CD Damping Mats

[artto]

I'm having issues with some SACD, a no disk error when loading.

One SACD in particular (Peter Gabriel's UP) is astonishingly difficult to cue up.

Last night, just by chance, while removing the disc from the player, I noticed I could clearly see the McIntosh MX130 right through the disc! I held it up to the ceiling light and was amazed at how transparent the disc was.

I have one SACD that (so far) always plays without fail (Tony Bennett & K D Lang ~ What aWonderful World) . I took a look at this disc and it is almost opaque when held up to bright light.

So, I'm wondering if the transparency of some SACD is what's causing the problem, and if one of those ridicuously priced CD mats might solve this problem. Has anyone had any experience with these mats?

Note: this sacd player is a shanling. it is an open, lift top, top-load type, that also has some blue LED highlighting the clear acrylic disc cover. I'm wondering if the transparency of the discs in concert with lit up cover and the sacd having denser/smaller information to read is what the problem is.

[Mallette]

Well, doesn't seem they'd build a disk that couldn't be read. I've never had any issues with my Oppo of that type. I'd try cutting something thin and opaque to fit before shelling out for voodoo. However, I really suspect something with the transport itself. Do you know anyone else with a SACD player to try?

Dave

[artto]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, that was going to be my next request ~ if anyone in the Chicago area has a SACD player they'd like to bring over. I'd hate to think its the transport.

In the meantime I did a little more investigating pulling out all my SACD. So far, it appears that hybrid discs (SACD/CD, or SACD/SACD multi-channel/CD) with the goldish color on the read side are the cuprit. The SACD stereo only, with a silver color cue up fine (so far)

[newrecruit]

Hello there.

I'm a new member to this forum, but no stranger to the forum lifestyle. I subscribe to alot of them...about 8, the oldest since 2003, most are audiophile/music related.

Check this: I discovered this forum through a Google news Alert on "Shanling SCD-T200."

Anyway, back on track. I'm from SF Bay Area CA. Might be getting a used SCD-T200.

About the trasparent vs. opaqueness of discs. Do you have any Steve Hoffman mastered CDs from either the DCC or Audio Fidelity Label? Try those too.They are even more transparent than the Peter Gabriel hybrid SACD!

I have a bunch of SACDs myself, both single layer and hybrid. I never would have thought that single layer discs would have more shelf-life.

Also heard something about "calibration discs"on this forum, but not sure if they do any good with transports. I'm new to the transport game but learning fast.

[artto]

Last night I did some testing ~ well, actually a lot of testing. I dug out all of my SACD and (attemtped) to play them. The culprit seems to predominantly be the hybrid discs with goldish color on the recorded side. All of the SACD only discs have silver recorded sides and play everytime.

There are a few inconsistant exceptions.The Shanling demo SACD that came with the unit is a gold hybrid. This one is very curious. It alternately cues up, and next time it doesn't. I opened and closed the cover at least 6 times, and each time it would alternately read the disc, and then the next time give a no disc error.

Roger Water's "Caira", also a hybrid/gold, disc one has trouble playing, disc two usually cues right up.

Scary Music (Kunzel/Cincinnati Telarc), also a gold hybrid cues right up.

All the other gold hrbrid discs can eventually be cued up and played in the SACD player, although a few seemed to have developed skipping as it approaches the end of the disc. The very first SCAD I bought (Yo Yo Ma Solo) (SACD only - silver sided) also began skipping towards the end a while back and is getting increasingly worse.

The majority of gold hybrid discs have the most trouble in the SACD player, but all play in the regular CD player.

I'm beginning to wonder if for some reason, SACD have an abbreviated shelf life due to playing, almost as if the laser were gradually destroying the data as I don't recall having these problems on any of these discs when new.

[Mallette]

The only degradation I've ever seen is a direct flaking of of the reflective layer. Since we've not heard of this before, I'm still thinking you've got a player issue. I'd certainly eliminate that first.

Dave

[kevinmi]

This may or may not be relevent. I have a Shanling T100 (CD and HDCD player-no SACD) and I've had problems with it cueing up cd's before. One time I found out that the laser lens had become dirty, so a simple cleaning took care of that. I've also found that some CD's don't sit evenly on the center "clamp" unless pushed down tightly. I know these are simple things, but sometimes it's the simplest things that we tend to overlook. Hopefully it's not a transport issue!