Error Correction during CD replay // Super Black Hole from Herbie's Audio Lab

Whoa! What! Never use green on Grieg! 😀 I’d be interested to hear what happens with flat black. I predict you will not like the sound. But if you use black on the inner edge I predict it will be OK. You can also try purple on the outer edge. A lot depends on what the label color of the disc is. What color is the Grieg SACD?

Problems with players reading CDs is typically the result of the CD itself and not the player. I have over 3500 CDs of varying brands, and many of my disks have been played back on a handful of different players.

I’ve never had a player in the price category of your Wadia though. At the moment, besides my Oppo UDP-205 which is a universal player, the only stand-alone red book CD player I have is an Emotiva ERC-3. One of things it does extremely well is "read" the disk, and in fact the ERC-3 differentiates itself from many other more expensive players because it spins the disk 3 to 4 times faster (1000 RPM) instead of a most players (300 RPM) and what that does is allow for re-reading of the same information.

However, if error correction algorithm is engaged then I also agree this is not "perfect" and is in fact a "best guess". In fact, this notion of "guessing" can be demonstrated when using a PC and the defacto standard ripping software, Exact Audio Copy. If a CD that cannot be read in a particular spot is ripped using "burst" mode, the data (albeit not all of it) can be copied/ripped. If you use a "secure’ mode in an attempt to "perfectly" read the data, often times this will not work (i.e. hang the software) or if it does work take an hour to complete instead of minutes.

First released in 2008, 9 years ago that for a sacd/cd player is getting long in the tooth, it may need a new laser, as back then sacd/cd lasers weren't the most durable.

Cheers George  

However, if error correction algorithm is engaged then I also agree this is not "perfect" and is in fact a "best guess"

Error correction and interpolation are two different things.  System will interpolate when it cannot error correct any more (gaps longer than 4000 bits).  When it is able to error correct then data is recovered bit perfect.  When you error correct you can still get expected/verified CD checksum.
Data CDs are also error corrected.  Extra bytes required for error correction waste about 15% of disk space.  For instance 700MB CD-ROM has 737MB data capacity but in reality contains 847MB.  Additional 110MB is used for error correction coding.

Today I gutted one cheapo Discman, what is left is just a spindle motor and plastic bottom half of the player. Connected spindle motor to variable DC. At 2V / 1000+rpm some CDs make this CD-centrifuge vibrate like crazy (e.g., all CDs from German "Brain" label), some are perfectly centered (4AD label). Wadia refuses to play only eccentric CDs, treatment with AudioDesk CD lathe cures some CDs, and lowers vibration on some.
Oh, and it plays CDR, CDRW and scratch-test CD without any problems

Wadia is practically not used: until a week ago I always used Naim CDS3 for CDs. But I will open it up tomorrow (I did this before, to reset its "gain" switches) to check its CD mechanism.

Cannot wait to get to the fun part of different color markers for CD edges!!!   :-)