blue Maxx. I only used one CD, Joan Osborne’s well-recorded Relish, for comparison, as I wanted to keep my impressions as focused as possible.
I’ll cut to the chase—in terms of effectiveness in my system, they ranked as follows: (1) UBP-P, (2) L’Art du Son, (3) Blue Maxx, and (4) Shine Ola. The Shine Ola by far did the least, perhaps smoothing the treble a bit, but not doing much else. The Blue Maxx and L’Art du Son were very close to each other. On “St. Theresa,” the opening acoustic guitar flurry was a bit clearer with the LDS, and on “Right Hand Man,” Osborne’s voice was a little smoother on higher notes with the LDS, but in this regard it was a tight race. The LDS imparted a nice sense of warmth to the songs, but in comparison with the winner, the UBP-P, that warmth seemed artificial and bloated.
The UBP-B proved the definitive top dog in this contest. It’s greatest asset was a sense of openness and—for lack of a better word—“slipperiness” that was addicting. In comparison with the LDS, its nearest competitor, it produced images that were wider, clearer, and more fluid. By “slipperiness,” I’m trying to convey the ease with which vocals emanated from the soundstage. With the LDS, vocals seemed almost ragged, which was shocking, as I considered it to produce the smoothest vocals I had ever heard short of the Jena Labs Esoteric 3D-X. With the UBP-P, vocals and instruments were crystal clear but produced with such ease and fluidity that I was really taken aback by the difference. But lest you think the UBP-P was overly smoothing things out, it wasn’t—it was just revealing smoothness when it was there, but also revealing the bluesy rasp in Osborne’s voice with startling clarity when it was there.
The UBP-P is now my new reference. It’s a big step above the L’Art du Son, and for the huge improvement it produces from any optical disc, it’s pretty reasonably priced. I hope it stays that way. It’s really impressive.
Follow Ups:
Quint you must try his CD disc damper, take what your hearing and more than double the improvement, it really is unreal what George has come up with it.
PJB
such as Brillianize,
http://www.crawfordtool.com/chemicals.html
or Novus,
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=novus+plastic+polish&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3280420621&ref=pd_sl_4b5hhi1jci_b
I have used L'Art du Son and did not find a great difference compared to the Novus, except price.
You know, I read someone's post here about this before and looked into it. It's a no crap, explain it's purpose with full disclosure product. None of the audiophool hyperbole that seems to find it's way in as a way of explanation.
It works and does so well. Old CD's are more clear and newer ones have a new perspective. I have been going through treating each CD I have as I play them ( I have over 1000 albums on CD) and I'm about 1/3 the way through. I have stopped playing untreated and treated as a way of comparison because I know it makes a positive difference.
BTW it does a good job on the dash lens of your car.
Edits: 01/13/11
the results if you have a chance to compare the products on SACD.
When you say you used only one CD for comparison, did you actually use only one disc or multiple copies of the disc?
Most CD treatments claim to remove the mold release compound from the CD surface. Many CD treatments also contain an anti-static chemical. So, the first CD treatment you use will presumably remove the MRC as well as make the CD static free. I.e., using only one disc you cannot go back to a baseline of an untreated CD for comparison - the next treatment you try will have the advantage of having a treated disc to work with, as it were. And so forth. If only one CD is used for the comparison I suspect whichever CD treatment one uses last might well finish first.
Add'l info: Clark Johnsen ran a test of 22 fluids and gels that was published on PFO a couple years ago.
I had two spare copies of the CD, both of which were in good condition. Both were demagged prior to treatment to make the playing field as level as possible. That’s as good as I could do. Hope this clarifies things.
Does that mean you had 2 discs or 3?
You say you compared 4 fluid treatments. That means you had to clean at least one disc and apply something else. Hmmm.
I like UBP. It made a disc play that would stop in the middle of a cut without the treatment.
Don't use a full squirt, just a half squirt or less, else you won't get anywhere near the number of treated discs that GL says you will.
One disc was treated with UBP-P, and that was the control disc. The other disc was the variable, and was treated with the other three solutions in order: Shine Ola first, Blue Maxx second, and L’Art du Son third. (All discs were demagged prior to treatment.) Clean Disc was used to clean off one treatment before the other treatment was applied. Perhaps not the best way to do things, but I don’t own a CD burner and didn’t have four identical copies of the Osborne CD. Clean Disc is the best solution that I know of for cleaning off previous treatments, so that’s why I used it.
..i agree with your assessment..i.too. had a shootout,this past weekend, comparing the 3dx...shine Ola..and blue max against the ubp-p and thought the Ubp-p the best of the bunch.
....for all your effort on this and many other comparisons. Most appreciated.
I agre with your assessment. One caveat when you mention any disc: After I treated the Love and Theft SACD I experienced a drastic decrease in treble. So, I use it only on redbook.
nt
I have two copies of a Nick Drake SACD. First, I applied the UBP-P to the first SACD and listened. I didn’t hear any reduction in treble or other anomalies. Then I treated the other copy with L’Art du Son and did another comparison. The results were similar to my initial test, with the UBP-P pretty easily besting the LDS.
Hope this helps.
nt
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