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Scratchy distortion on last tracks of CD

I have an ASV CD of Gordon Ferus-Thompson doing Ravel's piano music. I've had it for several years, and it has played just fine in the past. I happened to play it today, and in the last couple of tracks, there was a crackly scratchy distortion to the piano sound. At first, I thought it was a noisy tube (which gives you an idea of the sound), but I tried it on a different CD player and got the same effect. The first 10+ tracks play fine--it's just the last 2 or 3 that are a problem. (Unfortunately, this CD can only be replaced, if at all, via a rather pricey special order import.)

Anybody have any clue what is going on with this CD, and whether there is any repair that can be done? I should add that there is no visible clue that I can see that would explain this oddity. (I do recollect that some years ago there was a problem with a particular pressing plant in the UK. I think it had something to do with a deteriorating reflective coating on certain of the CDs made at this plant. I had a few of those CDs, and you could see the deterioration, which caused a coppery discoloration. That is not apparent here.)

Many thanks
eweedhome
eweedhome OP
227 posts
 
Many thanks. But what is CD rot. Anything you can do to prevent it? I'm surprised that I've logged many, many 1,000's of hours of classical CD listening and haven't had to face it before...except for the specific pressing incident I mentioned in my post. (But then, I guess I don't have that many CD's that I listen to more than 2 or 3 times, to be honest.)
musicslug
430 posts
 
you might try burning a CDR of it and see if the burned one plays better. computer lasers can often extract information better than a CDP. it's a bit of a long shot, but CDRs cost about a quarter...
rwwear
2,882 posts
 
CD rot is caused by moisture getting through the laquer coating that protects the reflective substrate. It usually begins at the edges because they are more susceptible to damage and wear.
dweller's avatar
dweller
3,820 posts
 
Here's something to ponder.
Sony purchased about three of those monster Rockport turntables ($75,000 each, granite base, i.e. monsters).
Could they be providing a CD mastering service from vinyl
where the master tape is no longer serviceable?
The "Scratchy distortion on last tracks" is a well known phenomena for LPs.
mlsstl
1,452 posts
 
What is CD rot?
It was discovered that some CDs can have the reflective layer begin oxidizing. This interferes with the reflective quality and screws things up for the laser to accurately read the disk. Since it is oxidation, it usually starts at the outer edge of the CD - that's where the final tracks are located. Disks that are longer are more susceptible since they run tracks closer to the edge.

This is really a quality control issue at the manufacturing level (which can affect any product in any industry. Remember some of the absolutely horrid quality LP records that were released?)

Your best bet to salvage things is to use a program like EAC (Exact Audio Copy) with the error correction turned on. See if you can rip the CD to your hard drive and then burn it to a CDR. If that doesn't work, your only real alternative is to buy another copy of the disk.
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