For the benefit of Richard's curiousity, I have already done the x-periments
he's referring to, so maybe I can help clear this up. Colour matters. Period!
(no, exclamation mark). My first experiments with colour were back in the late
80's I believe, using a violet Staedtler marker, on the inner and outer
perimeters of a CD. I had a green CD Stoplight pen at the time, and had heard
about the color violet. While I can't remember every detail, I'm 99.9% sure this
idea came via Peter Belt's advice (but I don't think I knew about his pens at
the time). Using 1 cm lines at 4 points, I compared the violet Staedtler with
the green CD Stoplight. Indeed, each had their own characteristics, I remember.
I liked the sound of the violet, but the Stoplight had a wider soundstage and
other nice stuff. It's a shame the cd marker controversy of the 80's was always
over the CD Stoplight or generic markers (that people thought were equivalent).

Except the generic markers many people were using to test the efficacy of the
so-called "green pen", thinking they were perfectly comparable, were *not*
equivalent to the quality of sound the ink from the CD Stoplight could produce.
It's even less valid to compare the Chunky Pen to a Staedtler or UniPosca. I
have no doubt PWB's treated Chunky Pen blows them all away; both "official"
green pens and non-official green pens, or other coloured markers. Whatever has
been done to Mr. Chunky, is like amplifying the effect of the colour itself. So
in my opinion, the green pen controversy of the 80's (and its inevitable
conclusion that colored markers don't work) kind of got a bum rap, because the
Chunky Pen was not the marker at the forefront of this controversy. (BTW, I was
just reading on snopes.com the other day, a popular "information" site that many
consult to find out the "scoop" on something, about how green pens don't work.
Up until then, I occasionally read and used Snopes like anyone else. Since
reading that, I can no longer trust anything in there!)

In more recent years, after rediscovering Beltism, and seeing the extent of the
use of colour in Peter's products, out of curiousity to find out what this was
all about, I started doing further experiments on colour; starting with
revisiting my old experiments on coloured markers on CD's. Went down to my local
art & graphics shop, and bought about a dozen different coloured markers;
everything from bright yellow to bright green to metallic silver, orange, blue,
black, etc. And surprise, surprise, every single colour added its own
characteristic to the sound of the CD. This was repeatable and consistent, of
course. (Though after sorting through all that, I didn't care for what any of
these generic markers did to the sound of my CD's). To see how colour works on
other objects (that have no interaction with a laser!), I experimented with
generic colored plastic ties, on things like headphone cable, IC's and power
cable.

Again, each colour added its own "coloration" to the sound. What was even more
interesting, was how that "coloration" could vary somewhat, by moving the tie
even a few mm's, along the cable. And how certain locations along the cable
would produce a more ideal sound; which could be repeated on different cables.
But despite the changes in sound quality from changes in location, each tie
would still retain the overall characteristics of its colour. The headphone
experiments were repeated with coloured (metallic) twist ties, and coloured
rubber bands. Again, each material had its own sound, and each colour within
these objects had their own sound. And as with the markers, they were only
temporary in my system. I didn't really care to use any of these generic objects
other than on an experimental basis. Though I can change the sound a thousand
different ways like that, I don't like changing the sound just for the sake of
changing the sound. The PWB ties are quite a different matter. I only wish they
were better known. They can take a generic 50 cent throwaway IC, and turn it
into something more interesting (sonically) than an audiophile cable. I think
it's great that someone at Sony is reviving the green CD idea. But I am guessing
that like their predecessors, they haven't really experimented with color, and
believe this has only to do with CD's and some sort of interaction with the
laser. Heavens forbid they ever find out that just the printing on the label can
degrade the sound....