Newbie with a question

[goridenow]

Hi all, I registered today after getting frustrated with trying to find solutions to optimal CD storage and "CD rot". I own thousands of CDs and listen mostly on a headphone systen with Sennheiser 650s and a Headroom micro amp.Nearly all the CDs are original store -boughts but I anticipate moving into FLAC downloads and making copies onto CD.
These are my questions:

(1) What's the best storage for CDs? Just keep them in their jewel cases, or buy polypro or some other envelope?
(2) Is CD rot a real threat and what can I do to prevent/delay it?
(3) Should I be copying my collection onto my computer? If so what is a good program to use?
Thanks.

[basite]

welcome to the forums, to start

my answers to your questions:
1) keeping them in the jewel casings will do fine for me
2) a real treat, that's a real big word.
you might find more info here,
http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=19469

"the green discs should be avoided, they lose there data after just a couple of years, other color of discs (the normal ones) keep data for 20-50 years, the gold ones are said to keep their data to over a 100 years."

so if you want that your grand grand children listen to your cd's, use golden ones, otherwise, regular cd's will do.

3)depends on what discs you are using, (see previous anwswers). If you do want to copy to your pc: There are a bazillion of programs out of there, free ones, cheap ones, expensive ones, and those that exeed our budget, there are also alot of possebilities, you can litteraly "rip" your cd and have all songs as seperate files (mp3, wave...) on your pc or you can copy the disc to your hard disk (as an iso file), and then mount it with daemon tools or something, for both, nero will do just fine, (for me althoug)

[jrhymeammo]

Hi GRN,
welcome to AR forum, we are all happy to have you here.
Keeping CDs in original cases is the best way for me to keep them organized and scratch free. Polypro will save you alot of space but finding them might be a majar pain in the ass once you misplace them.

I keep all of my CDs and vinyls in a closet to keep'em away from direct sunlight and seasonal heat. I've been told that some CDs will start to deteriorate after about 25 years.
I think 1000CDs in FLAC format would take about 300Gigs. How you have time to convert all of your CDs to your computer is beyong me.

Good Luck

[goridenow]

Thanks for your replies. I recently bought some live stuff from Disc Logic on CD and the cheesey cardboard envelopes they come in led me to start thinking about better storage and one thing led to another and boom - I thinking about preventing total CD destruction!
I feel better and will likely just keep the CDs where they are. Copying the music to the computer is still a possibility but maybe I'll be really selective to start since jrhymeammo is probably right - It would be way too much time and effort to put it all on.

[Mr Peabody]

I know I have some regular CD's I've had for more than 20 years so far and they are fine. I just keep mine in the original jewel cases. I find most of my friends tent to lose or damage their discs by putting them in those carry cases. I have bought some CD's used that were not in the best condition and I have yet to experience any data loss or sound quality, that I know of.

If you wanted to store them onto hard drive just for convenience, there are some CD players out with built in hard drives. I know some who will store their CD's in these jukebox style players and run the digital out to a better DAC. I have found in my experience that there is some sound quality difference in transports though if your other equipment is sensitive enough to show it.

I think I'd be more afraid of losing it off of a hard drive than worry about the original disc.