2. misc-audio
  3. 140075-2280

Is There a fix for CD Pin-holes (CD Rot)

I have several early CD's (1984 to 86) with pinholes and some pitting on the label side. Mostly German pressings, many made by PDO. They all have played fine until I bought some early discs with the silver mould area. Pinholes in the center ring cause disks to spin loudly in the transport and sometimes cause read errors.

I've read about the deterioration of CD's; haven't seen any with discolouration (CD rot). Is there anyway to preserve the many CD's in my collection so that discs will continue to play?
And please don't suggest that I give up and burn the discs to a server. I like the physical medium and many of my discs are collectables.

 

128x128lowrider57
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57 OP
5,417 posts
 
Thanks n80, will take a look at that article.

@jim204, that's the kind of info I need, thanks.
I've ripped music files to my Mac using XLD, but have never burned a bit perfect file to a new disc.

Is there any free software available for Mac?

lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57 OP
5,417 posts
 
I have burned 16/44 files from iTunes and they never sounded as good as the original.

photon46
1,086 posts
 
I have had good luck ripping damaged cd's to my Mac's hard drive in iTunes using the lowest speed setting and then burning a new disc with a quality outboard CD-RW drive and good quality CD-R's. I like to use an old Firewire LaCie Porsche Design drive that's built like a tank compared to the flimsy drives Apple sells now. If I'm feeling really OCD, I'll power the LaCie's wall wart with my PS Audio power regenerator. For the best quality possible, spend about $2 US per disc and buy MAM-A gold CD-R's https://www.mediasupply.com/mamgold.html . 
n80
2,117 posts
 
I'm no expert here but I'd rip in XLD to a file on the desktop, not iTunes, and then just burn directly from that file from the finder or Disk Utility.

I do not know if bypassing iTunes helps, but it can't hurt.
photon46
1,086 posts
 
There are discussions about iTunes vs. XLD for ripping at ww.computer audiophile's website. As is often the case with all things audio, there seems to be little to no consensus about which is better. I'd make no claim to expertise in these matters myself.
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