DCS 1394 problem

Hi Philip,

Yes, I have experienced a similar situation.

I have a Verdi Encore made in 2005. It has always been very sensitive to minor flaws and data errors on SACD discs.

Some of my SACDs are fine and play through with no problems.

Others cause an intermittent, jumping of the sound. It will dropout for 2 seconds then resume.

Sometimes it drops out, resumes, drops out, resumes several times.

Sometimes it drops out for longer and I can see the track time display scrolling upwards as it searches for readable data.

The worst times are when it comes to a complete stop. When it does that it is hard to regain control of the transport to restart or eject the disc. Through experience I have found that the only thing to do then is to cold-start both the Verdi Encore and the Delius. (In your case cold-start the Purcell also.)

If I don't do a cold-start any SACDs I play afterwards will jump or halt, even if they are not normally faulty.

After experiencing this for a while I became convinced that the base fault was with certain of my SACD discs (even ones that are bought new). If I look very closely at the discs I can see flaws in their surface or in the gold layer behind.

However, there is no doubt that the machine is extra sensitive to the flawed discs and doesn't seem to deal with the problem very elegantly.

Can other dCS owners confirm this behaviour in their machines?

My situation is not the same. I could see the Verdi is playing fine thru its display. Tracking is not jump. It seems that the data is not picking up by the Delius. Delius displays "search.." at all time.

Hi Philip,

OK, I see what you are experiencing.

If it plays SACD sometimes, you have the right physical connections and settings.

If the Delius loses contact with the Verdi during playback, then displays "Search", it seems likely that the physical connection has an intermittent fault such as a loose joint in the 1394 cable, or one of the sockets.

I would try a different 1394 cable to eliminate that. If it's in the machine's internal connections you are obviously looking at dealer/manufacturer service.

I haven't anything similar with mine - it has never lost contact with a source after it has locked on.

Can anyone else shed some light on this?

It sounds like you have a 1394 connection problem either the cable side or the machine side.

As gtfour45 says try the cables and make sure they are not loose. Swap them around or wiggle them while the system is playing to see if it makes the DCS search for the input. Then you will know it is a connection issue.

To be clear. When I said above "swap them around or wiggle them while the system is playing" What I meant to say is swap the firewire cables around THEN play the system and while it is playing wiggle the cables to see if you have a bad connection!