I managed to get lathed and non lathed CDs to completely null with little difficulty.
Which seriously is rather odd as your the only person who has been unable to hear the difference ....that is of course who have recieved discs from me ...
the reasons may not be as prosaic as one might at first think ...... the lathe effect is a cd trasport issue ...this is easily proved as two cd's one lathed and one not ...when ripped to flac have no sonic diffrence even at the highest resolution I can manage ...whilst when played in any of my current cd players ..
quad 99cdp2
arcam alpha 5
arcam alph 5 plus
arcam alpha5 plus modded [beyond avondale !]
denon 960[?]
two cheap dvd players
an early sony
philipe 473
marantz 63
marantz 63 heavily modded
marantz 6001
...is quite obvious.
I'd estimate that I've heard upward of hundred other cd players in other peoples system ...show the effect clearly, even sq's ......modded azure 840[?]
I can't remember which player rob uses ...so I can't say if I've tried a lathed disc in one , but my guess is that its one of a few that appear to un effected .
I have heard anecdotaly that other cdrom based players are aslo uneffect ....
don't ask me why I have no idea ..
The point is that this may not be the best example to use .....in this instance
Let me give an example that might fit ...the beldini de magnetiser I've never heard one of these have the slightest effect on the final sound ......
or maybe the statmat foil thingy that sat on a cd .....
but as always in other peoples experince things can be very different.