do scratches on cds affect quality of playback?

[papaya86 0]

will hairline scratches make the sound lousier? is there any confirmation on this? thx

[Charismatic 0]

Depends on the CDP/PCDP, some CDPs are quite picky such as Cairn and certain model of Marantz which will skip with scratchy CDs. My SA17 is quite picky while the CD6000 is more forgiving.

[Mackie 0]

It's evident when U hear jitter or distortion when the scratch affects the laser pickup. Another school of thought suggests the cdp correction circuitry would have to work extra hard to produce a clean sound if the cd is soiled or scratched, thus, affecting sound quality.

 

My take on this issue is, avoid scratches and unnecessary solvent treatment of the cd reading surface by all means and if U don't hear distortions from scratched cd, ignore them.

[LaoMao 0]

Ah! That depends which side got scratched ! if the scratch is on the picture side, it's likely bye bye charlie ! if it's on the transparent side, not that terrible !