Honeck's Beethoven 5 & 7...

[pastoralguy]

I know this cd has been well reviewed and has been mentioned a few times in various postings but I wondered if anyone else had been having difficulties with it. Mrs. PG bought me one for Christmas but it skipped and stuck and generally behaved badly. This left me bubbling into my Christmas Pudding!

I returned it to Amazon who, eventually, supplied me with a replacement. However, I've just put it on to find this one is also misbehaving! I'm playing it in a Quad 'Elite' CD player which is 18 months old and this is the first faulty new disc I've had. The disc is clearly marked as a Hybrid so I can see no reason why my ordinary machine can't cope with it. Ironically, it's playing fine in my friend's SACD player.

Has anyone else had problems with this disc? I've emailed the producers so let's see it that brings results.

Thanks in advance.

[pastoralguy]

I should have mentioned that what I'm hearing musically is terrific!

[Petrushka]

Sometimes, just sometimes a CD player can 'take against' a disc for no apparent reason. The fact that it plays ok on your friend's player is a worry. My own copy of the disc played perfectly in my elderly Technics machine so the culprit seems to be your Quad and I can't offer an explanation,

[pastoralguy]

Sometimes, just sometimes a CD player can 'take against' a disc for no apparent reason. The fact that it plays ok on your friend's player is a worry. My own copy of the disc played perfectly in my elderly Technics machine so the culprit seems to be your Quad and I can't offer an explanation,

Thanks got your reply, Pet. Well, it was my turn to cook dinner and, predictably, the cd plays fine in our little 'ROBERTS' radio/cd combo in the kitchen. This is most odd. I'll see what the producers say if they get back to me.

[Dave2002]

pg

Have you tried a cleaning CD in your Quad? Or maybe just tip the unit up and "tap" it a bit. I had one player which wouldn't do well until the tilt and tap treatment was applied. I think there was some dirt lodged in it which the procedure cleared. Since your unit isn't very old I'd suggest treating it fairly gently though. Does the player work well with other CDs or SACDs?

Also, just check that there isn't something sticking to the disk surface - I've had that happen - with a small fragment of paper which was electrostatically attracted to a disk. Things went a lot better once that was sorted.

[pastoralguy]

pg

Have you tried a cleaning CD in your Quad? Or maybe just tip the unit up and "tap" it a bit. I had one player which wouldn't do well until the tilt and tap treatment was applied. I think there was some dirt lodged in it which the procedure cleared. Since your unit isn't very old I'd suggest treating it fairly gently though. Does the player work well with other CDs or SACDs?

Also, just check that there isn't something sticking to the disk surface - I've had that happen - with a small fragment of paper which was electrostatically attracted to a disk. Things went a lot better once that was sorted.

Thanks for the reply, Dave. No, I've never used a cleaning cd so maybe that's the answer. Although my Quad machine is quite new it does get a LOT of use and, addicted as I am to buying CDs second hand, it's possible that dirt has accumulated on the inside. This is the first disc the Quad has ever rejected so I'm quite puzzled. I did look at the surface and it was pristine which, since it was just of its plastic wrapper, is what I'd expect.

I'll order a cleaning disc now.

Ps, I'm now playing the Kleiber Beethoven 7 in its SACD version from DG and it's playing fine.

[visualnickmos]

Ps, I'm now playing the Kleiber Beethoven 7 in its SACD version from DG and it's playing fine.

Sounds like you may get it sorted soon - doesn't seem as if it's anything major - just a teething problem......

That Kleiber is something, isn't it...... coincidentally, I've ust listened to Barenboim's LvB 7 - the live concert from Berlin, November 1989 - quite a charged performance

[jayne lee wilson]

I would wash the disc and try again, with RA Reveal say, or just a lukewarm fairy liquid solution, before using a cleaning CD. The latter just have a small brush on them to - allegedly - brush dust off the lens. On the rare occasions I've had a misbehaving disc these designs have never cured it, and one designer had a warning in their manual NOT to use them, in case they scratched the lens itself. (They're a pretty crude example of analogue/digital category confusion, and CD error correction should make them redundant anyway...)

BUT since you've tried TWO copies on a recent Quad model... it does seem to be that mysterious compatibility problem Petrushka mentioned. I had this happen with a Berlin Classics Hindemith issue - in a very hi-spec Krell/TEAC VRDS transport, two copies jumped around. A Marantz/Philips CDM-standard one was fine. It's one reason I keep two players as transports!

Can you plug your Roberts into the Quad's digital input at all and play it thataway?

