CD players that destroy cds

[audio]

Anyone have any stories about their cd players damaging or scratching cds?

[Khorn]

Yeah! The "Goldfinger" Model. When you put in a CD the laser comes on and a little voice says: "Play, I don't expect you to play, I expect you to melt".

No, Joseph (the Tangent) used to have a portable one that the disc stuck out around the outside 'cause the unit was so small. It tended to cut a circular scratch/groove near the outer layer of a cd when he played it. OUCH!!!

[-=Rudy=-]

That portable was a Sony, wasn't it? If I remember, it was a player for the smaller 8cm CDs, but would play larger CDs with its unique case design. Sony used to have a turntable like that, which I do remember quite clearly. Just over a quarter of the LP would be inside sort of a clamshell type of case, while the rest would rotate outside the component. Weird!

Only player I've owned that damaged a disc (a Laserdisc) was my Sony MDP333. That was in the middle of one of many repairs done to that piece of crap. None of my car players have ever damaged a disc, and the only damaged to a CD was a couple of times when I hit the drawer on one of my home players and accidentally closed the door on a partially inserted disc. (The drawer was a little too sensitive.)

There was also the time I couldn't find one of my CDs...my daughter was in the car and had stuck it in the gap in the dashboard between the in-dash player and the dash. Other than some scraped paint on the CD, no other damage (other than my nerves). ;)

[SVL]

Some computer drives might destroy a CD, not at regular playing speed though... maybe when ripping?

I used a very expensive hi-end CD player once that failed to eject one of the CDs (the tray went out, but the CD remained in the machine). Unaware of that, I loaded another CD, and it played just fine, albeit with some strange mechanical noises. I hit stop and eject, and the player ejected both CDs, one on top of the other:D. Both CDs played OK afterwards using the same player.

It was not my player, hence the grin;) . Otherwise, it could have been a :sigh:

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Rudy@A&MCorner
That portable was a Sony, wasn't it? If I remember, it was a player for the smaller 8cm CDs, but would play larger CDs with its unique case design. Sony used to have a turntable like that, which I do remember quite clearly. Just over a quarter of the LP would be inside sort of a clamshell type of case, while the rest would rotate outside the component. Weird!

Only player I've owned that damaged a disc (a Laserdisc) was my Sony MDP333. That was in the middle of one of many repairs done to that piece of crap. None of my car players have ever damaged a disc, and the only damaged to a CD was a couple of times when I hit the drawer on one of my home players and accidentally closed the door on a partially inserted disc. (The drawer was a little too sensitive.)

There was also the time I couldn't find one of my CDs...my daughter was in the car and had stuck it in the gap in the dashboard between the in-dash player and the dash. Other than some scraped paint on the CD, no other damage (other than my nerves). ;)

That's the one Rudy! Loved it for its uniqueness but had to dump it quick when I noticed the bad behaviour it was displaying. Fortunately only damaged a couple of cdr's and a dozen or so gold DCCs (just kidding!)

[-=Rudy=-]

An 8cm-only CD player certainly wasn't practical, but I wonder if the music industry really missed out on a good way to get singles out to the masses. I bought a handful of new 8cm CD releases back then just because they were a novelty. Sort of wish they were still actively used.

That was sort of the modern-day equivalent of those little RCA 45RPM record changers. I'd love to get my hands on one of those 45RPM players, but would not really want to put any of my collectible singles on it. :D

[EC3970]

We have a PS2 here at work that wears a grove the disk.

[Graham Start]

Years ago I knew someone who had an early Kenwood CD player. Man, did that thing ever suck. It didn't even have search buttons! Anyway, if you pressed eject while a disc was playing, the tray would fling open with the disc still spinning... thus instantly getting nasty circular scratches on the disc, and basically ruining it. Yuck.

[Michael St. Clair]

There are actually some 8cm-only players on the market now. Their primary intended use is to play MP3 on 8cm CDR, but they also play 8cm CDs and 8cm audio-format CDRs.

[SamS]

I had an Alpine car CD deck 10 years ago that left circular rings scratched on discs. The track forward button didn't work either, so you had to "back up" to each song. Man I hated that thing.....

