Post by Dinko January 29, 2005 (1 of 10)
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So sue me: I'm transferring my SACDs to lossy ATRAC3 at 132kbps to play on my MiniDisc player for easier on-the-go listening. It's not the audiophile thing to do, but it avoids dragging six speakers, an amplifier, cables, an SACD player and all my SACD discs in my backpack. :D
The problem is... as I'm going through them, I notice that about a third of the hybrids are cracked in the middle. When the first cracks were reported (I believe it was Dark Side of the Moon), I didn't pay much attention to those reports. But now I'm noticing that about half of my hybrids are showing cracks in the middle, from the hole out. Some of the cracks are very minor, but some are more alarming. Especially that the cracks seem to be appearing *and* growing even when the discs are not played. I might understand cracking if the discs were very often removed and replaced in their jewel cases, thus increasing pressure on the discs' plastic. Except that's not the case. The SFS Mahler 4 has been sitting on the shelf for months, and now it's cracked. The SFS Mahler 3 (both discs) are much worse, and they've been sitting even longer without being played.
It's not just the dust-gatherers that are cracking. Gergiev's Shostakovich symphonies are showing cracks (no 7 especially). None of the Chandos, Telarc or Naxos hybrids are cracked... yet!
The cracks are too minor for the moment to affect playing. However considering that some of these discs are less than a year old and barely played, I wonder what will happen in 10 years' time.
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Post by avraham January 29, 2005 (2 of 10)
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Dinko said:
So sue me: I'm transferring my SACDs to lossy ATRAC3 at 132kbps to play on my MiniDisc player for easier on-the-go listening. It's not the audiophile thing to do, but it avoids dragging six speakers, an amplifier, cables, an SACD player and all my SACD discs in my backpack. :D
The problem is... as I'm going through them, I notice that about a third of the hybrids are cracked in the middle. When the first cracks were reported (I believe it was Dark Side of the Moon), I didn't pay much attention to those reports. But now I'm noticing that about half of my hybrids are showing cracks in the middle, from the hole out. Some of the cracks are very minor, but some are more alarming. Especially that the cracks seem to be appearing *and* growing even when the discs are not played. I might understand cracking if the discs were very often removed and replaced in their jewel cases, thus increasing pressure on the discs' plastic. Except that's not the case. The SFS Mahler 4 has been sitting on the shelf for months, and now it's cracked. The SFS Mahler 3 (both discs) are much worse, and they've been sitting even longer without being played.
It's not just the dust-gatherers that are cracking. Gergiev's Shostakovich symphonies are showing cracks (no 7 especially). None of the Chandos, Telarc or Naxos hybrids are cracked... yet!
The cracks are too minor for the moment to affect playing. However considering that some of these discs are less than a year old and barely played, I wonder what will happen in 10 years' time.
I am also transferring some of my SACDs to Apple Lossless to play on my iPod mini. I play these when I am out and about, when background noise is present and hi-res is not as desirable.
Thanks for the heads up about cracking, I started looking and have found some especially Dark Side of the Moon. I'll go through my collection in more detail later and report back my findings.
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I have had my DSOTM SACD since the day it was released and have played it many times. I have looked at my copy very closely and have found no signs of cracks.
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Post by avraham January 29, 2005 (4 of 10)
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peteyspambucket said:
I have had my DSOTM SACD since the day it was released and have played it many times. I have looked at my copy very closely and have found no signs of cracks.
My copy of DSOTM has five cracks that extend from the center hub through the first inner ring about 2 1/2 or 3 mm. I had not noticed the cracks before reading the post from Dinko.
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Post by mandel January 29, 2005 (5 of 10)
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Maybe thats another layer of SACD copy protection. You try to rip them in a CD-ROM drive spinning faster than single speed and they fall to pieces :p
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Post by soundboy January 30, 2005 (6 of 10)
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peteyspambucket said:
I have had my DSOTM SACD since the day it was released and have played it many times. I have looked at my copy very closely and have found no signs of cracks.
The cracking SACD problem has happened with DSOTM, Norah Jones, and some of the Universal titles. In the case of DSOTM, it was often mentioned that the Japan-pressed version of the title does not suffer from cracks. The Japanese DSOTM can be identified by the small prints on the back cover of the disc....something to the effect of "Made in Japan for...". The problem with Universal SACDs cracking was traced back to discs pressed in the US by Crest National. I believe Universal has since used pressng plants of Sony (in Indiana) and Viva Magnetics (Hong Kong) for its releases.
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Post by Johnno January 30, 2005 (7 of 10)
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soundboy said:
The cracking SACD problem has happened with DSOTM, Norah Jones, and some of the Universal titles. In the case of DSOTM, it was often mentioned that the Japan-pressed version of the title does not suffer from cracks. The Japanese DSOTM can be identified by the small prints on the back cover of the disc....something to the effect of "Made in Japan for...". The problem with Universal SACDs cracking was traced back to discs pressed in the US by Crest National. I believe Universal has since used pressng plants of Sony (in Indiana) and Viva Magnetics (Hong Kong) for its releases.
My "DSOTM" has a single crack that, so far, hasn't quite reached the limit of the transparent central secton of the label/playing surface. I'll be keeping an eye on it, though. Reading that the Japanese pressing seems OK reminds me of a problem with CD "bronzing" that occurred when a UK pressing plant began experimenting with new inks in the 80s. I had hundred of discs replaced by them over a period of time. Initially I was trusted to be honest (which I was) but at the end I had to send the faulty discs back first before I'd be sent the replacements. I wonder if the record companies involved here with cracking SACDs will offer a similar deal?
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Post by Johnno January 31, 2005 (8 of 10)
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Does anyone have any suggestions as to who to write to about this problem?
I personally don't think we should be prepared to let sleeping dogs lie. As I see it, we have a poorly manufactured product with DSOTM (after all it's not as if just one person has been affected) and I feel there is a distinct possibility that eventually our discs are going to be unplayable. We should therefore be doing something about it now in an effort to get good replacement copies before its too late.
Incidentally, I've checked out quite a number of my other SACDs and haven't found any others with a similar fault.
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I have a 3 Doors Down SACD that has a huge crack from the center (about half way into the data), but it still plays. It is around two years old.
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Post by Johnno February 8, 2005 (10 of 10)
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I sent an e-mail to the supplier of my copy of DSOTM last week, requesting a replacement, but have yet to receive a reply.
I hope they aren't intentionally ignoring me!
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