What the @%#!? Weird CD distortion

[Rip Van Woofer]

Okay, someone help me here. I've heard CD's click and skip but right now I'm playing a new CD and I'm getting a weird distortion/noise phenomenon. It happened with the same disc the only other time I played it.

It's a quick, repeating "zzt zzt zzt zzt" sort of sound that seems to be mostly independent of how loud the music is. The sound seems to be rapid pulses, appearing intermittently, perhaps in sync with the RPMs of the CD.

It only happens with this particular disc, it seems. (Decca 289 460 988-2, Nielsen Symphony #6, Blomstedt/San Francisco -- only on disc 2 of the double CD set). I did hear something like it one other time on a copy I made of another disc.

The CDP is an Arcam Alpha 8.

What gives? Faulty CD? Or inadequate error correction in the Arcam unit?

[Mudcat]

Rip,

Did you buy the CD or Burn it?

[Rip Van Woofer]

Bought it.

Obviously it's most likely the CD. But it's strange and I wonder if anyone else has heard anything like this and what kind of defect might cause it.

Should mention that no skipping happens. The music keeps playing without interruption.

And it only seemed to happen on one track.

I should hook up my old Pioneer CD changer and see if it happens with that.

[markw]

I've run into a few CD's that, on some players, makes weird noises. This is generally a metallic tick/ringing sound. But, on other players they play flawlessly. Heck, my copy of Elvis' "2nd to None" doesn't even play the first two tracks on my Toshiba changer but it plays on virtually anything else.

Yeah, CD's are weird.