Lorde’s Virgin album on a clear disc is visually stunning, but it’s also causing headaches for CD players everywhere. Unlike traditional CDs which rely on a reflective metal layer to bounce laser light back to a player’s sensor, this one is nearly transparent.
CDs work using a laser to read microscopic pits and lands cut into the disc’s surface, converting them to digital audio. The laser light bounces off a metal layer (typically aluminum) and returns to a sensor, producing a signal known as the eye pattern. Lorde’s clear CD reduces the laser’s reflection, resulting in a faint signal that many players can’t read reliably.
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Adrian Black of Adrian’s Digital Basement put this to the test, using a 2003 Samsung CD player, a 1987 NEC model and a budget Coby portable player. His findings show that NEC, a vintage machine from the dawn of CD technology, couldn’t read the disc at all—its laser pickup failed to detect a usable signal. The Samsung, a more modern player, could play it but the oscilloscope showed a messy eye pattern barely functional. The Coby, a cheaper device, also played the disc without issue, likely because of its strong laser and automatic gain control which boosts weak signals.
Why is this happening? To compensate for the transparent CD’s poor reflectivity, players must increase the power of their laser or amplify the signal. This can stress the laser diode and shorten its life. Adrian’s oscilloscope showed the eye pattern from the clear CD was “absolute garbage” with a signal so weak it barely triggered the scope. Yet the Samsung and Coby players played it clean, proof of modern engineering.
Fans have been experimenting, with some offering do-it-yourself remedies including spraying the top of the disk to increase reflectivity. While this may work, it contradicts the idea of the straightforward aesthetic. Others, as Adrian explains, simply burn a CD-R copy of Virgin to avoid the problem.
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