CD sales are alive and well in Japan

  On 8/19/2016 at 5:23 PM, beerwolf said:

Mmmm I just played the first Iron Maiden album on a 1987 cd. It's in perfect condition. What precisely is this cd rot I'm supposed to be panicking about?

Disc rot is a phrase describing the tendency of CD or DVD or other optical discs to become unreadable due to physical or chemical deterioration. The causes of this effect vary from oxidation of the reflective layer, to physical scuffing and abrasion of disc surfaces or edges, including visible scratches, to other kinds of reactions with contaminants, to ultra-violet light damage and de-bonding of the adhesive used to adhere the layers of the disc together.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

I don't know if it's the temp of my house or something, but a lot my CDs had this happen, even though I never move or listen to them.

edit:

If left in a very humid environment, moisture—and oxygen—will eventually reach the aluminum, causing it to lose its reflectivity. The normally shiny aluminum, which resembles silver, becomes oxide-dull and much less reflective, like the color of a typical aluminum ladder. The combination of high humidity and increased temperatures will accelerate the oxidation rate...The life expectancy of a ROM disc therefore depends on the environmental conditions to which it is exposed over time. Generally, it is best to keep ROM discs in a dry, cool environment.

https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4.html

now is a great time to pick up CDs at thrift stores n such..It's cool to get slightly older mastering jobs of lots of things, before they really started smashing shit out of stuff around the turn of the century. of course some of those early digital masters are crap blah blah blah.... I've been finding tons of great stuff for less than a dollar...reminds me of thrift store vinyl shopping in the early 90s with my parents...

As far as disc rot goes, CDs produced in the early to mid 80s seems to not only have worse mastering, but lesser quality. Like vinyl, sunlight is your enemy, as well as the temperature and humidity concerns raised above. Keep em in a cool dark place, and they will outlive you.

Is it too late to nominate "Rubin Farr posting Phil Collins disc rot" for most idm?

edit: needs more Phil Collins (disc rot)

I have a couple boxes of an album I had pressed on CD. They're welcome to buy some.

  On 8/20/2016 at 12:15 AM, Braintree said:

I have a couple boxes of an album I had pressed on CD. They're welcome to buy some.

i'll give mine away.. .even pay for shipping. just to get them outta the house. 

The last CD I bought was Triptykon - Melana Chasmata. It matched really well with this can of beer that had an awesome label. 

http://imgur.com/a/a9VVU

Yeah the only time I buy CDs nowadays is if I can't find a decent quality version of something obscure I'm looking for online and there's a copy on discogs for 2 or 3 quid, which I then rip but never play.

  On 8/19/2016 at 1:07 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 8/19/2016 at 12:55 AM, xxx said:

I discovered something rather shocking. 5 disc changer from 1994 into one channel of a Yamaha EMX-512SC and Toshiba laptop with OEM soundcard in another. Started Syro on disc and ran the FLACs on computer. Started flipping back and forth for an A/B and was fucking stunned at how thin and lifeless the laptop was to the disc player under identical conditions. I EQ'd the laptop channel against the CD player but I could never quite nail it. I never knew how poorly the stock laptop cards performed.

 

Not surprised at all. I've not done much reading into the why, or what component(s) of the chain is at fault, but CD > digital almost always in my experience. It's sometimes almost not noticeable at all, I'm sure I'd fail lots of A/B tests like that, but sometimes the CD quality is SO much better than the HQ digital, again for whatever reasons that are likely nothing to do with the initial quality of the audio signal.

 

Yah, back in the day I had a problem encoding I Wish You Could Talk on Go Plastic.  It was one of the tracks that for some reason, couldn't encode perfectly (when the track drops and the chorus things come in).  Maybe now encoders are better?  But when it comes to just pure playing/recording of audio, anecdotal evidence shows that Mac laptops are much better than stock Windows laptops, for whatever fucking reason.  Either one is thin compared to USB, audio, though.

Anyone ever try one of those near-thousand dollar D/A converters?  Basically only lives in the "audiophile" world, so it could be shit.

  On 8/20/2016 at 3:30 AM, ieafs said:

 

  On 8/18/2016 at 6:35 PM, Joyrex said:

I'm over the whole collecting physical media thing - it just ends up in some cupboard or closet, and given enough time, it will be unplayable either due to rot, or lack of physical media players.

 

letsgetphysical.jpg

 

Again... ***I*** am over the whole physical collecting thing. I still love packaging (vinyl is my favourite format), and the craftsmanship that goes into it. I just can't bring myself to collect it anymore, especially for regular everyday releases.

My CD collection is a set of 4 large rectangle 'rubbermaid' containers that exist in my parents house in TX under the bed in their guest bedroom. I keep finding wild deals on CDs here in NY (just got a box of about 20CDs for $10!! all early 90s Alternative too!). Whenever I visit TX for holidays I always have a load of CDs to add to the 'rubbermaid' collection. I have no clue what I will do with them.

  On 8/19/2016 at 6:43 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

Is it too late to nominate "Rubin Farr posting Phil Collins disc rot" for most idm?

 

edit: needs more Phil Collins (disc rot)

lol

This subject hits me in so many ways.

I have an incredible amount of cds ive been collecting since way to my first one i bought myself- Aerosmith's Get A Grip back in 93, so its all comfy and nostalgic for me. But like half of my cds are scratched & skip so its pretty sad.

I've been getting more into CDs lately though and they never really died for me. Cool to see the hype come back. I agree they sound superior to digital. Something in that super high end that just kills on cds when playing through a good system.

i only collect CDs and i promise in 5 years they will be so fuckinnnn hipppppp

  On 8/24/2016 at 7:57 PM, dr lopez said:

i only collect CDs and i promise in 5 years they will be so fuckinnnn hipppppp

I'm with you on the prediction. its already taking off a bit more recently in the vaporwave physical media hype. 

No no no read my link at the start of this thread, they're still the most popular physical media for music. They never went away. What is going on?