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I am sure this topic came up before, but I believe it won't hurt to post it once again. This comes from my painful experience.SACDs are EXTREMELY vulnerable to surface damage! Fingerprints, dust, barely visible scratches may make a disk unplayable. Sometimes a defect will show as SACD layers failing to play, other times it is frustrating stops during SACD playback. Regular CDs can stand probably 100 times more abuse! In most cases, washing a disc does not help. The surface of a SACD may look perfect, but it won't play well.
Bad SACD puts a lot of strain on players pickup mechanism. You can hear the mechanism working hard for quite a long time trying to read a bad disk. Hence sled motor and optical pickup problems.
Bottom line:
Exercise great care handling your SACDs. Put them in their hard cases immediately after playing. Don't use soft CD pouches. Make sure the case itself is not damaged. Don't play a SACD in a car. Don't give a SACD to a friend to listen. Don't allow your family members (esp. teenagers) to play SACDs unless you are sure they will treat the discs exactly the way you do. And finally, never buy used SACDs unless you can test play them.
Follow Ups:
I have sold dozens of SACD's I didn't care for, and I've never heard a single complaint from any buyer about the condition or playability of any of them. Maybe you want to qualify your declaration to never buy used SACD's. We're not all careless teenagers, or careless adults. Yeah, they're somewhat delicate, but they're not gossamer.
Thanks for the reminder. That's why I really couldn't be bothered in the end with SACD..I might only get very high quality SACD recordings from studios like Chesky, FIM etc..for demo purposes and/or listening enjoyment. I've had some bad luck with defected SACDs just like you described, I never had a single problem with RBCDs and most of the time RBCDs sound really good when played on high-end cd players..AP
# The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men # Jules Winnfield(Ezekiel 25:17)> Pulp Fiction <
What is an RBCD? How does it differ from an SACD?
If a SACD recording strains, fails, skips, etc in ALL players, then I would tend to agree. But that is not my experience with every player I have. And I have played a good number of SACDs hybrids lots of times in my car and on my portable CD player also. I have also bought lots of used SACDs. The only problem I have is with one SACD player from time to time (not always), unfortunately it is my best and most expensive player. Even with the MPS/Verve Oscar Peterson recordings that do not track or tend to skip on that player, that isn't the case all of the time. I love jazz and those recordings sound darn good on that player versus my lower quality ones.I would be willing to bet the CD layer on SACD hybrids would play on 99.99% of dedicated CDPs also. DVD players may perhaps be another story though as I remember some folks reporting some problems early on about that.
As suppose the problem could be a case of 3 layers on some of these SACD discs versus just one a CD.
What are you referring to? This is not possible.
Regards,
Geoff
SACD MCH, SACD Stereo, and CD
CD and SACD. 2ch and multichannel SACD content are contained on the same layer.
Good diagram. This is something I should have been clear on and probably was clear on a few years ago. I have incorrectly referred to the "multi-channel" layer when I should be saying the "multi-channel program"
Robert C. Lang
I know some use "multichannel layer" when they mean "multichannel area". Better to set them straight.
Regards,
Geoff
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Like you, I think most of us on this forum take very good care of our inventory of discs. If you do take care of your discs then you should not have a problem. But CDs can get pretty scuffed and still play well. SACDs like DVDs can't take that kind of abuse, probably in part because of the high density of information (a guess on my part).
Robert C. Lang
first dvd player, a well reviewed Phillips was terrible, many movies could not be played to the end because of skipping and then locking-up. But my one-up-from the bottom of the line Sony dvd has been fine, and my C555 SACD changer. But I've had 2 Sony cd players that are still in service now for friends- a 707 that is approaching 16 or 17 years, an X707 that is 12 or so. I don't expect that from the 555.
as subject
SCD-1, DVP-NS999ES, and 2000ES. If a disc has a problem on one of them, it usually has problem on the others.
Although what you say is accurate, I believe that some transports deal better with these disc imperfections than others. I don't think the Sonys are particularly tolerant. Hybrids are more susceptible because the semi-transmissive layer only reflects 25% of the incident light, and although this is enough to drive the receptors, I think it's an area of weakness. I was totally supportive of non-hybrid SACDs and was never in favour of hybrids (a position I maintain).
Regards,
Geoff
I agree with what both you and SSer2 have offered on this issue. It seems that SACDs are more vunerable to damage compared to CDs just as DVDs are more vunerable compared to CDs. SACDs should probably be given the level of care is required for DVDs.Likewise, I agree with you with respect to transports differing. My Sony SCD-1 will play completely unaffected what my EMM Labs will choke on unless cleaned.
Robert C. Lang
I listen to my SACDs in the car all the time, and have only had one problem: my Elton John GYBR developed a lot of scratches and stopped playing in my old Sony DVP-NS755P. I don't know how I made the scratches, as I take pretty good care of my discs and don't often drive drunk. ;> )However, GYBR plays flawlessly in my Sony XA77ES, as well as other discs (that lacked scratches) that became balky in the old player.
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