Copy Protected CD's - Hacked!!!

They are doomed to failure. Why don't they instead put their efforts into making good sounding, good music CDs at low prices? Result - good public image and massive sales instead of the greedy rip-off fraudster image and falling sales they have now. You would think that Sony corporation would have someone who can see that their present path is downhill all the way. If there are any record execs reading this - for god sake listen to what your best customers are saying - we buy hundreds of CDs a year each and would buy more if they were cheaper and better quality. I never (and will never) buy the so called protected discs - the money goes to your competitors who don't peddle this rubbish.

"All systems are perfectly designed to get the results they get."

Alan -

I was thinking the same thing - those damn green pens are back! I wonder if green is "dark" enough to work as a fix for the copy protection bug (hey, that's what I call it!).

Might get better sound in the bargain , especially if using an other-than-Naim CD player.

- GregB

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Greg,
Why only "other-than-Naim" CD players? My CD2 responds quite favourably to a green plastic thingy called a "Sound Improvement Disc" (SID). As it's an extension of the green pen idea, surely that will work too?

Having said that, I ain't got a clue whether you can fool the copy protection bug (I like that!) with a SID. It does, however, stop discs from slipping under the puck due to the extra thickness.

Regards,
Ed.

Hi Ed -

The idea is that the green pen - or the disk you place on the disk - absorbs scattered red laser light (that's why its green). If this scattered light is not absorbed, it can reflect back to the reading eye and increase errors in the reading of the disk. This increases the amount of error correcting the player has to do and degrades sound quality.

Naim players are reputed to not benefit because the inside of the drawer mechanism is painted with a paint that is specifically absorptive of the laser light. I never tried the pen or a covering disk when I had my CD3.

But if your player benefits, go for it!

- GregB

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Greg,

quote:

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Naim players are reputed to not benefit because the inside of the drawer mechanism is painted with a paint that is specifically absorptive of the laser light

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Exactly what I thought and I never bothered to try it until discs started to slip (damn, I need a puck right now!). It works better on CDs without a full label and the results can be unpredictable depending on the colour of the label. However, it never sounds worse and it's become one of those little rituals that you tend to go through automatically.

Regards,
Ed.

"...it's become one of those little rituals that you tend to go through automatically."

Damn - you're causing me to have flashbacks of my vinyl-playing days

I have an LP12, but we're not using it at the moment due to springy-floor-causes-needle-to-jump-itus.

- GregB

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Anyone fooled a copy protect disc using this method ???

/david

quote:

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Naim players are reputed to not benefit because the inside of the drawer mechanism is painted with a paint that is specifically absorptive of the laser light

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I believe that's only true of the CDSII.

A>

Hey Andrew -

I thought it was all of the players, but I can't find a reference at the moment.

- GregB

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In the german computer magazine "c't" the actual nr. 7/2003 is a big article about "Un-CDs" how your recognise them, how the different protection system works, how to work around, the legal side, ect.
http://www.heise.de/ct/

happy listening

Adrian

Just for information my original CDS has the laser absorbing compound in the disc tray ,I was always under the illusion that all of the "top of the range " Naim CD players had this compound applied to the disc tray.

I compared some "green penned" discs from a s/h outlet and found them to be significantly worse than a mates original discs (same pressing etc)in a CDS1

My B-in-L uses a "Maringo Crossbow" mat (available from Hififorsale.com) thin version on his naim cdp as do I the thick version on my Meridian. Why? Because it improves our listening pleasures. At a cost of £50 they are not cheap but now we cannot listen without it.