Theoretical question about how CD's work


Theoretically, can the contents of a CD be printed out onto sheets of paper in 1’s & 0’s, re-entered digit by digit (say, by a generous helper monkey with an infinite lifespan) into some sort of program, and the same sound will be replicated? Just trying to understand how CD’s work (though I’ve been trying for 25 years and it still seems like magic to me).
sealrock
I love that the OP has orphaned this thread, but people are still arguing about how CD's work.  :D :D :D
almarg
IMO the reason many of the tweaks mentioned above by Geoff may be beneficial in some situations has nothing whatsoever to do with bit errors or error correction.

The main reason in most cases is likely to be related to electrical noise generated by the servo mechanisms and circuitry in the transport part of the player, as it tracks the disc, coupling into unrelated downstream circuitry in the player, causing jitter in the D/A conversion process, and/or intermodulation or other effects on the analog signal path. The degree to which that occurs will be dependent on the design of the particular player, of course, as well as on the condition of the disc.

>>>>Uh, I never said all the tweaks I mentioned affected bit errors or error correction. The ones I am pretty sure I can prove affect bit errors and error correction are New Dark Matter visible and invisible stray light absorption tweak, damping the CD (my Mystery Tweak) and coloring the CD, which absorbs visible stray light. Also, vibration isolation. All of those are my tweaks.

The demagnetizing of CDs and elimination static electric fields ON CDs is anybody’s guess. I don’t think anyone has explained them, at least not to my satisfaction.

note to self - I hate to judge before all the facts are in but it appears the Skeptics (capitalized for almarg’s benefit) would rather fight than switch. It certainly would not take a neurosurgeon or rocket scientist to do a little investigation and try to get to the bottom of these things. Isn’t investigation a primary part of the scientific method. And what about curiosity? Isn’t that part of the scientific method? Apparent it’s all too much trouble.
erik_squires
I love that the OP has orphaned this thread, but people are still arguing about how CD’s work. :D :D :D

Yeah, I’m starting to think it might have been a drive by. 😬
No reason to argue about how CDs work.   It's pretty well documented.  Books are still an inquiring mind's best friend.
P.S. to my previous post:

I recall seeing measured data a few years ago indicating that erroneous reads by the laser mechanism occur vastly more often when ripping at high speeds than when ripping (or playing) at normal (1x) playback speed. Although even when ripping at high speeds the hardware will usually correct at least the vast majority of those errors bit-perfectly (assuming disc and drive are in good condition).

That would suggest, though, that if the particular ripping program being used cannot detect erroneous data and perform multiple re-reads as necessary, and provide an indication to the user if and when uncorrected errors cannot be overcome by re-reading at the particular speed, it would be desirable to rip at low speeds, e.g. 1x or 2x or thereabouts.

Regards,
-- Al