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" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
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" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> 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:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alex Hartov
>>> Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 5:58 PM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> 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?
>
>