Earliest CD Purchases

[bob_32_116]

I only have one CD that sufferes

I too have a few albums that have been listed as being suspectible to CD rot. All are still working perfectly.

On the other hand, my copy of Easter Island's Now And Then, which I bought new in 1999, did grow unplayable in less than two years, with similar discolouring of the disc surface as the Rot was said to cause.

I only have one CD that is audibly damaged, "The Pretender" by jackson browne, which for reasons unknown annoyingly skips many grooves on Track 4, "Here Come Those Tears Again".

On the other hand, my copy of "Lives in the Balance", also by JB, which I got for $2 at an outdoor jumble sale, plays perfectly and sounds clean as a whistle.

[rcarlberg]

Of my ~8,000 CDs I have yet to see a single example of rot -- even going back to 1984 (thirty years!)

I *do* have a half dozen el cheapo CD-Rs which have gone dark and unplayable. The major names don't seem to have that problem.

[Fracktured]

Of my ~8,000 CDs I have yet to see a single example of rot -- even going back to 1984 (thirty years!)

I *do* have a half dozen el cheapo CD-Rs which have gone dark and unplayable. The major names don't seem to have that problem.

CD rot seems to be random and I too have a few cd's which have become unplayable, one that comes to mind right now is my Joni Mitchell Mingus cd. But out of thousands of cd's the percentage of rot is very low. Age may factor but they don't have to be very old for it.

[Progbear]

I had a couple of CDs bronze, they were both Island releases (Floating World and Way of the Sun by Jade Warrior*) pressed at the Italian OPTI.ME.S plant. My copy of Systems of Romance by Ultravox, PFM’s Chocolate Kings and a handful of older Fonit Cetra releases were fine the last time I checked (though I noticed the Fonit CDs had an odd, golden colour to them, bronzing stage 1, perhaps?). My Fonit Cetra copy of Osanna’s Palepoli was another OPTI.ME.S disc, but on account of the sound problems with that issue, I trashed it and upgraded to the later Warner Fonit release.

I now own a laserdisc player as well, but no disc I’ve found yet has the dreaded “laser rot.” Mind you, I still only own two laserdiscs.

*I junked both of them when I upgraded to Elements.

[rcarlberg]

CD rot seems to be random

I wonder if it's related to storing discs in direct sunlight?

[Galactic Bulldozer]

I waited until Ogden's Nutgone Flake was released (RYM - 1985) and the other 4 albums I bought was Caravanserai, Electric Ladyland, Beethoven's 7th and Avalon, the last named because it was used as a demo for the Phillips CD Player and I must have been impressed with the clarity and quietness.

[Jay G]

Got my first player in 83-84 but can't recall exactly. It was a Technics unit with technology called FF1 (Fine Focus One) which was an predecessor to digital oversampling. FF1 sucked and I went through 2 different model Technics until I abandoned the brand forever. Can't recall my first CDs but I do seem to recall the first DDD I ever got was actually a live CD - Hank Williams Jr Live.

[EJD]

1986. German imports of Genesis' Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot, dreadful US "longbox" issues of XTC's Skylarking and this CD-only Coltrane compilation.

[EJD]

Not long after I got the atrociously repackaged first issue of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue...