Statement by Marantz about CD compatibility

Hi all,

This is my first posting to this list, and as such I wouldn't be 
surprised if the content of this post echoes sentiments expressed here 
many times before.  Nevertheless, having just read a particular news 
item on the website of Marantz (a manufacturer of consumer hi-fi 
equipment) I thought it was time to share some thoughts prompted by what 
I've read.

"Current News" for Marantz can be found at the following URL:
     http://www.marantz.com/p_news.cfm?news_id=84&cont=EU&cat=hf

The article is entitled "NOTIFICATION CD PROTECTION"; I'll reproduce it 
here:


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"Important notification with respect to copy controlled audio CDs:

All Marantz Compact Disc players & Recorders comply with the Industry 
standard of playability as described in the "Red Book". No guarantees 
are given for playback of discs, which do not conform to this standard. 
Similarly, no guarantees are made for their sound quality even if it is 
possible to play such discs. We strongly suggest that you use discs, 
which satisfy the CD standard such as those with the "CD Logo", or 
"CDDA" mark on their disc label surface.

For more information regarding copy controlled CDs, please contact the 
CD manufacturers or record labels."
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This is interesting to me; it's the first time I've seen such a 
disclaimer from a hardware manufacturer. Having seen disclaimers on 
audio disc packaging to the effect that the enclosed disc will work on 
"most" CD players, I've always taken the implication to be that whatever 
CD player one buys, the odds are that the deviation from the CD format 
won't be a problem.  I know that it's not guaranteed at all, and that 
the warning is vague in its statement, but until now I hadn't seen 
acknowledgement from a manufacturer that incompatibilities will arise.

Has anyone seen similar news items or notices from other manufacturers? 
  It would be nice to think that we're on the way to a situation in 
which we can gauge the proportion of hardware out there which isn't 
guaranteed to work with non-standard audio discs -- to be able to put a 
number with the assertion that record companies are preventing consumers 
from playing discs.

Also interesting, but for a different reason, would be a statement that 
a manufacturer's hardware _is_ guaranteed to work with some particular 
type of audio disc.  In a way it would make good sense for a 
manufacturer to announce such a thing -- if consumers were actually 
concerned that the music they buy can't be played, perhaps they'd take 
notice of this feature (although I suppose it's unlikely that 
sufficiently many consumers have such concerns).

I suppose I'm hoping that statements like the one above will help to 
spread more widely the information that CD players are no longer 
competing in a market with a single audio standard, and that the 
particular audio discs bought by a consumer must inform the decision of 
which player to buy.  (Case in point: I was considering buying a CD 
player for my car, but I've come up against an obstacle.  This is the 
first CD player I've bought since I became aware of the non-standard CD 
issue, and I really have no idea which player I can buy that is 
guaranteed to play all the music I've bought.)

Will the market crystallise to a state in which I must buy several 
players, one for each of the audio disc formats available?  Every time I 
bought a new album I'd have to consider whether it was compatible with 
my player, and whether I wanted to buy new hardware to go along with it. 
  It's interesting to note an analogy with the video game market, which 
currently supports three popular hardware platforms (Sony's PlayStation 
2, Microsoft's XBox and Nintendo's Gamecube).  In this market, a 
consumer without the requisite hardware finds himself unable to play 
certain games -- either he pays the extra cash for another system, or he 
goes without.  I see differences between the two markets which in some 
way justify this competition in video game hardware (to me), but I can't 
see it being viable in the audio market. (Perhaps the introduction of 
rival formats SACD and DVD-A will be a testing ground to prove me wrong.)

I note in particular the fact that Marantz "strongly suggest that 
[consumers] use discs, which satisfy the CD standard", which brings home 
to me the fact that the consumer's choice of which music to purchase is 
no longer a purely aesthetic one. Once upon a time I'd hear a song on 
the radio (or at a concert, or used on a TV show, or however else) and 
buy a CD if I liked what I heard; there's always been an implicit 
understanding that an album is released for all to buy and enjoy. It 
seems that an album is now just another product which somebody wants to 
sell me, with high sales figures indicative of the success of a 
marketing department in persuading me to choose one release over 
another.  The idea that a fan of a given band desperately _wants_ to buy 
their next album, and is actually upset when they find a (seemingly 
silly) technological barrier, does not seem to be an important 
consideration these days.

Once again, apologies if I'm relentlessly treading old ground here 
(although I've seen no mention of the Marantz statement in the 
archives).  I look forward to any responses.

Cheers,
Steve

-- 
Steve Tregidgo