Crest Manufacturing Contact Name/Number (Cracked SACDs) (4 Viewers)

[Cliff Olson]

Sorry for the repost, if this has been posted before. I've left several messages with Crest about the 3 cracked SACDs that I own. No return call yet. I'm simply trying to find out what Crest is willing to do about this, and if they have remedied the problem. It's not an isolated case, I only have about 12-14 SACDs. Here is Crest's telephone number and contact, if you'd like to see what they're doing about it:

(800)309-3472
Doug Palmer

When the voice system picks the line up, say "CD/DVD".

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I'm going to call tomorrow, gosh darn it. These people deserve to know how frustrated the end consumer is with the product that they are (used to be) shipping...

 

[MattCPT]

Thanks,
I'll be sure to call them and tell them how disappointed I am with the quality of their product, and that I have lost faith in them with future releases.

 

[KeithH]

Cliff, thanks for posting this information. I have returned cracked Crest discs of three different titles and will not buy them again until I am sure that Crest has corrected the problem.

The only problem is that I am quite convinced that Crest doesn't give a damn about the problem. They suck.

 

[Cliff Olson]

Heck. I can't even return the discs! BB will only let me exchange them for the same title, and they even rip off the wrapping!

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I did call. Dude wasn't there. Left a constructive message about my experience with DSOTM, and that I specifically wanted to know what they did to fix the problem, and how am I supposed to know when the supply chanels are free of defective discs. Didn't hear anything by the end of Fri. We'll see...

Actually starting to irritate me a little bit that no mag has picked up this story, or even that that high fidelity web site (?) never did a follow up...

 

[Steve Meskell]

I'd say hit them in the pocketbook.... If anyone that knows that the disc they want is pressed by Crest and still buys it, you have no right to complain if/when it cracks. I will only buy the DVD-A of the upcoming Universal Hi-Rez releases. If we all did then Universal would take notice and i'm sure Sony would then get on Crest's ass to fix past/present problems they have.

MONEY TALKS

 

[Greg Johnson]

How do you know Crest isn't pressing the upcoming Universal DVD-A's? They also press DVD's at their plant.

Due to recent history, one would assume that Crest will be the manufacturer for all the upcoming Universal SACD's. Does anyone here know for sure that is indeed the case? If so, you can also count me out on buying any of them.

 

[Steve Meskell]

I haven't heard of any cracking problems with Crest DVD's/DVD-a's.

 

[Greg Johnson]

What if Crest is the manufacturer for Universal's upcoming DVDA's. Are you still going to buy them? If you do that would hardly be hitting Crest in the pocketbook.

 

[Steve Meskell]

Hey I don't want to bankrupt Crest. If the DVD-A out sells the SACD version of let's say "Tommy" maybe that will make some "suits" look for answers. The answer is a Hybrid SACD pressed by Crest that will not crack. Maybe they solved the problem, but the lack of information from Crest and EMI(DSOTM) and Universal is a major mistake on their part.I'd love to pick up "Gaucho" this week but the big question is will it crack? So until I hear different I will stay away from Hybrid Crest SACDs.

 

[Tomoko Noguchi]

Has your cracked discs caused problems when you play them yet?

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Has your cracked discs caused problems when you play them yet?

My cracked 'Dark Side of the Moon' actually shedded plastic flakes inside of the jewel case and my portable CD player. I retired it immediately. I'm not dumb enough to allow a disc to shed plastic flakes over the optical pickup and gearings of my expensive SACD player as some kind of brain-dead experiment to 'wait and see if it causes any problems'.

 

[KeithH]

Cliff said:

one would assume that Crest will be the manufacturer for all the upcoming Universal SACD's

I was pleasantly surprised to learn from Michael_T recently that the Nickel Creek SACDs from Universal were not produced by Crest. They may have been done by Sony, but from the look of the matrix code, they are not Crest discs.

Interestingly, my Alison Krauss Live SACDs are from Crest, but my copies of Now That I've Found You -- A Collection, Forget About It, and New Favorite are not. Perhaps we will get a nice surprise with the upcoming Universal SACDs. Maybe they won't all be done by Crest or Crest will have fixed their process. One can hope.

