Have I finally lost my mind?

It may not affect the balance of the disc, but it could definitely have some effect on the "spurious" reflections happening in the transport well. There have been numerous articles written, and tweaks created to reduce these "spurious" reflections of the laser light bouncing around in the transport. The infamous "Green Pen" and other tweaks have been created to reduce this phenomenon. It is entirely possible that various types of label printing could have similar effects, either better or worse.

I haven't made any measurements, but I'd be willing to bet that there is a lot more imbalance due to off-center holes than you will get from a little ink. Just a guess...

Seems like another reason to avoid those rude little discs.

Yes, you've lost your mind. But so have most of us as well. Static seems to effect these cd's a lot, I wonder if the writing/labels colors change how much static is messing/changing things up.

Add this to your imbalances and vinyl is not such a pain!

If you're concerned about how static Affects the CD, get a Bedini Clarifier to eliminate the Effect.

Yes Tim, you have lost your mind : )

BUT, this time i think that you are probably not crazy.

I have seen enough things that effect CD's that supposedly never should ( static, markering, trimming the edges, polishing / cleaning cremes, etc... ) to pretty much not rule anything out. I would not doubt in the least that heavy inking of label side of the disc could affect sonics. I also think that it could create imbalances on the disc, which would affect "spooling time" and possibly slow down error correction. I think that this is one of the things that the Audio Desk Systeme "disc cutter" takes care of i.e. balancing the disc so that it spins in a more balanced manner. You would not believe how "out of round" some discs are until you watch them spinning at 9000 rpm on the "cutter". When you are done trimming them, they look like a perfectly balanced circle. Sean
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If it effects digital discs, I think it would effect anaolg discs (perhaps more so).

Consider how the color of the CD label might effect the sound...

I'll have to cast another vote for "yes." Absolutely. Nothing personal, and nothing necessarily to do with the question at hand, and nothing I haven't wondered myself, but a resounding "yes" nonetheless. I'll even do you one better and offer that every last one of us populating these boards and obsessing over the the littlest details to the point that we just know, but KNOW, how desperately important they are (and they are) are plumb off our rockers. Might even go so far as to say that there are pronounced twinges of fetishism and OCD in this glorious affliction. Sure is fun though, eh?

Sean, I had no idea -- thanks for the tip and I'll check into the Audio Desk System. Tireguy, Mezmo is likely correct. The weight of the ink so close to the center is probably not substantial enough to make a noticeable difference. But, why not try marking an "imbalanced" CD label with a pencil to try getting it to balance and see if you notice a difference? You can always erase it. If my system were not in storage, I'd try it myself and report on it. We are one obsessive lot, aren't we? ;-)

P.S. I suspect that analog would be less affected since the album mass is much higher, the rotation speed is lower (I think) and a good platter/clamp combo would likely keep any wobbling effects down. Does that make sense?

Ozfly, I think the digital correction inherent in CD play back and the fact that CD machines are designed to change speed in relation to the diameter of the section of the disc being read might offset these issues in ways that analog may not be capable of. Don't know for sure, just a guess.