1st Gen. 17" v. SACD CD layer

[Dave Morrison]

Back in November, I posted a message about my problems with my 1st gen. 
17" PB not being able to play the CD layer of the SACD's that I had 
been buying. At the time, I knew that the newer PB's and desktops could 
play them including the 2nd gen. 17" AlBook. My initial calls to 
AppleCare got me nowhere. I got the (understandable) comment that "we 
can't support EVERY new disc format that comes along" and that it's an 
"unsupported format". At that point, I was pretty much resigned to not 
being able to play these discs. However, I started checking the discs 
on older Macs too. I found that all the older and newer Macs would play 
except for my $3000+ AlBook. Since these discs carry the standard 
"Digital Audio" logo of all CD's, they should appear as nothing more 
than a standard CD to any player you put it into....including the $50 
boombox I tried the discs in (successfully).  Has anybody else had a 
chance to use these discs with their Macs? Is there any alternative 
left open to me? I went through two levels of AppleCare last night and 
dead-ended with an Engineering tech who wouldn't pass me up to anybody 
higher than him. My only option left (according to him) was to go to 
Customer Relations. However, he said that they would listen to me for a 
minute or two and then hand me back to AppleCare again. I'm stumped. If 
older and newer Macs can play this CD material, why won't mine?

Dave