I enquired with Linn about problems I had been having while playing CDR's on my Genki. Certain CDR's (roughly 25% of my 'burned' CD's) suffered from occasional background shuffling sounds as well as occasional but very prononced ticks and crackles. Sometimes the CD would hick-up (stop playing mometarily) - at which point the recording would resume playing smoothly again. In the worst cases certain tracks wouldn't play at all. These problems never occured with CD originals - except in one instance when a 'real' CD suffered from the same shuffling background noise. This problem was immediately rectified after I blew into the CD player drawer - presumably dislodging a piece of dust from the laser lens.
My question to Linn:
Hello, I own a LINN system (Wakonda/Kudos, Keilidh, LK140, Genki) - my question is regarding the Genki. It has difficulty reading certain CD's ('burned' copies)- that my old sony can read without trouble. At times I must try skipping ahead in order for the cd to play at all. I tried cleaning the laser - it seemed to help a little. *Most* cd's play without incident. I would appreciate any advice regarding this condition.
Sincere thanks, - Me -.
Linn's response was as follows:
"The Genki CD player may or may not play CDR's and CDRW's because of the following reasons:
1. Many 'domestic' CDR machines have copyright protection coding (SCMS) onthe digital input , so when you copy commmercial CDs the only way to do it is using the Analogue output of the CD player to the Analogue input of the CDR recorder. This will result in degradation because of passing the signal through the D-A and A-D converters in the two machines.
2. There are several stand-alone CDR recorders which will accept digital inputs, but which also accept 48kz digital sources as well as 44.1kz. They do this by interposing a 'Sample Rate Converter' in the signal path, and while this is a good way of getting 48kz audio on to CD ( which have to be 44.1kz ) normally these machines leave the Sample Rate Converter in-circuit while accepting 44.1kz digital audio. This means that the copy will not be a bit-for-bit 'clone' as one might expect and as a result there may be some degradation in quality.
3. If the copy is made using a CD-copying package on a PC, many of these are very poorly implemented, which again means that the copy will not be a bit-for-bit clone, the most frequent problem being that the 'dither' information in the LSB is lost or corrupted. This leads to a loss of
detail and ambience.
4. If none of the above is the case, it may simply be that the physical qualities of the disc ( transmissiveness / refraction of the Polycarbonate of the disc itself, concentricity of the disc, reflectiveness of the metallised layer) are inferior to those of the original pressing. This can sometimes affect sound quality, if only because the CD player will be working harder to decode it.
Please feel free to contact me at Linn Customer Services if I can offer any further advice or assistance."
Best regards,
Richard Johnson