 

[Michael_T]

Interestingly, my Alison Krauss Live SACDs are from Crest, but my copies of Now That I've Found You -- A Collection, Forget About It, and New Favorite are not. Perhaps we will get a nice surprise with the upcoming Universal SACDs. Maybe they won't all be done by Crest or Crest will have fixed their process. One can hope.

Well, The newest Alison Krauss Live was done after Crest was on-line and up and running. The reason the earlier Alison Krauss SACDs are not Crest pressed is because they were released on SACD before Crest was into pressing SACDs.

I am sorry to say that every Universal HYBRID SACD I have purchased since they started using Crest is, unfortunately, made by Crest. My most recent Universal HYBRID purchases are: DREDG - "El Cielo" (Crest pressed), Shania Twain - "UP" (Crest pressed), Steely Dan "Gaucho" (Crest pressed), Allison Moorer "Show" (Crest pressed), the list goes on and on. Thankfully Universal does not use Crest when issuing single layer SACDs (like Peter Frampton "Frampton Comes Alive").

One positive, and I am not stating that these discs won't crack over time, but all the newer Crest discs I have purchased seem to hold up a bit better than the old Crest discs. The old discs tended to crack fairly severly, while the newer issues either have yet to crack at all, or when they do crack the cracks are minor compared to what happened to my DSOTM or my 3 Doors Down discs. For instance, Coltrane "Blue Train", while cracked, is minor enough that I am keeping the disc. My first copy of George Strait "HonkyTonkville" cracked and it wasn't as severe as many other Crest discs... but I did flex the disc to see what would happen if I put a bit of pressure on the crack and the disc shattered in half and the two layers peeled apart. But if I didn't flex the disc, I would have had two cracks in the disc that were not that severe as earlier Crest pressed discs.

On the other hand, any cracking around the spindle hub is really inexcusable. We shouldn't be subject to this issue at all when we have to spend upward of $13.99 per SACD. (Some Crest discs released by Groove Note have exhibited cracks and they cost $24.99!!!)

 

[Cliff Olson]

This is the usual policy, but I got Best Buy to allow me to select different titles. This happened twice. Both times, I explained the severity of the problem -- how it had been discussed all over the Internet and how it was likely that every copy of a given hybrid title pressed by Crest could crack. Then I told them that if I take another copy of the same title, I could keep coming back with a cracked disc. The first time, they let me exchange the Norah Jones disc for The Police Synchronicity. The second time, I exchanged John Coltrane Blue Train for Peter Gabriel So. They didn't even unwrap the replacement discs!

Good points Keith. I actually did everything that you did, almost exactly. The only place I blew it was not asking for a manager. The worker claimed that it was a "Copyright" infringement to allow me to exchange the DSOTM for a different title. I argued (politely) with her for about a minute, then just gave up. I figured that I would just put the thing on Ebay, and resell it, since it is the Japan made disc. Then they OPENED it! They did leave the factory safety seal intact, but still... I won't buy anymore Crest discs, aside from the ones that I own. I bought them all before I knew they cracked.

 

[Leo]

Well at this point I've stopped buying SACD's until the problem is resolved. I have several cracked SACD's (near the inner circle) and refuse to let them shatter any further (expecially in my SACD player). So for now they will get no more money from me.

 

[Chet_F]

And just when I was thinking of dropping some $$ on a player and some discs.
Obviously that won't be happening now. Who runs these factories chimps?

 

[Kevin C Brown]

I agree. I came across some hybrid SACDs titles that are coming out that normally I would jump at. No way now. I wish to have confirmation that the problem has been dealt with. Or maybe some of y'all will buy 'em and report that they are OK. Turkey Dave Palmer never called me back.

 

[Doug_B]

Interesting...When I was in a BB yesterday, I checked the DSotM stock, and all but 2 of about 20 discs were pressed in Japan. This is in contrast to about a month or so ago, when all but 1 of about 10 discs were pressed in the US (assumed Crest).

Doug