CD-R Durability

[Mark of Cenla]

I have heard that CD-R's will not last like store-bought CD's, that CD-R's eventually deteriotate. Does anyone know the facts about this? Most of my CD-R's are Maxell, with some Sony and Memorex. How long can I expect them to last? Is the deterioration caused by playing them or by time? Peace.

:16:

[teledynepost]

I wouldn't expect mine to last more than 5 years.

[musicoverall]

I have heard that CD-R's will not last like store-bought CD's, that CD-R's eventually deteriotate. Does anyone know the facts about this? Most of my CD-R's are Maxell, with some Sony and Memorex. How long can I expect them to last? Is the deterioration caused by playing them or by time? Peace.

:16:

Someone...Lensman, I believe... just wrote a fairly exhaustive post on this. It was very well done. It seems the gold CD's last longer but even the normal ones run 30-50 years. Check out his post on General.

[Mark of Cenla]

Thanks, I checked it out.

[stuwee20]

I always thought the early 80's late 80's CD's sounded poor, now I think they are are getting better however, I think 10,000 years our ancestors will find a CD and what the %$#*! and then find a LP andplay it with a sewing needle and say Wow!!

I love all music, just think the recording industry needs to pay attention to the finished product bein' marketed to us to make me listen to CDs more often,

I'm all for upgrading the transport and D/A converter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PeruvianSkies]

I personally think that they will last quite some time. I have a few CD's from back in 1995-1996 that were CD-r's and they still play just fine, which makes them 10+ years old, so I'm not buying into the idea that in the near future they won't work. I thought that most CD-R companies claim that they are good for archiving...well, that woundn't hold water if they only lasted 5 years ...right?

[noddin0ff]

You'll be much better off if you stick to well regarded brand names and not budget CD-R. Some links
http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa13.htm
http://www.mscience.com/longev.html
http://www.cd-info.com/CDIC/Technology/CD-R/Media/Longevity.html

[royphil345]

I agree that it pays to by quality CD-R. I have some cheapies that have been mainly stored for about four years that are developing problems. The quality of CD-Rs seems to have gotten a bit better over time. No more "bargain" ones for me though.