CD Players

2010 Views 40 Replies 22 Participants Last post by apricissimus, 9 d ago

Tsaraslondon

Discussion Starter · 2 mo ago

I know everyone is going digital these days, and I do use streaming music services, but I am wedded to my CDs and have no intention of getting rid of them.

My question is about CD players and their built-in error correction facility. I seem to remember that when CDs were first produced, one of the selling points was their longevity and how most CDs could ignore any surface scratches and still play the CDs. I have a Cambridge Audio CD player, which I've now owned for around 10 years. Recently it has refused to play certain CDs, even when I can't see any scratches on them, though it's a bit temperamental (sometimes it will, sometimes it won't) probably meaning that the error correction facility has stopped working.

Modern CD players don't seem to be as good as old ones and indeed I remember that when I purchased this one, it was a replacement for a model that didn't support gapless playback. Nothing in the technical specs prepared me for that and none of the specs for many of the CD players I am looking at now say anything about error correction. I can't afford anything high end. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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jegreenwood

· #15 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

First - you may get more responses (although you’ve received quite a few) in the Hi-Fi sub-forum of the recorded music forum.

My guess laser needs cleaning or adjustment.

On another note, I’ve probably owned and/or used at least 25 CD players. Prior to this thread, I’d never heard of one of one that couldn’t play gapless on regular CDs. Now I know that most mp3s cannot be played gapless. Could these have been discs with mp3 files? And I know, for example that ChromeCast cannot play gapless, although, I’ve found a workaround for that. Or maybe it’s something else. Frankly I never heard the concept of gapless/non-gapless in the pre mp3 era.

Edit - Wikipedia tells me that the “TAO” recording format will create CDs with gaps. I’ve never come across one - at least where gapless makes a difference.

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jegreenwood

· #18 · 2 mo ago

Tsaraslondon said:
I tried to find a more appropriate place to post my query, but couldn't find one. I didn't think of looking in the Recorded Music one.

On the subject of gapless, I can't understand why anyone would produce a player that didn't support gapless. Quite aside from classical music, there are quite a few pop CDs which are supposed to play straight through, with one track seguing straight into the next (Sgt Pepper anyone?).

My only theory (and it's only a theory) is that some cheapo CD players use DACs designed for mp3 players.

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jegreenwood

· #25 · 2 mo ago

HenryPenfold said:
In the early/mid 1990s I had to return 2 CD players within a day of purchase because neither could play gaplessly. A Rotel and a Nad. I got a Marant KI signature which was fine then moved on pretty quickly to Naim where I've remained ever since

Wow - I'd never run into that before or even read about it (and for years I subscribed to Stereophile and The Absolute Sound), but some Googling confirms you are right. Why in the world would a respectable audio company like NAD or Rotel do this? Were they saving a few pennies per unit?

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jegreenwood

· #35 · 2 mo ago

I’ve ripped all of mine (except for several Blu-Ray audio files. I know they can be ripped as well, but I have less than 10, so I didn’t bother. I have three copies of my library, plus my CDs/SACDs/DVD-As in storage.

Every so often I’ll find an imperfect rip during playback. This was especially true in my early years of ripping using iTunes. No reported error even with safe rip (or whatever Apple calls it) on. Then I hunt down the original disc, which almost always is capable of producing a clean rip.

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