[Jaska]

Going into this year, I knew that my music-listening hobby would involve a lot of music purchases as opposed to headphone/gear purchases. By now, I would safely say that I have bought 50+ new audio CDs so far in 2009, and I'm frankly alarmed to keep discovering, disc after disc, that nearly every one of them has some sort of debris stuck on the "business side" of it. It doesn't seem to matter where I buy them from, as I've been buying them from all sorts of places in Finland, the UK, and the USA, or even whether the discs ship in a jewel case or a Digipak of one kind or another.

Today, for example, I just received my second brand new Dozin' at the Knick (Grateful Dead) 3-CD set after having sent back the first set due to it being damaged upon receipt. The fat jewel case arrived in perfect condition, packed well, and factory sealed. I opened it and carefully inspected the 3 discs, knowing that one of them was loose in the box (as always with these idiotic fat jewel cases containing 3 discs). CD 1 looks pretty good, but has a couple of specs/spots resembling dried up spittle, CD 2 looks as though it has an oily fingerprint near the outer edge of the disc, and CD 3 has some sort of debris stuck to the playing surface. I'm not about to start blowing and wiping these brand new CDs with a cloth, as this will just lead to further damage.

The Dozin' at the Knick set mentioned above really suggests to me that the Rhino folks have some serious manufacturing problems in their US facilities, as both of the box sets of the same title I've ordered have suffered from the same problems. The other Grateful Dead Rhino remasteres I've bought from the UK are manufactured in the EU, and those have all been squeaky clean. However, I just can't believe how many of the new CDs I've bought end up getting packaged and shrinkwrapped with debris on them. Has anyone else experienced this with new audio CDs? I always inspect new CDs carefully as soon as I take them out of their packaging, and I must say that I've never noticed this before this year.

 

[Scottsmrnyc]

Your complaints are very valid; but even worse is the low quality of the way many modern disc are recorded. After all, the recording studio/recording process is the primary step in the line of hearing great music. I have over one thousand Cds in my case at home and I can count on my hands just how many of them are truly recorded with great sound quality. First of all, here is what I have learned about recordings. If all the instruments are electrified, the recording is going to be bad. If there are too many instruments being recorded, then the sound quality is going to be garbled. Simplicity is the key to recording success. Few instruments, Few microphones etc will do the trick. It doesn't have to be loud to be good. If you can play your must at a low level and it sounds good, then it will sound just as good, at slightly higher volume.

I agree with you. Scottsmrnyc

 

[Beyerfan70]

X3 I completely agree.
Tell you what else is bad too when you get one of these so called deluxe editions of a new album,usually with an extra cd or dvd and it's packaged in deluxe CARDBOARD!
Take for instance the new springsteen album working on a dream,the cd and dvd were so tightly pushed in that when i finally manage to get them out they were badly scratched!
And they wonder why cd sales are falling!

 

[cyberidd]

I have never been in the habit of checking my cds because I've always just assumed that new cds in new packaging with an unopened wrapper would be spotless so this comes as quite a shock to me. I'll definately be checking all my cds upon purchase from now on!