2. amps-preamps
  3. 128687-32

The awful truth about CDs, do they have the same shelve life as LP's ?

The answer is properly not. Recent studies have shown that the chemicals used in their manufacture of CDs have reduced their life expectancy to ten years, not all but many, as per Paul Mcgowans email. The suggestion was given that if you have suspect CD's they should be re-copied. But my question is how do you identify these? I can tell you that I have a great deal of LPs and I can play anyone of these with great success and some are 40 years old. This no doubt would give some audiophiles another good reason to hold onto their belief that LPs are the way to go.
phd
foey
21 posts
 
In 30 of me buying cds I only ever had an erosion problem with ONE. Thats one out of 2700.

Problems I have with Lps over 40 years . Lost count.

There is nothing wrong  with Cds other than people suddenly declaring them out of fashion.
scorpio1951
189 posts
 
    I have many CDs over 30 years old, and have not experienced any aging problems with them. 
mattz
32 posts
 
the CDs of my that went bad are the ones I dropped & stepped on
wspohn's avatar
wspohn
608 posts
 
I have ripped all my CDs to NAS redundant drives (and now wonder what to do with the boxes of CDs I have) and have hit  a double handful or so that won't read in part or in whole.

My sample size is currently 3,679 CDs.
psnyder149's avatar
psnyder149
160 posts
 
I have to agree with many above.  I recently transferred my entire CD collection which I began in 1985.  Many treated with Armour All and Green marker on the edges!!!  Of the thousand or so CD's, I had trouble transferring exactly 1 track.  And to be fair, I was able to use a different CD drive and get through that one.  It is easily arguable that CDs are not "perfect sound forever", but certainly not gone in 3 decades!
More to discover