newb question on CD player transports

Hi. I'm new to hi-fi and have just put together an inexpensive system. Amazed at how much sound I'd been missing! However I am surprised by the greater difficulty that my CD player has in reading CDs than any micro or portable system I have used. With those systems I only had a few discs which would skip a little, but now only about half my discs play absolutely perfectly, and about a fifth hardly play at all.
This was the case with my current budget CD player and a used one I tried out. Only $100, very cheap, but still twice as expensive as portables which have no such problems, and work under more difficult conditions.
Do portables have superior transports?
Perhaps this problem goes away at the $200 mark?

Thanks for any info

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Originally Posted by CSMR

Hi. I'm new to hi-fi and have just put together an inexpensive system. Amazed at how much sound I'd been missing! However I am surprised by the greater difficulty that my CD player has in reading CDs than any micro or portable system I have used. With those systems I only had a few discs which would skip a little, but now only about half my discs play absolutely perfectly, and about a fifth hardly play at all.
This was the case with my current budget CD player and a used one I tried out. Only $100, very cheap, but still twice as expensive as portables which have no such problems, and work under more difficult conditions.
Do portables have superior transports?
Perhaps this problem goes away at the $200 mark?

Thanks for any info

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Portables have inferior everything. They have no chassis or suspension. Better cd players do track better. There are some exceptions. Try your mistracking cd's on other players and find out what works. Make sure the cd's are clean though.

FWIW: Many mega-buck KRELL cd-p's won't track anything except perfect cd's. You'd think for many thousands per player they'd get it right...buuut nooo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CSMR

Hi. I'm new to hi-fi and have just put together an inexpensive system. Amazed at how much sound I'd been missing! However I am surprised by the greater difficulty that my CD player has in reading CDs than any micro or portable system I have used. With those systems I only had a few discs which would skip a little, but now only about half my discs play absolutely perfectly, and about a fifth hardly play at all.
This was the case with my current budget CD player and a used one I tried out. Only $100, very cheap, but still twice as expensive as portables which have no such problems, and work under more difficult conditions.
Do portables have superior transports?
Perhaps this problem goes away at the $200 mark?

Thanks for any info

---

Different CDP's track differently, in my experience. My current reference is the now discontinued Sony XA20-ES and it is my reference because it tracks everything but the most badly scratched CD's. I also own a cheap NAD that doesn't track worth beans. In fact, the CD player in my old Chevy tracks better. I owned a Theta transport with outboard DAC years ago and it wasn't so good, either. But, like you, my portable tracks pretty well.
And as Sealed said, price isn't a good indicator of trackability. My Sony was $700 new and the Theta transport was $2600.

Get thee to a dealer and ask to test their CD test disc - I think it's called a Pierre Verany disc or some such. It has four different bands with varying degrees of dropout in the data. Plug it into a few of their CD players. If they track decently through the 3rd band, the players should play most anything. Through the 4th band and you can scratch a CD with a nail and it will play (ok, not quite!). Or just ask the dealer which models track well :). Tracking is basically the error correction circuitry. Some manufacturers do it well and some don't. It's a fishing expedition so good luck. Lastly, make sure your CD's are kept dust free and wiped with a lint free cloth - and don't rub 'em against anything!

Thanks for the answers, Sealed and DMK. I'd assumed it was the lasers rather than the error-correction.
I do rub my CDs against things... to remove the dust. Seems like a mistake. Not as bad as scratching with nails, at least.