Longer lifespan, vinyl or Audio CD's?

...that's a matter of opinion...

 

...use a heavier bottle...I'd suggest glass corked, not plastic!

 

I have an earlier model--CD-RW 700--and I've been very happy with it. I only wish it could write at high speed...

Dale

 

I have never seen CD rot that wasn't from mfg defect. PDO UK, Discovery Systems, Nimbus of certain vintage. Other than that, flawless. I have CDs from 1983 that play exactly perfect and are not discolored.

CD-Rs on the other hand are another story. Most are garbage except Taiyo Yuden (Maxell Japan etc.), Mitsui/MAM-A, and recent Riteks.

Sonys made by Lead Data in Taiwan are pretty bad. Most of my Sony 50-pack have either faded away or flaked off. Junk. Similar results with newer batches at work. Stopped using them. I gave my mother some Sonys for Christmas to back up photos and I felt so bad after the problems she had I bought her a pack of Maxells to replace them.

I wish CD-Rs were made to the same quality standards that higher end blank cassettes were in the 80s. I'd pay for it.

 

Don't worry! I saw that. But, there does seem to be a small group of digital haters that would love to see the CD go away, and every once in a while they come up with some idea about how CD rots or something. Then, there are those who try to sell stuff that benifit from people's fears.

 

I bought a pack of Twin Lead Data blanks a couple of years ago under the Sony name, and the discs are holding up just fine, knock on wood.

Agreed on Ritek. They have come a long way since the late 90s. It's to the point where I now look for "Made in Taiwan" as well as anything from Japan except Sony. I just can't quite trust anything from Indonesia yet.

 

yea, Taiwan is looking better all the time...the new 52X HP CDR's are made in India, and they suck!

 

It's getting to the point where you have to hunt for Taiwanese-made CD-R, just like when we have to hunt for Japanese-made stuff.

 

That's also my opinion. We've discussed it here a couple of times already.

 

A couple?

 

No it's not. There is no light and shade in the word "perfect" - and the CD sound is NOT perfect. You know it; I know it. We buy CDs for many reasons, but not because of "perfect sound".

 

That's why some LD's failed, but CD's are not glued together - they are coated. BTW - I have CD-R's that are 10 years old already and read fine. What brand of CD-R's of yours failed?

Derek

 

To some people, the CD is subjectively perfect...so there is a little wiggle room for a person's perception of what "perfect" is.

 

...again, it's a matter of opinion...MINE.

 

...yes, it suits my needs PERFECTly.

 

My conversaion with the Magnavox dude was 20 years ago. I thought he said the CD's were glued, faulty memory...there might be CD-R's in my brain! They were abusing CD's in their experiments though. That much I'm sure of.

I think most of my failed CD-R's are Sony and Maxell. I've thrown the failed ones away. It seems like until recently, and I've learned better, those were the brands I bought because of easy availability.

 

Kent, how old is your oldest CD-R if I may ask ?

 

Hi again,

My oldest CD-R was burned in 1992! It is a reference disc from a mastering session I engineered. It is on Taiyo Yuden media with their That's brand. Only 62 minutes playing time. It was done on one of those early PC based burning systems which cost over 10k at the time. My earliest home burned CD-R discs are from 1998. I used TDK (USA made), Kodak, Fuji, That's, and Kodak media then.

 

Unfortunately, as they say in the investment world, "past performance is no guarantee of future results". That's certainly true of CD-Rs, because the drives and media are continuously evolving, with the focus on speed increases and cost reductions, not longevity.

The solution is to copy the data to new media periodically (and keep the old copies, as long as they still work). Easier said than done.

 

Hi Luke,

Well put! I have backed up my older CD-R discs to newer media to be on the safe side. They are unpredictable and unknown as regards lifespan. We are still learning about the lifespan of all digital media at present!

 

I wouldn't worry too much. By the time your present collection of CDRs start failing another recording method will have supplanted it and you will no longer want those CDRs anymore than you do Cassettes now. And after that you are gone.