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I bought a 4 cd set of Jazz from Costco for $17.99. I put disc one in a
Denon from 1986 and the disc would not load. Finally it did and began to
play and skip. Then I tried it in a 10 year old Marantz and 2 different
cd burners. No problem.

On a wild guess I decided to copy the disc which I did. IT played
flawlessly in the old Denon. So why wouldn't the original disc load or
play in the Denon but the copy I burned of it would?

I don't want to take the set back back to Costco if 2,3,4 play. I did
get a chicka, chicka, chicka, from the Denon and an error of OC. I'd be
happy with the copy of disc one as I realize I could get the last set
and it could have a problem. This way I have a copy I can play on either
machine. Both CD players were close to top of the line if that matters.

I bought a 4 cd set of Jazz from Costco for $17.99. I put disc one in a
Denon from 1986 and the disc would not load. Finally it did and began to
play and skip. Then I tried it in a 10 year old Marantz and 2 different
cd burners. No problem.

On a wild guess I decided to copy the disc which I did. IT played
flawlessly in the old Denon. So why wouldn't the original disc load or
play in the Denon but the copy I burned of it would?

I would guess that your old Denon CD player's laser diode is nearing
the end of its useful lifetime, and its output level is dropping.
This results in a reduction in the strength of the reflected signal
which is sensed by the photodiode assembly. If you happen to have a
CD whose data-layer reflectivity is lower than usual, the photodiode
may not be receiving enough signal to [1] track the data spiral
properly or [2] give a low-enough bit error rate in the recovered data
to allow the disc to be played.

Your other players/burners probably have lasers in good condition,
and/or more sensitive photodiode assemblies (or ones with automatic
gain control circuitry - any CD-R/-RW compatible burner or player
would have an AGC in its photoreceiver circuitry).

The CD-R copy that you burned probalby had better reflectivity than
the original (somewhat unusual, as CD-R discs usually have _worse_
reflectivity).

It's also possible that the original CD had some other form of
pressing/manufacture anomaly (e.g. a data track whose inter-spiral
pitch is just a bit too narrow) which made it difficult for the
Denon's tracking-servo circuit to follow. The CD-R blank would not
have shared this anomaly.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

"Dave Platt" wrote in message
...
I bought a 4 cd set of Jazz from Costco for $17.99. I put disc one in a
Denon from 1986 and the disc would not load. Finally it did and began to
play and skip. Then I tried it in a 10 year old Marantz and 2 different
cd burners. No problem.

On a wild guess I decided to copy the disc which I did. IT played
flawlessly in the old Denon. So why wouldn't the original disc load or
play in the Denon but the copy I burned of it would?


I had a Denon DCD 1290 that did exactly that. But it was brand new. I tossed
it back to the shop several times before they could reproduce the fault. In
the end they changed an IC and did a calibration of some sort. But thats
only what they told me anyhow.......

Cheers

Klaus