Life of a CD

[lethargic_man]

When CDs first came out, they said they would last a hundred years. About ten years later, there was a big hoo-har when it was discovered CDs stored in acidic cardboard sleeves degraded much faster, leaving the disc playable but increasingly crackly until the music could not be made out at all.

Well, it now looks like I have my first degraded CD; I've had it for exactly twenty years. What is surprising is that it's been stored in a jewel case throughout, and is from Deutsche Grammophon, not a label I would associate with skimping on quality.

The good news is that it would appear that when the problem was just starting to manifest itself, I ran off a copy of the disc, so I can continue to listen to the delightful Mozart Divertimento K. 252 (240a) in E♭ major without any annoying crackle.

Comments

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I've heard there were various manufacturing improvements made during the first decade, so CDs made in the nineties will probably last longer. Then again, they've probably managed to cut costs quite a bit too. Hopefully, I'll have all of mine digitized by the time they start failing.