At least you didn’t say, “What’s a CD?”
I only mention it as it’s happened to me in the past!
At least you didn’t say, “What’s a CD?”
I only mention it as it’s happened to me in the past!
CD rot is visible to the naked eye. It mainly effects CDs that were cheaply produced and cut out without being sealed properly. Good discs have smoth rounded edges. Bad ones have the metal substrate go right up to the edge and have been noticeably cut out.
I’ve got some that have - most have not - but a few that have been stored other than in jewel cases seem to have a chemical reaction with certain packaging over time (the felt and plastic inner sleeves for the first 20 ‘live phish’ releases, which unfold into looseleaf pages that you can store in a purpose-made binder, for one example, making that whole, cherished collection sadly unplayable).
But, as @Neilb1906 points out, the cobbler’s elves have backed them up for us while we slept.
Well over the weekend I’m going pull out some of my oldest CDs and compare them to my rips and Qobuz and get back to you.
It’s the outer tracks that go first. Black/green discolouration on the metallic layer that look like burns. Maybe even tiny holes with black rings on the very edge of the disc.
Climate also makes a difference. UK has high humidity for much of the year.
Humidity is 91% here right now. It’s almost 11pm and it’s still 27c.
We await your test report Pete, it’ll give us something else to moan about for a few days if nothing else
Yes there’s always something to whinge about. We’re an ungrateful bunch.
However I am interested to see what if anything has changed.
As are we Pete, as are we…
I’m not trying to deny other people’s reports of CD rot being prevalent, but it doesn’t match my experience. I’ve got nearly 1000 CDs at home bought over many decades, including s/h ones from the 80s, plus getting many out of the library ‘back in the day’, magazine freebies, borrowings from friends etc., so plenty of experience of the expensive, the cheap and the ugly. And how many have I encountered with CD rot?
Two.
One was a magazine freebie from the early 2000s (tiny holes in the aluminium), one a very obscure disc of South African jazz from the late 80s (light bronzing), so both may well have been produced on the cheap. Nonetheless, both play perfectly in my CDX2, despite its habit of being fussy.
I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, I’m not saying it isn’t frustrating when a disc refuses to play, I’m just saying it isn’t at all common IME.
Mark
Nobody said it was a daily occurance, just that it pays not to rely entirely on the disc itself if the recording is important to you or likely to be hard to replace, a lot of tracks aren’t on streaming services either.
If you can have a backup/copy, and it’s very easy to create one, why wouldn’t you? .
We still need to wait for the results of @Pete_the_painter audit regardless…
In moist environments like tropical climates mold can completely ruin CDs, you can see it creeping between disk layers, I’ve seen this happen to entire collections.
Finally got around to hooking up the Audiolab 8200P power amp to the bedroom system. Only had it since November!
Sounds great!
The Tascam DA-302 Dual DAT deck, which was in the bedroom, is now in the Naim system in the living room, replacing the DA-30 Mk II that was there.
Unbelievably, this was apparently the only dual DAT deck ever produced.
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen one!
I had a portable one many years ago, used it loads and still have a fair few vinyl mixes I mastered to DAT tape.
I still love the Audiolab look. I do miss my 8000c/PX/cd it was a great combo.
How are you finding the chopping boards under your speakers? Are you still using spikes?
I’ve purchased two from Ikea. APTITLIG made of Bamboo.
CD “bronzing” was/is a huge issue with CDs produced at Philips Dupont in Blackburn in the late 80s and early 90s. Hyperion Records, one of my favourite labels, were particularly badly affected.
Back when I was Naim’s customer service manager I used to get customers sending in those Hyperion CDs and asking why they wouldn’t play in their Naim CD player. I had a few myself and after some years they turned a muddy brown and were unreadable.