Physical degradation of CD's


Hello friends,

Please keep in mind that I am new to the digital world and I'm just curious about something....

I have just recently bought two Dac's.  As I've been trying to break them in, I've had a cd player spinning a cd 24/7 on repeat into the dac.

I'm wondering, does the cd laser constantly going over the same pits over and over again, somehow degrade the physical aspect of the cd layer that is being read by the laser?

I know that I wouldn't want to replay my precious vinyl over and over again, but in that case I'm physically dragging a diamond stylus through the record grooves.  

I have no idea if the laser does anything to the bits it's trying to read when kept on 24/7?

Thank you and best wishes to you all,

Don

no_regrets

@no_regrets many "experts" (e.g.  professional audiophile reviewers; electronic engineers; neuroscientists; etc.) would argue that break-in or burn-in time for various audiophile sound system components is a myth.  Of course, there are some who argue that some amount of burn-in time for some components actually does benefit their performance or sound fidelity.  Still others argue that what is happening when someone thinks they hear a benefit of burn-in time for some components is that their ears or, more precisely, the auditory cortex of the brain becoming accustomed to the new sound signature, vis-a-vis the acoustical characteristics of the home or sound room.

In my experience, over the last 5 or 6 decades, I've found that electronic components like amps, DACs and CD players require virtually no or negligible periods of burn-in or break-in time.  Although I've never owned or lived with one, I have no trouble believing that very large or very powerful amps need or benefit from warm-up time.  However, I have difficulty believing their sound fidelity would improve or benefit from a certain amount of burn-in or break-in time.  The non-exotic turntables and cartridges I've owned, similarly, did not seem to need any burn-in time to speak of.  However, the TT I have now definitely did benefit from a couple hours of spin time in order for the motor spindle and bearings to become properly lubricated.  As for the speakers I've owned and enjoyed over these many years, I think I've noticed very small improvements in some of them (more high-end or expensive ones) after a certain amount of burn-in time.  However, a somewhat famous professional audiophile component reviewer who shall remain nameless told me this was all in my head (i.e.  auditory cortex).  The salesperson who sold me the pair I have now advised they would need approximately 90 hours of burn-in time to reach their full potential.  A professional reviewer told me they would need closer to 100 hours and yet another wrote in his review of them that they fully blossomed after approximately 110 hours.  Since I had a 30 day return policy from the shop that I purchased them from, I decided to listen very critically and keep a log after I brought them home.  Auditory Cortex notwithstanding, it certainly did seem, to me, that there were small improvements over time, mostly in bass response, to a lesser degree in high frequencies and negligibly so in midrange after somewhere around 60 hours.

So, as in all things, let conscious be your guide!  However, that being said, I think running your CD player & DAC 24/7 is accomplishing nothing other than wearing out those components.

Never falls, someone asks a question about CDs and someone else just has to interject streaming into the conversation.

While I have had CD’s go bad because they weren’t constructed properly, the aluminum inside has corroded and or air pockets have formed, I’ve never had one go bad from use.  Misuse maybe, but not laser induced wear.

@ibmjunkman

Too bad this unit runs on 100v...I'd snatch one up and put it in the box!

Regards,

barts