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How Long Do CDs Last?

post #1 of 33
1/11/10 at 4:38pm
Thread Starter 
13 years ago a friend said that all CDs have a finite life of 20 years. My collection was starting to build steam and my mental gears started working. I went to take a close look at those early disks from the late eighties. "Was this true?", I thought. Nowdays I really do not care. A lot of my early CD duplicates have become ruined by age. Those were first generation copies when the CD blanks were $100.00 a pack. Blanks may have been improved by now.


So what are people out there thinking? 20 years? 100 years? Will home brew CDs fail first? Let us hear about it.l
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post #2 of 33
1/11/10 at 4:49pm
I had many cd burned years ago that failed, but i think commercial CD last longer...the potential cause of failure is air oxidising the metal layer which actually holds the data.

Obviously it can happen only if the seams on the edge of the disc, which should render it air-tight are defective...or are damaged by some sort of physical shock...


Just buy vinyl. they last forever
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post #3 of 33
1/11/10 at 4:56pm
All of my older CDs still look good. Just don't leave them in the sun.

Why don't you rip your CDs to your computer btw?
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post #4 of 33
1/11/10 at 5:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by apatN View Post
All of my older CDs still look good. Just don't leave them in the sun.

Why don't you rip your CDs to your computer btw?
Yes, this week I was able to get Foobar working with Flac files. For once my computer rig is sounding great. I may rip a part of my collection. I have gone back and forth between CD players and computers.
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post #5 of 33
1/11/10 at 5:57pm
Ah yes. I still need to do a proper A/B but I dare to say my Squeezebox sounds better as a transport than my "bit-perfect" Foobar/x-fi combo.
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post #6 of 33
1/11/10 at 6:01pm
I bought my first CD in 1987. DSoTM, of course.

I still have it and it plays fine. There's no visible degradation.
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post #7 of 33
1/11/10 at 6:09pm
Thread Starter 
My next thread title.........Are CDs Changed By Burn In?
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post #8 of 33
1/11/10 at 6:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meliboeus View Post
I had many cd burned years ago that failed, but i think commercial CD last longer...the potential cause of failure is air oxidising the metal layer which actually holds the data.

Obviously it can happen only if the seams on the edge of the disc, which should render it air-tight are defective...or are damaged by some sort of physical shock...


Just buy vinyl. they last forever
on commercial CDs the data is actually held in the plastic of the disc... the metal however creates the reflective surface and if it gets oxidized or damaged the laser doesn't get reflected back properly

i've never looked much into how CD-Rs work but the earliest CD-Rs i have still work just fine and the oldest commercial CDs i have are still good

nobody i personally know has ever experienced a CD going bad with age

Quote:
Originally Posted by Redcarmoose View Post
My next thread title.........Are CDs Changed By Burn In?

short answer: no
long answer: nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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post #9 of 33
1/11/10 at 6:34pm
The oldest commercially available CDs are just slightly over 27 years old and if kept in good condition, they should sound the same as the day they left the pressing plant.

Home made CDs are made differently from pre-recorded CDs. There was a report from a couple of years back that one should expect CD-R's to last more than 5 years. On the other hand, I have CD-R's that are older than 5 years and they work.
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post #10 of 33
1/11/10 at 6:44pm
I expect my CDs to go a long way. Wear and tear will hit them though. My CDs are kept in a case which also holds the CD cases. Just to keep them in good condition I'll keep them save. They'll last a long time, that I know.
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post #11 of 33
1/11/10 at 6:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by necropimp View Post
on commercial CDs the data is actually held in the plastic of the disc... the metal however creates the reflective surface and if it gets oxidized or damaged the laser doesn't get reflected back properly

i've never looked much into how CD-Rs work but the earliest CD-Rs i have still work just fine and the oldest commercial CDs i have are still good

nobody i personally know has ever experienced a CD going bad with age
Reflects my experience exactly. Like Vinyl they are destructable but, like vinyl, if you look after them they'll outlive you.



Quote:
Originally Posted by necropimp View Post
short answer: no
long answer: nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
LOL.
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post #12 of 33
1/11/10 at 8:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by necropimp View Post
on commercial CDs the data is actually held in the plastic of the disc... the metal however creates the reflective surface and if it gets oxidized or damaged the laser doesn't get reflected back properly

i've never looked much into how CD-Rs work but the earliest CD-Rs i have still work just fine and the oldest commercial CDs i have are still good
I think you have that backwards.

IIRC, commercially produced CDs have tiny pits etched in the metalized disc, and the plastic is just a holder for that disc.

In really old CDs the disc is sandwitched between two layers of polycarb - you can recognize these by the way the metal goes all the way to the outer and inner edges. My at-least-20-years-old copy of ChangesBowie is one of these.

In the more modern CDs, the plastic is just a tray. The disc is dropped into it and sealed in with essentially glue. This is why it's easier to destroy a CD from the label side than the data side.

I could be wrong - maybe they do etch the plastic rather than the disc. In any case, the metalized disc is critical to the function of the media.

In CD-R (and DVD-R, etc) there is a dye in the plastic that undergoes a change in opacity when exposed to laser light, or left out in the sun for a long time.

In CD-RW the plastic undergoes a phase change that alters it's opacity, and this can be reversed.

I think the danger from the sun with manufactured discs is probably mostly heat causing delamination. With CD-R the sun is literally degrading the data.

As for the lifespan, it's going to vary with use and abuse, but professional archivists turn over media every 2-3 years. just in case.
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post #13 of 33
1/11/10 at 9:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ericj View Post

In CD-R (and DVD-R, etc) there is a dye in the plastic that undergoes a change in opacity when exposed to laser light, or left out in the sun for a long time.

In CD-RW the plastic undergoes a phase change that alters it's opacity, and this can be reversed.
I would think actual pressed discs have an indefinite life, since the info is physically embedded on the disc.

CD-R's however are a fairly fragile medium compared with many others, since the info is literally "burned" into the layer on the disc.
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post #14 of 33
1/11/10 at 9:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by soundboy View Post
Home made CDs are made differently from pre-recorded CDs. There was a report from a couple of years back that one should expect CD-R's to last more than 5 years. On the other hand, I have CD-R's that are older than 5 years and they work.
I think it depends a lot on the disc manufacturer as well. I have some 6+ year old Taiyo Yuden discs, and these still read and burn fine. However, I have some 3-4 year old Ritek blanks that refuse to burn on multiple burners, and both were kept in the same conditions, in a closet away from light.

I think I paid only $9 for 50 of the Riteks (while the TYs were $40 for 50), so it's not really a big loss.
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post #15 of 33
1/11/10 at 9:57pm
I bought my first CDs in 86 and they still work fine. I've never had a CD go bad. I've bought brand new CDs that were bad (bad pressing), and I've bought used that were scratched, but most of those are perfectly playable. A few were scratched so bad that they couldn't be played.

I haven't used CDRs for much so I don't know how mine have held up. The few I have kept around, have lived their lives in a binder so they're probably good.
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