Are you sure that the data stream was buffered in early players? I remember a 1-second buffer being 
a big deal in the early portable players and early car players going to great lengths to create 
mechanical isolation until bigger digital buffers became common. I remember a 4-second buffer on a 
"Discman" player being a big point of marketing, circa mid-90's.

So, if Jerry's story was from early in the CD era, did a typical home player buffer enough to 
overcome the problem described in the glass master cutter?

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alex Hartov" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 10:27 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Listening Tests


Hi Folks

Sometimes I have to express serious doubts about what I read.  From the given URL I read the 
following:

"Many years ago, an irate musician contacted his CD-DA replicator claiming that his latest release 
was of poor quality. Extensive electrical, mechanical, and listening tests by the replicator failed 
to disclose any flaws while the musician became angrier. The persistent replicator finally 
identified a defective glass mastering turntable in which one coil of its brushless DC motor had 
failed, causing an imperceptable once- around speed variation. After repair, the musician declared 
his satisfaction in the resulting high CD-DA quality."

Is anyone suggesting that fluctuation in the rotating of the disc itself can have ANY effect on 
playback?  Do I misunderstand something?  Since the data stream is buffered the speed with which it 
is read from the disc cannot possibly have any effect on the playback speed which is controlled by 
the DAC clock.  So what is the above quote intended to convey?

Alex Hartov

On Nov 19, 2010, at 9:30 AM, Rob Poretti wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jerry Hartke
> Sent: November 18, 2010 8:10 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Listening Tests
>
> Input on the subject has been posted at:
>
> www.mscience.com/faq35.html
>
> Jerry
> Media Sciences, Inc.