Audacity Forum

I just started having an unusual problem on which I would appreciate feedback and advice.

I recently reacquired a Nakamichi MB-3s I had originally bought years ago but which left my possession. It still sounds great and I am pleased to have it again. Commercial CDs have been playing wonderfully.

Then I took some music on my PC stored as FLAC files, converted them to AIFF and burned them on blank TDK audio CD-Rs (80 min/700 MB) with Toast 10. They also sounded great. Then the very next day I tried to replay these same CDs and I got all kinds of skipping, delayed playing, hissing and distortion. Commercial CDs, however, continue to play fine.

Any idea what could be causing this or how to remedy it?

Many thanks.

Mario

It could be the particular CDRs that you are using that are causing the problem. Some CD players are quite fussy when it comes to CDRs so you may need to try a different brand. Sometimes recording the CDR at a lower than maximum burn speed can improve the "quality" (playability) of CDRs.

Thank you Steve. The odd thing is that the albums recorded on CD-Rs sounded wonderful the day of the recording. I tested each and every track on my sound system right after each CD was burned and I listened to several of the CD's that day. It was only the day after the recordings were made that the problems began to appear. Is it possible for a CD player to become out of whack somehow so that only commercial CDs are played properly but CD-R's, for whatever reason, are not? And, if so, what might be the solution?

mvaldeslora wrote:The odd thing is that the albums recorded on CD-Rs sounded wonderful the day of the recording.

Funnily enough I have had the same thing happen, but only a very few of times. It makes me wonder if there is some small amount of change that occurs in the first few hours after burning a CDR. CDRs do age slowly (more rapidly if left in direct sunlight), but in normal storage conditions CDRs are good for many years.
I suspect that the compatibility between the CDRs that you have burned and your CD player is marginal - right on the edge between being fine and not working, so that any slight variation (perhaps if the CD or player is a bit warmer or cooler, or some microscopic change to the CDR that may occur in the first few hours, or a change in humidity, or anything else) is just enough to tip it over the edge making them unplayable.

I'd suggest that you test the CDRs on another CD player to see if they will play, and to get hold of a (good condition) CDR that someone else has burned (on a different brand of CDR) and see if it will play on your Nakamichi.

Some CD burners (such as Nero and K3B) are able to "verify" the CD after burning. This will often detect when the quality of a burned CD is dubious - that is, the burn process may report success, but if the CD cannot then be read totally accurately it will fail the verification. The CDR may still play on some CD players even if it fails the verification, but will probably not be reliable.

I don't know if Toast 10 can verify after burning, but if not you could try the free CDBurnerXP which I think can do so.

Failed or dubious quality CDRs tend to be more common with unbranded CDRs, or if the CDRs are burned at maximum speed, though some CD players just don't like certain brands or certain types of dye, so you may need to experiment to find a brand that the Nakamichi likes.

Helpful comments. Thank you.

OK. And now for something completely different. I unplugged the unit and all wires and had it undergo a mild "organic recalibration" - i.e. I shook it around a bit. Plugged everything back and, miraculously, all is as before. The only thing I can think of is that the last CD I burned and tested was through iTunes, not Toast, and the player failed to read it after struggling for several seconds. It must have pulled one of its little Nakamichi muscles in the effort. The recalibration brought back everything into line. Not terribly technical or sophisticated but there you have it.