|
You are reading the older HTML site
Positive Feedback ISSUE 62
An Amazing Treatment - the Stein Music Maestro Lacquer
There is a reason violins are made of wood. Wood is a flexible, strong, and a musically resonant material. Holger Stein of Stein Music discovered this years ago. He also discovered the important characteristics of American Walnut for audio purposes. This wood is the kind of wood used in the Super Natural Equipment supports that work so well under your top gear and speakers. Guess what he did next? He developed a liquid lacquer made from American Walnut and other compounds that one can just paint on any surface that needs quieting or tuning! Here is how the manufacturer describes Maestro Lacquer:
I have had a field day painting this superb liquid on various components to test how effective this Lacquer may be. First, here is the number one use! Take any CD/SACD/CDR and turn it to the label side. Put a drop from the included small brush in the center label area at 12/3/6/9 o'clock. Allow 3 minutes to dry. Here are the results. If you have no other treatments on the disk, it will improve to what I would estimate to be 80% of the maximum smoothness and dynamics of a full chemical treatment, plus greening and demag, would accomplish. And that's only four drops! If the disk is already treated with the usual stuff, the four drops will gain you another 20% of added sophistication and smoothness. In other words, just do all disks, no matter what. If you wish to remove the Lacquer, regular rubbing alcohol takes it right off instantly. As there is no approved treatment for CD-Rs that I know of, the Master Lacquer will do the job quite well! I tried it on aluminum, gold, and black CD-Rs, and got excellent results consistently. You can put more drops on your disks, but four seem about right. More is gilding the lily, Do not fret about the precise placement of the drops... it is NOT critical. Adding a bit of wood to PCB boards, capacitors, or resistors makes sense and is worth experimenting with. I have no gear with appropriate spots to paint, but many do. You are trying to dampen the material, not insulate it, so less is more. I did paint the exposed faces of a Koetsu Rosewood Signature Cartridge, and made it sound almost like a new modern moving coil. I ended up removing the Lacquer here, though, as I missed the original warm forgiving sound. It was an education on how powerful this stuff is. I may retry this experiment with just a drop here and there for effect. How about a drop on the top of your tonearm for added stability or mass? Try the corners of your turntable. Call me a coward, but I did not try to paint any speaker drivers. If you have some older paper cone speakers, I can see how the Lacquer would be beneficial. The Lacquer is a light golden color, but painted on any surface it is almost invisible. What great fun to use! You need to try this stuff for the improvement on CDs. The added smoothness and warmth is addictive. I recommend you acquire a bottle of Maestro Lacquer from Stein Music and add it to your bag of top tweaks. Unless you go crazy, one bottle should last a year or more. The more I explore the products from Stein Music of Germany, the more impressed I become. The Maestro Lacquer is truly amazing and highly recommended for the sophisticated audiophile. MSRP USD $85
Stein Music Speaker Match
Fidelis AV
Laufer Teknik
|
