scottb Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 I have seen talk on the board about CDs developing pin holes. I was always in denial that this could ever happen to me. Tonight for some reason I decided to examine my oldest CD, George Harrison's CLOUD NINE from back in 1988. Sure enough, riddled with pin holes. I panicked! Next I examined my Beatles discs which were also purchased back in the late eighties. Pinholes!! Now I'm freakin! On to my beloved jazz. My oldest- Hank Mobley's DIPPIN'. Sure enough, PINHOLES!! My wife thinks I'm crazy but I'm super anxious that my whole collection that I've spent thousands on, in slowly melting away! So my question is, how long before the discs become unplayable? I seem to recall someone saying that only early disc were at risk due to a change in manufacturing. Is this true or this just my mind trying to tell myself that everything is gonna be alright. If all my disc are rotting, I'm about to download them, get an Ipod and sell those suckers on the internet while they are still worth the aluminum they're made of! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 ashes to ashes, dust to dust... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAL Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Hope the following offers some consolation: Pinholes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottb Posted December 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 (Begin Halelujah chorus now) Thank you for the link. I'm a bit embarassed by my overreaction. Luckily, you guys did not see me in person. Unfortunately, my wife did. She said "I knew you were obsessed with your CDs but now I realize you are a CD NERD!" I guess I can use that Ipod money to buy more CDs!! (Continue Halelujah chorus until tomorrow at this time) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted April 24, 2009 Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Okay, this is slightly tangential (to the "pinhole" issue), but when I googled "cd rot" and found this thread, I figured it was close enough. If there's another thread, let me know, but... I recently pulled out my (1993) copy of Wes Montgomery's Complete Riverside Recordings, and found something disturbing. I had a vague recollection that there was one disc where there was a minor (very brief) sound problem on one track. I always figured it was in the mastering, and it wasn't enough to cause me to want to bother inquiring about a replacement. My recollection was that this problem occurred on one of the later discs in the set, but I couldn't remember which one. Well, when I pulled the set out today and picked up disc 11, I found that roughly a third of the inner surface of the bottom of the disc has gone "foggy" (I guess there's some kind of oxidation going on). The disc is now totally unplayable. I found another source for the music, so aside from this set being slightly devalued, it's no big deal, but I'm just curious how rare this might be. It's the first time I've ever encountered this. Maybe I should go look at the oldest discs in my collection... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Lark Ascending Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 You might find this is localised. There is a famous example of a pressing plant in the UK that did something wrong in the processing - I think it allowed the ink from the printing to penetrate to the disc. This led to 'bronzing' and, sometimes, pinholes. It's proved an issue with some of the discs I have on the classical Hyperion label, bought around the early 90s. Hyperion are up front about it and have a way to exchange defective discs: http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/bronzed.asp I doubt if this sortof thing would be isolated to one plant, so maybe your disc comes from a similar situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Thanks for the info, Bev. I don't know how many varieties of "rotting" exist, but I've had trouble finding info specific to my situation. I only found a couple of photos, but none that really matched the look of my disc. I did find this article, which explains the basic problem, and wherein somebody claimed that 15 to 20% of their CD's manufactured in the 1980's had begun to rot (believe it, or...). Fwiw, I took a photo of my disc. Hard to get this stuff to look like it's actually in focus... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Another attempt... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noj Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 My oldest cd is a 1985 issue of The Smiths Meat Is Murder. It's not showing any signs of decay, thankfully. Might the pinhole and fog things be environmental, caused by something getting in/on the cd? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim R Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 (edited) Noj, good question. From what I've read so far, my interpretation has been that the problem was caused by an error in manufacturing whereby foreign material (air?) gets in between the aluminum and lacquer layers during production, and the oxidation process begins pretty much immediately (and gradually worsens). As I mentioned, I suspect that my disc had a problem years ago (a sound problem that I dismissed as quite minor), but I never saw any visual evidence of a defect... and now look at it. On the other hand, I guess it's possible for damage to occur after a CD is properly manufactured, and the same rotting process can begin. One other thing... the photos I found when googling showed fogging on the label side of the discs, which is apparently the more vulnerable side in terms of scratching and damage affecting the inner layer. None looked as bad as mine, which is occurring on the bottom (less vulnerable) side. I'm wondering how many people here own the Wes Montgomery Complete Riverside box. For those who do, maybe you could inspect your discs. I'd be curious to see if anyone else finds anything... Edited April 25, 2009 by Jim R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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