"dale" wrote in message
ups.com
deficences can be do to the actual mqastering involved, the quality of
the da and other such issues.
when cd first became commercial, many companies released their
catlogues using the LP master
with the RIAA curve intact

Cloose conceptually, but no, not that.

There were several layers of mastering during the production of LPs,
necessitated by the fact that the dies used to press LPs had relatively
short lives and were relatively difficult to produce. A mixdown tape might
go through some pre-mastering to correct overall sonic balance - both
spectral and loudness changes might need to be made. Then the results of pre
mastering, would be further remastered to be a good fit with the various
kinds of dynamic range limitations. The results of this would be called a
cutting master. Cutting masters were then cut into lacquer, and the RIAA
pre-emphasis would be applied at this time. The lacquer was futher cloned at
the pressing plant, as a large number of die sets would be required, and
only a limited number of die sets could be made from each lacquer.

and the players were outputting the audio
one sample out of time, L then R then L then R.

This is a disturbing-sounding process, but it has surprisingly subtle
effects. Time-shared DACs have shown up in various audio products from time
to time, including the original CDP 101 CD player, some early ADAT products
(I'm told), and some computer audio interfaces.

the quality of the playbck can be from inexpensive players. the
issues of reading and converting the digital to analogue can change
the sound.

At this time even $40 optical disc players can have amazingly good technical
performance - essentially fully exploiting the capabilties of the CD audio
format. 24/192 stereo DAC chips with 90 dB dynamic range can run under $1
each in production quantities.

poor reading means error correction to replace misread data.
bad DA conversion and then the actual analogue out slurs the music.

The current standard for CD playback is really very good. Any reasonably
competent player is unlikely to be a sonic stumbling block.