Just thought of one other possible solution - those green CD mats made by Marigo Audio, or "SID" (sound improvement disc) etc., (which you place on top of the CD itself for playback) can solve this problem sometimes. They may or may not improve the sound (very dubious theoretically (and for me, audibly)) but they can make the disc behave. The Marigo worked here once or twice...but is daftly priced & may be hard to get SOR, so...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SID-Sound-Improvement-Disc-Model/dp/B007LNVYLI

[pastoralguy]

Many thanks for your reply, Jayne. (I was hoping you would chip in! )

I do have an Sony SACD player and I tried the disc on that and it was fine but the machine is part of Mrs. PG's system so I'm reluctant to start disconnecting units for the sake of one disc. I looked up some info. re lens cleaners on a Hi-Fi magazine's web site. Andrew Everard, of Gramophone fame, advised against using them. I should say that my last CD player was a 25 year old Meridian player I bought second hand that had played literally thousands of CDs without any problems.

I do have one of these green matts and found it was fine with the Meridian machine since it had a tray that held the whole mechanism so I could put the Matt on top of the disc and ensure it was anchored to the rotating spindle. The Quad has a tray that simply transports the disc into the machine so I've been reluctant to put a 'free radical' in with a cd. (The thought of having to send it back to Quad with a red face before receiving a big bill negates any small increase in sound quality it might provide!)

It's just rather strange. If a third disc doesn't work I'll admit defeat since I really want to hear this recording through my big Magnepan speakers whilst sitting in my comfy chair!

[pastoralguy]

I wonder how many times Amazon will allow me to keep returning discs before they cry ENOUGH!

[Barbirollians]

The disc does sound not guilty - mine plays happily in the car my late 1990s Arcam, the little Pure CD in the kitchen and the very cheap old Philips system at my parents holiday home in Suffolk.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder how many times Amazon will allow me to keep returning discs before they cry ENOUGH!

If they keep sending you faulty discs, they are obliged to keep sending you either replacements or a refund. You are the customer - you supply them with money - you decide when to cry ENOUGH!

[Cockney Sparrow]

If they keep sending you faulty discs, they are obliged to keep sending you either replacements or a refund. You are the customer - you supply them with money - you decide when to cry ENOUGH!

However, there have been stories about Amazon contacting customers who they deem to have returned too much, and telling them they will not sell to them. I'm not suggesting they would do this over a series of the same CD, but then the vagaries of their computer driven algorithms may dictate otherwise. Try a different supplier ? - (or use a PC drive to take a bit perfect copy and use that, as suggested previously).

[jayne lee wilson]

Many thanks for your reply, Jayne. (I was hoping you would chip in! )

I do have an Sony SACD player and I tried the disc on that and it was fine but the machine is part of Mrs. PG's system so I'm reluctant to start disconnecting units for the sake of one disc. I looked up some info. re lens cleaners on a Hi-Fi magazine's web site. Andrew Everard, of Gramophone fame, advised against using them. I should say that my last CD player was a 25 year old Meridian player I bought second hand that had played literally thousands of CDs without any problems.

I do have one of these green matts and found it was fine with the Meridian machine since it had a tray that held the whole mechanism so I could put the Matt on top of the disc and ensure it was anchored to the rotating spindle. The Quad has a tray that simply transports the disc into the machine so I've been reluctant to put a 'free radical' in with a cd. (The thought of having to send it back to Quad with a red face before receiving a big bill negates any small increase in sound quality it might provide!)

It's just rather strange. If a third disc doesn't work I'll admit defeat since I really want to hear this recording through my big Magnepan speakers whilst sitting in my comfy chair!

You have Magnepans...? Respect...!

Yeah... You're not supposed to put CD mats into TEAC-type transports (concave-flexing, whole disc clamp etc...), but I tried it & all that happens is - either the layercake is accepted or it makes a funny noise and comes out again, or keeps growling & waits for you to press exit. The Quad Elite transports are bespoke (I think?), but their simple tray sounds more like a Philips or Sony type so it should be very accommodating. You'd almost certainly get away with it, but - the potential embarassment-factor is part of the apprehension...!

Maybe time to cut the crap and get into downloads?

http://www.qobuz.com/gb-en/album/beethoven-symphonies-nos-5-7-manfred-honeck-pittsburgh-symphony-orchestra/0030911271824

[mikealdren]

Hi PG,
If you have a suitable computer, you could try copying the disk to see whether a new copy works. I have all my CDs on computer now and a small number of them didn't read well and took some copying. Only 2 or 3 in 2,500 had tracks that eventually failed to read this way.

Mike