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Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity

It's a Pioneer I got a year ago. DV-563A. I don't know if it's still available. Honestly, I don't think there's much difference between the $150 player and the $500 player. They're all made cheaply. They are not easily repaired. They don't last that long, in my experience. So unless you are going to step up to $1k or better, I'd spend as little as possible. Just avoid the off brand stuff. The picture is good on DVD, CD is okay (a little brash), DVDA can be awesome and the high frequencies on SACD sound like analog to me. That's where I never liked CD, the high frequencies, although they made up for it in dynamics, bass, S2NR, etc.. The SACD and DVDA are the best formats ever, in my opinion, when mastered well (and I've heard some bad SACDs due to incompetence). The RCA SACD reissue series really does "blow away" every analog copy I've heard. I'd wasted an embarrassing sum on one of those 45RPM four single sided ultra premium kick ass reissues of Munch/Boston/The Organ Symphony, just to have it knocked on its butt by a $13 SACD. Woe is me. The naysayers will opine that SACD is a doomed format, but with the specialty crowd (that includes such small operations as RCA and Telarc), it's still doing quite well. If you think about it, the small labels, after the initial learning curve and tremendous investment in the proper equipment, can deal with SACD hybrids for not much more than a regular CD. The extra juice offered by SACD to their customers gives you "value added" to the product, enhancing sales with the audiophile/cognoscenti crowd. Something like: "hey Biff, should I buy the SACD hybrid Telarc or the CD only EMI for the same price?". "Well Tanner, the Telarc will play in your BMW and in your SACD player at the mansion, so get it". You can say the same negative things about the regular CD as SACD since it appears the music industry is in a deepening crises with downloads, piracy, MP3, etc... I really wasn't kidding about MP3 killing off CD. The odd thing is, it's getting harder to find a really good CD player. Reviewers and buyers have noted that there aren't very many great mid-priced CD players like 10 years ago (Marantz, Rotel, Sony ES, etc..). With all the extra stuff added like DVD, DVDA, SACD, MP3 playback, etc...., the regular 16bit 44K playback has suffered. I concur and I've heard 10 year old players that sound much better than current offerings.
Phillip
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rod Stephens" <savecal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 1:42 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity


Hey Phillip,

Are you tongue in cheek about the $140 player? If not, I'd like to know what brand/model it is. For that amount, I'd like to try SACD, especially if you say it sounds good.

Rod Stephens

P.S. I've got a Best Buy up the road even though we're a small town.

phillip holmes wrote:

Hey Tom,
Stop picking on me. And the CD player cost $140. And I got it from Best Buy. It also plays SACD and DVDA pretty good. Actually, the SACD playback is fantastic for what it is. I still don't think this CD thing is going to make it. MP3 is going to rule. All you suckers who adopted CD are going to be like all those early adopters of stereo. The joke's on you losers!
Besides, I got my $10,000 turntable for 1/3 of MSRP. I'm no sucker!
Phillip (tongue in cheek, if you couldn't tell).
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 6:49 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity


Yes, this whole fingerprint thing reminds me of the audiophool with the $10K record player and the $50 Chinese Wal-Mart CD player claiming LPs "always" sound better and CDs "always" sound "terrible."

For what it's worth, I borrow, play and sometimes make personal-use copies of circulated library CD's and DVD's all the time. We're talking fingerprints galore and scratches to boot, plus usually some sort of off-center stick-on library label to potentially effect playback mechanics. Never had a problem, using typical consumer DVD players and Plextor drives in the computer. I had a DVD last week ("Battle of Algiers" -- superb movie, highly recommended, DVD reissue is excellent) that had a pinhole chunk chipped out of the edge. It played perfectly -- I tested every bit of the DVD because I was curious if there was a data problem from the chunk. It was all scratched up too.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerome Hartke" <jhartke@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity


Moving away from opinions, our testing laboratory has conducted tests on
both CD and DVD discs containing such defects, both of our own fabrication
and obtained from Philips Laboratories. Results are as described in my
initial contribution.

Simple fingerprints should never interfere with playback unless the read
drive is of very poor quality. The real risk of fingerprints is in the oils
from the body. Those of each person are distinct, and some can degrade discs
over an extended period of time.

Jerry
Media Sciences, Inc.
http://www.mscience.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alex Hartov
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 5:58 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Longevity

That is part of the hype.  You try it.  I know from experience that a
simple finger print will mess up playback on either CD or DVD.  I
don't know where the notion of a whole in the CD/DVD being
recoverable comes from but it's definitely nonsense.

Alex


On Jul 2, 2006, at 5:31 PM, phillip holmes wrote:

>> CD and DVD error detection and correction algorithms will "play"
>> discs with
>> 2 mm diameter holes. Some DVD systems require a 6 mm defect before
>> data loss
>> occurs, and the problem is then loss of servo lock by the read
>> drive. Can
>> 78s do this?







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