Playing Nimbus CDs

[Alan Howe]

...or rather not playing them. Both of the recent Nimbus CDs I have bought will not play in my TEAC CD player; however, my computer plays them and so does my NAD CD player. Any idea what might be going on? I have been in correspondence with Nimbus about this, but they have no idea what the issue might be. No other labels seem to be affected in this way.

[Mark Thomas]

I believe that most, and maybe all, CDs manufactured by Nimbus are CD-Rs, like those burned on a domestic computer. Commercial CDs are more commonly mass produced from glass masters. It's very rare for the latter to be incompatible with any playback equipment, whereas CD-Rs are prone to unpredictable playback problems and also deterioration over time. There is plenty of online discussion about these issues and the disadvantages of CD-Rs, but they are cheaper to produce in small numbers. Nimbus make CDs for several small classical labels, and also handle distribution for them on a small-batch print-on-demand basis, so I imagine that the use of CD-Rs is an essential economy. I'd advise anyone buying a recording from Nimbus or any of the labels they distribute to make a lossless (FLAC) copy of the original. See this thread elsewhere.

The labels currently distributed by Nimbus are: Atoll, Cameo Classics, CRD Records, Hallé, Lyrita, Saydisc, Sterling, Red Priest, and Retrospective.

[Alan Howe]

I asked whether they were any differences between Nimbus' manufacturing methods and that of other labels and they said there wasn't. Clearly, however, there are. Thanks for clarifying, Mark: I can actually understand your explanation!

Wonder whether the forthcoming Beliczay/Sterling release will be affected?

[TerraEpon]

I'd note there's a huge difference between the type of CDRs Nimbus uses and that one would use at home. While it's true that there can be issues (as you've noticed) they are still top quality as far as CDRs go....

And I imagine anything from Sterling will be CDR -- the recent Raff 2-fer was one.

[Mark Thomas]

Wonder whether the forthcoming Beliczay/Sterling release will be affected?

It doesn't say so on the CD, but I'm sure it's a CD-R.

[Alan Howe]

It looks as though the problem's my TEAC player. More news when I have it...

[Mark Thomas]

In my limited experience, there's little that can be done, Alan. Commercial equipment is designed to play optimally "Red Book" glass-mastered CDs, not CD-R's. It probably says more for the quality and refined tolerances of your TEAC player that it won't play these CDs.

[dhibbard]

I recently purchased a CD from Amazon (their "made on demand").  When I opened it, it seemed strange... the booklet was not published, but copied on a color copier.. ( I could see the toner smudges)  also.. the CD was in fact a CD-R.. it had that blueish tint and had a sticker with the info on it (not printed on like manufactured CDs).  I had similar problems in playback mode..   I purchased a "used" copy that was really manufactured by Sterling about 10 years ago.   ... warning.. if it says Made on Demand... think twice!!

[Mark Thomas]

Unlike the various "made on demand" suppliers, where you can be fairly sure that discs are made on a one-off basis, and the only economical option is to make a CD-R, the issue here is that the CDs made and distributed by Nimbus give no clue in advertising, packaging or on the discs themselves that they are in fact CD-Rs. I only became aware of it because I was peripherally involved a couple of years ago in the discussions between Nimbus and a label looking to use their manufacture/distribution package.

[Alan Howe]

My intention is to audition a new CD player of another make before buying, i.e. to establish whether it will play these particular CD-Rs.

Is there anyone out there who has recently purchased a Nimbus CD and has a CD player that will play it without any problems? If so, what CD player are you using?

Example: the Marantz CD6006 is advertised as being capable of playing CD-Rs:
https://www.marantz.co.uk/DocumentMaster/UK/CD6006_UK_SE.pdf

[TerraEpon]

I only use my computers' drives and never had any problems with any "professional" CDRs outside of a 2001 (!) disc from Nimbus which I believe got scratched over the years.

[jdperdrix]

I believe most CD players now support mp3 and flac formats plus some others. Which seems to imply that they actually can play back CD-R and even CD-RW. Anyway, this should be specified by the manufacturer on its website.
Am I wrong?

[Mark Thomas]

I'm no technical expert, but I understand that the basic problem is that a batch of CD-Rs is prone to inconsistencies which a batch manufactured from a glass master don't exhibit. For example, I make 60 or so identical CD-Rs every six months for a choir I sing with. Of these I can virtually guarantee that two or three will refuse to play on someone's equipment, but it's different equipment and different people each time, and the duff CDs will still play on other people's machines. This despite the fact that I duplicate them all on a CD duplicator from the same master.

[Alan Howe]

May one assume that commercial CD-Rs will not be so inconsistent as far as playback is concerned?

This, incidentally, was Wyastone's (helpful) reply to my phone query of yesterday:

Following on from our telephone conversation yesterday, I spoke to our technical department and they have confirmed that the only players which we seems to have issues playing our CDR's is the older TEAC products and a very high end Sony player.

The majority of newer systems now have the ability to play most formats such as CDR's MP3 and WAV files. If you wanted to stay with the TEAC brand, the newer CD-RW890 model certainly has the ability to play CDR's and has the option for the aux / headphone cable. Another option is the Pioneer X-HM16-B Hi-Fi Micro System.

[Mark Thomas]

That seems reasonable enough if it's also borne out by TEAC themselves.

May one assume that commercial CD-Rs will not be so inconsistent as far as playback is concerned?

I have no idea if that's the case, but there seem to be plenty of online complaints about Nimbus CD-Rs.