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/