Vinyl outsells CD's in numbers & $$

[Guest thethrowback]

Same here Alan. The only time I get excited is when other people want to force their life choices on me, otherwise I don't give a bugger what other people do. I also admire passion as the alternative is pretty dull.

 

I remember an afternoon spent auditioning speakers back in 76/77 at the Bang & Olufsen showroom in Melbourne. The T/T used was a B&O Beogram 4002 which has the tangential tonearm and it made quite an impression on me. The design was a work of art and I'm not surprised that they have been collected by art museums.

Edited July 23, 2021 by thethrowback

[Guest Old Man Rubber]

3 hours ago, Monkeyboi said:

 

I have one other CD that appears to have suffered what is commonly described as "laser rot" although not for the reasons it normally occurs because unlike LaserDiscs, CDs aren't double sided. I put this disc in the player after spending many years stored on the shelf and there were some quite audible clicks.  On closer examination by holding the disc up to a bright light one could see pinpricks of light through the media.   

You're not alone there, a couple of the very early 1980s CDs I have that I purchased new have a similar "rot" i.e. pinpricks of light that are the only physical thing different about them from other CDs, but seem to be the cause of dropouts.  It does make me wonder a bit about the longevity of those early CDs.  Interestingly they play quite well in a nasty looking Sony DVD player I got from the tip shop for $5 but the fancier CD players I have struggle with them mightily.

[emesbee]

3 minutes ago, Old Man Rubber said:

You're not alone there, a couple of the very early 1980s CDs I have that I purchased new have a similar "rot" i.e. pinpricks of light that are the only physical thing different about them from other CDs, but seem to be the cause of dropouts.  It does make me wonder a bit about the longevity of those early CDs.  Interestingly they play quite well in a nasty looking Sony DVD player I got from the tip shop for $5 but the fancier CD players I have struggle with them mightily.

 

I don't believe those pinpricks of light are likely to be evidence of 'laser rot', more likely manufacturing defects. Some of the CDs I bought back in the 80s have those pinpricks. It was something I noticed when they were new, when I held the disc up to the light. They played ok then, and still do, presumably error correction / interpolation during playback takes care of it.

 

[Guest thethrowback]

1 hour ago, emesbee said:

I don't believe those pinpricks of light are likely to be evidence of 'laser rot', more likely manufacturing defects.

 

It could be either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

 

PDO UK discs made in the late 1980s are known for disc rot due to material failure which the company admitted.

 

It has never happened to any of my discs and I think good storage has kept them in mint condition. I only store my discs in jewel cases regardless of the original packaging. They are kept in a dark cupboard with even temperature and humidity and I never touch the playing surface. Once I play them they go straight back into their jewel cases.

Edited July 23, 2021 by thethrowback

[emesbee]

1 hour ago, thethrowback said:

 

It could be either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

 

PDO UK discs made in the late 1980s are known for disc rot due to material failure which the company admitted.

 

Hmm, I guess so. I have to say though that I haven't noticed any deterioration in the discs that I own, maybe just good fortune.

 

Edited July 23, 2021 by emesbee

[Guest thethrowback]

This is an interesting discussion:

 

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/cd-deterioration-what-causes-pin-holes-will-gold-cds-wear-out-etc.44412/

[bob_m_54]

I buy a lot of second hand CDs from garage sales, and the like. I've had a few incidences of older discs with "flaked" laquer on the label side, leaving pieces (in excess of a mm or two), of the aluminium layer missing. Not from manufacture, obviously with holes of that size. Also dark grey squiggly corrosion in the aluminium layer, possibly caused by moisture through a pinhole in the laquer label layer. Another type of disc rot is where you get dark discolouration around the edges of the aluminium layer, that appears to spread from the edges inwards.

 

All these have occured in older discs where there is usually only text screened onto the label side, and it appears that the laquer layer is very thin in these discs. Obviously the label side of the disc is the most prone to permanent damage, causing read errors on the disc. But many people seem believe, that placing a disc onto a surface, label side down, is better than data side down. So we tend to get scratches in the label side, and hence into the aluminium layer, causing irrepairable damage.