  Accretion discs are fundamental to much of astronomy. They can occur around
stars both young and old, around compact objects they provide a window into the
extremes of physics, and around supermassive black holes in galaxy centres they
generate spectacular luminosities that can outshine the entire galaxy. However,
our understanding of the inner workings of accretion discs remains far from
complete. Here we revisit a conundrum in the observations of some of the
simplest accreting systems; the Cataclysmic Variables (CVs). The
high-accretion-rate states of (non-magnetic) CVs can be divided into the
short-lived outbursts ($\sim$ a week) typical of dwarf novae (DNe) and the
long-lived (and sometimes perpetual) high states of nova-like (NL) CVs. Since
both sorts of high-state occur in approximately steady-state accretion discs
with similar properties and accretors, we would expect them to display similar
spectral energy distributions. However, previous analyses based on UV spectra
from the {\it International Ultraviolet Explorer} have shown that their
spectral energy distributions are different. We perform a re-analysis of the
data using up to date calibrations and distance (and thus dereddening)
estimates to test whether this difference persists and whether it is
statistically significant over the sample. We find that it does persist and it
is statistically significant. We propose routes to investigating this
discrepancy further and discuss the implications this has for other accreting
systems, such as X-ray binaries, Active Galactic Nuclei and protoplanetary
discs.
