Lexicon and Mark Levinson have reversed their advisories warning against DualDisc use within their players. High Fidelity Review readers will be more than familiar with the knee-jerk (some would say uninformed) reaction by a number of manufacturers to the launch of the hybrid DVD/CD format in late 2004.
The Lexicon statement reads as follows:
“Recently, there have been several recordings released in the ‘DualDisc’ format, a two-sided disc which is meant to play in both DVD and CD players. Lexicon has performed limited testing of these discs with the RT-10 disc player and found no issues when playing either side of the disc. We recommend that people exercise caution when using these discs in any CD or DVD player as they may not play properly or in rare cases cause damage to the disc or the player. We have not experienced either of these cases while testing these discs with the RT-10, but have seen reports of other brands of players experiencing difficulty while playing the CD side of a DualDisc.”
A number of High Fidelity Review contributors use the Lexicon RT-10, which is based on a Pioneer/Marantz transport, and have experienced no issues whatsoever. It is highly unlikely that any damage could occur to the player and how such a thing could happen is not explained. In the opinion of this writer, the risk is no greater than playing an imported CD or a CD-R disc, in other words, vastly over-stated.
The Mark Levinson statement is as follows:
“Mark Levinson has performed limited testing of the new ‘DualDisc’ format in the No.390S and found there to be no playback issues. We recommend that people exercise caution when using these discs in any CD or DVD player as they may not play properly or in rare cases cause damage to the disc or the player. We have not experienced either of these cases while testing these discs with the No.390S, but have seen reports of other brands of players experiencing difficulty while playing the CD side of a DualDisc.”