"Copy Protection" degrades sound of audio CDs
 

I just had my very first experience with a copy-protected disc. I
mistakenly bought Dido's "Life for Rent" (UK release) thinking it was
an digital audio CD. I did not notice the lack of "Compact Disc
Digital Audio" logo, or the tiny label saying it would not play on
computers etc. (but did work in hi-fi).

Anyway, poped it into my ol' Meridian (200 & 203). The result was
awful. It played, including the hidden song at the end of track 11),
but the copy protection significantly degrades the sound. I had
clicks, pops and jumps throughout the album. Amost like the disc is
physically damaged, but it is pristine.

Before someone tells me to buy a new player, I like what I have and it
plays ALL the other CDs in my substantial (non
copy-protected)collection beautifully. New is not always better! If
BMG and EMI are going to be marketing corrupted discs then I am simply
not going to buy them. I suggest that other people that love quality
sound do the same. I don't want to buy discs with "errors"
deliberately built into the data, that my player then has to
compensate for. Isn't that the same as buying a CD covered in
scratches????

As I see more error correction (if other players can compensate better
than mine) just means more sound degradation.

If you care about sound quality then look at
http://ukcdr.org/issues/cd/ which disgusses the issues around
corrupted audio CDs and lists effected releases.

And don't forget the fact that I can't play the CD on my PC when I
work etc. or make a copy for the car either.