I am skeptical about polishing CD's beyond a non-defective finish from the factory. I'm not at all skeptical about stable mechanical transport. I would suggest that regarding the polishing, science needs to be done as to measured error rates before and after polishing. I can't think of what else polishing would effect, it shouldn't effect mechanical jitter. One thing I notice -- there doesn't seem to be too much controversy anymore that a careful listener can hear jitter artifacts, but there seems to be much controversy about whether one can hear correction of correctable read-errors. -- Tom Fine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Clark Johnsen" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 11:16 AM Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Listening Tests >I concur most heartily with Tom Fine's remarks. While much is known, much > yet is to be discovered -- or brought into production. The real error in > RBCD is our thinking that it works exactly as the (frequently appended) > textbooks tell us. > > Which brings me to: > > "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?" > > It is being suggested that all manner of things affect playback. Speaking as > an ex-digital designer (albeit optical) on the Mars Lander Camera, the error > budget for RBCD has not yet been written nor all the contributors identified > -- de rigueur for any NASA project but CD has never been systematically > analyzed. Hence it should not be surprising that improvements can be > discovered. I'll offer a couple of my own: vibration isolation and surface > cleaning/polishing. Yet it is widely supposed that players are robust enough > to overcome such difficulties; they are not. > > clark > > On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Alex Hartov < > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> 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. >> >