[audio]

I just got my new NAD C541i cd player. When you close the tray and then open it again, the disc is still spinning when it comes out. You have to remember to hit STOP and let it run it's course before ejecting the disc. To me, this sucks. The machine should command the motor to stop before it allows the tray to open, period. Today I called NAD and they have no technical assistance! They only refer you to "service centers" or "dealers" around the country. Fortunately I talked to a guy who was intelligent and has worked on NAD from day one. According to him, this is not a defect and that I should just be careful. I've called three separate NAD dealers and asked them to test their players and none of them did what mine is doing. I know I'm going to occasionally forget to press stop and screw up a disc every now and then if I keep this player, but who knows. I've owned a ton of NAD cd players through the years and seen a lot of problems, but I think I'm finally done with this garbage. Another disc destroying story is this NAD player I had a while back would randomly put a tiny nick in the disc surface. I didn't notice it until the scratches had accumulated in a circular pattern in one particular area around the disc. The player basically ruined half my collection. I never found out what was causing it to scratch cds, but I figure it must have been something touching the disc during start up or shut down because the marks were so tiny. If it was something happening during play, the marks would be rings all the way around the disc because of it spinning so fast, I reckon. In any case, I sure wish I would have kept my old NAD C520. To me, it sounded better than the new C541i and that includes HDCD playback. I think I'm going to look at Rotel and Jolida now, although I am starting to think that the tray mechanism is a lousy idea from the start. Maybe I should look at Rega...........

[ybe]

Originally posted by prix
I just got my new NAD C541i cd player. When you close the tray and then open it again, the disc is still spinning when it comes out.
My friend had the same problem with an older NAD cd player. Can't remember the model. He gave that player to his father. I guess he wanted to punish his daddy or something...:rolleyes:

[John Buchanan]

Originally posted by prix
I am starting to think that the tray mechanism is a lousy idea from the start. Maybe I should look at Rega...........

.....or a Studer A730 or D730 - an excellent top loader and a beautiful work of art.

[Dave]

One of the best tray loading CDP's that I've seen is on the Sony XA20ES. The reason I like it so much is that the laser itself is part of the drawer and the clamping mechanism is a steel 2" disc that sits on top of the CD, no hyrdraulic clamping. The laser is stationary except for horizontal (sliding) motion to track the CD. Absolutely zero chance of the laser mechanism ever touching the CD and no clamping mechanism to become misaligned that could cause a scratch. Plus, it's cheap like Borscht being a few years old now (5 years I think).

[audio]

Originally posted by John Buchanan


.....or a Studer A730 or D730 - an excellent top loader and a beautiful work of art.


The Studer stuff does look beautiful, but when were these made? A vintage cd player?? Are you serious?

[audio]

Originally posted by Dave
One of the best tray loading CDP's that I've seen is on the Sony XA20ES. The reason I like it so much is that the laser itself is part of the drawer and the clamping mechanism is a steel 2" disc that sits on top of the CD, no hyrdraulic clamping. The laser is stationary except for horizontal (sliding) motion to track the CD. Absolutely zero chance of the laser mechanism ever touching the CD and no clamping mechanism to become misaligned that could cause a scratch. Plus, it's cheap like Borscht being a few years old now (5 years I think).

Interesting. I wonder if they ever used that mechanism in any high end player? It just boggles my mind how silly of an idea the tray really is. I suppose it's to protect the laser, but my real investment is my software, not the player.

[Dave]

Originally posted by prix


Interesting. I wonder if they ever used that mechanism in any high end player? It just boggles my mind how silly of an idea the tray really is. I suppose it's to protect the laser, but my real investment is my software, not the player.
They, for some unknown reason:rolleyes:, didn't use it in any other model as far as I know. If it's strictly a case of needing more oop software, grab the software first as you can always upgrade equipment at a later date and probably for a lot less money than trying to get the oop software later.

[audio]

Originally posted by Dave

If it's strictly a case of needing more oop software, grab the software first as you can always upgrade equipment at a later date and probably for a lot less money than trying to get the oop software later.

I'm with you there. It just depends on how picky I want to be with these tiny ring shaped scratch patterns. Some of the most badly scratched discs such as the standard version of ELO "Out of the Blue" and Scientist "Scientific Dub" which I have on vinyl aren't worth replacing, where some of my gold cds and rare imports are probably going to need to be canned, unfortunately.

[sgraham]

I have heard that some DVD players can ruin some CD-R disks. I seem to have had that experience, but I can't say for certain.

[audio]

Originally posted by sgraham
I have heard that some DVD players can ruin some CD-R disks. I seem to have had that experience, but I can't say for certain.

How are they supposed to ruin them?