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Do CDs break down over time?

gagelle

gagelle

Super Member
I read an article that the chemical coating on a CD can break down over time. The reason I ask this question is that I played a CD yesterday that I bought about 15 years ago. I heard this weird static sound on one song. I cleaned the CD but it didn't help. I see a tiny scratch on it but it may be deep. Another reason I ask the question is that a scratch would usually cause a song to "skip," not make an electronic noise. It only happens on this CD. I'm using a grant Fidelity CD-327A tube CD player. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
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gagelle said:
I read an article that the chemical coating on a CD can break down over time. The reason I ask this question is that I played a CD yesterday that I bought about 15 years ago. I heard this weird static sound on one song. I cleaned the CD but it didn't help. I see a tiny scratch on it but it may be deep. Another reason I ask the question is that a scratch would usually cause a song to "skip," not make an electronic noise. It only happens on this CD. I'm using a grant Fidelity CD-327A tube CD player. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
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I have CD's that are almost 30 years old (purchased in early 1983) that still play fine. Try playing that CD on another player just to eliminate that variable and see what happens. It may well have suffered some form of deterioration but that seems rare. I do own one CD that has a short blast of white noise on a certain song which was noticed during the first playing, returned if for a replacement and that one had the exact same defect so just lived with it.
 
Yes. They can.

I was watching a documentary on one of the discovery-like channels; they were talking about the Library of Congress' media center out in Orange, VA; where they're currently archiving all analog content to digital and store a lot of stuff.

One of the things they showed was various CD's that had failed as a result of laser-rot or some kind of chemical breakdown. They had two of the same CD, both pressed at different times and from different factories. One disc looked flawless, the other looked like all the coating had flaked off, so there was nothing reflective left on the disc.

A scratch on a CD, depending how bad it is, usually causes the CD to skip, to repeat the same segment, or cause slight distortion; but only where the scratch is.

I've recently gotten in to LaserDiscs, which can suffer from "laser rot" from the glue oxidizing (Laserdiscs are actually two discs glued to a metal substrate). It affects an entire disc or just one side of a disc. But as I stated, that's a result of the glue holding the disc layers together causing oxidization. CD's aren't layered like a laserdisc, however, there is still something that has to bond the reflective substrate to the plastic disc.

One of the videos that shows the effect of laser-rot on laser discs talks about the loss of ability to play digital tracks. The rot causing such massive corruption in the digital stream that you get really scratchy/distorted audio.

Without actually hearing what the distortion is, it's difficult to say if it's a CD breakdown or a scratch. Usually, if the CD is failing, you will easily be able to tell. If you don't see anything wrong with the disc other than the scratch, well, then it's possible the scratch, when combined with the speed at which a CD spins, is causing that one track to not play properly.

I've got CD's that are 30 years old that are still fine. I've got some that are 10 years old that have the reflective layer flaking off. Much like laser-rot on laserdiscs, it's kind of a crap-shoot.
 
I have only one CD that happened to. The metallization started flaking off, and if you held it up to the light you could see holes in the plating. Try that with yours.
 
Compact Disc Decay

My Experience with CD's that are stored in their jewel cases in my home have been trouble free for decades. What I have seen is that disc's that are left out in the car for a prolonged period of time,through extremes in temperature and humidity,can cause a breakdown in sound quality-with distortion and even voids in substrate. :scratch2: But I'm no expert....
 
i am sure i watched a tv programme and to cut a long story short there are bugs in the rain forests that will eat cd.s
 
Yeah its all about the coatings used in the CDs. I saw something about preserving CDs in the Washington Archives. They showed 3 copies of the same album using different coatings. One was almost clear and one was perfect.

If you look at the CD at angle you can sometimes see issues. Remember the Data is bellow the top then there's a rather thick layer of clear plastic between the data and the bottom of the disc. So scratches to the top of the disc are worst then the bottom. as those can be filled or buffed out.
 
I had a best of Neil Diamond two disc set. I took it out the other day to rip it because I didn't have America on my hard drive. I ripped the second disc (the one with America on it) with no problems. I pulled out the 1st disc and glanced at it because I knew this CD set was about 15 years old. Sure enough there were 2 lines of CD rot about 1/8" from the outer edge. I went ahead and threw it out, as I already had most of these tracks (from another Neil Diamond compilation) on my hard drive.
I keep my CDs in Univenture Archival Pocket sleeves. I've had very few discs with the CD rot issue. I believe it is because I keep them at room temperature in low humidity. I also make sure my hands are clean before handling them.
 
The only CD that ever "broke down" on me was The Spontaneous Music Ensemble's Karyobin on Chronoscope. I bought it when it came out ['96 or so?] and about 3 years ago I noticed it was developing what looked like rust around the edges. It still played fine and it is quite collectable so I made a copy and sold the original.
 
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I started buying CD's in late '83 or early '84. Nearly all of them are still like new and playable, but yes, I've had a few die along the way. Pin holes would develop in the reflective surface making them unplayable and a few of them developed a tarnished look that made them unplayable. In recent years I purchased a few hybrid SACD/CD's and a few of those began to delaminate. Perfect sound forever? Hardly.
 
I've had some static sounds on some CD-Rs, but so far my other CDs have held up well. The CD-Rs with static do it on all players I've tried, not just one. It sounds like an FM station that's getting out of range. I've even started to change the station before I remember it's a CD :headscrat
 
I keep all of my CDs in their boxes, away from any light or heat sources.
So far, I haven't had a single CD go bad yet.

Steve
 
petehall347 said:
i am sure i watched a tv programme and to cut a long story short there are bugs in the rain forests that will eat cd.s
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Clearly we need to "Pave the Rainforest"

lol

Archival=Vinyl... they even have to bake old magnetic tape to restore it over time
 
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