Most collectors are aware of the problem that has surfaced over the past
six years or so with classical CDs pressed at the Philips & DuPont Optical
UK Limited (PDO) plant in England.  To summarize:  a defective lacquer was
used at this facility for a period that spanned three years that allowed
the acids from the CD booklet to eventually cloud the coating.  The result
was a disc that gradually began to look coppery-bronze instead of the
usual silver.  If given enough time, many of these bronzing discs become
unplayable in whole or in part - typically the outside edge is affected
first which causes the last tracks of the CD to become noisy or unplayable
first.  The noise is very reminiscent of the clicks and pops heard on LPs.
More specific information can be found in an article I wrote for the
Koussevitzky Recordings Society Journal five years ago:

   http://www.classical.net/music/guide/society/krs/excerpt3.html

or an article posted at the end of last year at the Hyperion web site:

   http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/bronzed.html

This defect is known to have effected discs on the following labels:
Albany, Appian, APR, Archiv, ASV, Cala, Collins, CRD, Danacord, DGG, Globe
Style, Hyperion, IMP, L'Oiseau-Lyre, London/Decca, Memoir, Pearl, RPO,
Testament, and Unicorn-Kanchana.  Only a handful of releases from most of
these labels were affected, with Hyperion, Pearl, ASV and Unicorn being the
hardest hit.

I've been intending to do an audit of my collection for a few years
now, and finally got to it last week.  It wasn't as bad as I had feared.
I only found 131 defective discs (for those of you scoring along at home,
that's about 2.5% of my collection - I had feared much higher).  The
biggest hit came to Hyperion, with 66 discs needing replacement.  Next came
ASV with 29, and Unicorn with 19.  In fact, every single Unicorn disc in
my collection was defective.  The rest were as follows:  Albany 5; Archiv
and Collins 4 each; then CRD, DGG, L'Oiseau-Lyre, and Pearl at one each.
The good news is that PDO has been cooperative in replacing these discs.
However, it appears that their policy about replacing discs has changed
since I sent in my list.  They now require that corroded discs be sent
to them (discs only, not liner notes or jewel boxes) in order to get
them replaced.  Contact them first by e-mail to get their mailing
address ([log in to unmask]) and instructions for requesting
replacements.  Collectors outside the UK are told to send their defective
CDs to:

   Philips & DuPont Optical UK Ltd
   Philips Road
   Blackburn
   Lancashire BB1 5RZ
   England
   Fax 44 1254 54729

Collectors in the UK should visit the Hyperion site mentioned above
for more contact information.  It is important to keep in mind that PDO
is only replacing the CDs themselves, not the jewel cases, inserts or
booklets.  Collectors are told NOT to send in their discs unless requested.
If requested, they should ONLY send in the disc and nothing else.  As far
as I am aware, in the past PDO has rarely if ever requested the discs,
instead sending replacements based on a simple listing of catalog numbers.
I'll report back on my experiences.

I've put a copy of my cover letter and defective CD list up at my site at
the following URL:

   http://www.classical.net/pdo.pdf

You will need Adobe Acrobat to view the file.  If you'd like the original
Word document just replace the pdf with doc in the URL above (Word 97 or
better to access the file).  I faxed this information to PDO early last
week, and will keep the list apprised of any developments.  I should also
mention that some discs made at a plant in Italy have been reported to be
going bad as well.  The list of these discs is much shorter.  The plant is
OPTI.ME.S and the affected labels are Adda, Arkadia, As Disc, Bongiovanni,
Classical Collector, Fone, Fonit Cetra, Memories, Nuovo Era, Opera Viva,
Ricercar, Tactus, and Stradivarius.  The hardest hit are As Disc and Nuovo
Era.  Out of this list only one, Nuovo Era 6900, is in my collection.

I have since built an electronic version of the defective CD list.
Mark Lehman, a contributor to American Record Guide, has been at the
forefront of this investigation, and much of the material I have is taken
from information he sent me.  Complete texts of his articles on this issue
can be found in the following ARG issues:  Nov/Dec 1997, July/Aug 1998,
March/April 1999, March/April 2000.  Back issues can be ordered from
American Record Guide at 513-941-1116 or [log in to unmask] and these
contacts can also be used for subscription.  ARG is to be lauded for their
efforts to report on this story, largely and irresponsibly ignored by the
more mainstream magazines.  The current list of possibly defective CDs can
be found at:

   http://www.classical.net/music/guide/bronzedcds.html

If you know of any other discs that might be suffering this same problem,
feel free to send that information to Mark Lehman at [log in to unmask], but
please check the listings at the web page above first.

Dave
[log in to unmask]
http://www.classical.net/