Physical degradation of CD's

I own thousands of discs . I had a few early CDs, and several CDRs, that bronzed, but they play and I still listen to them .  The few CDs that I thought might have deteriorated all were cured with a good cleaning 

A Japanese 100V unit works just fine in the US.. I bought the CEC TL-5....talked to an electrician....said it would be fine...It's better than fine.

@asctim - any computer drive still reads and writes CDs. As do BD players.

Physical CD degradation does happen, but media should last 100 years+. If you are concerned, you can always rip into file then burn another copy. Or just play the file.

Don’t forget that the easiest surface to damage is the label side. The pits are just under it! And most CDs are stamped, not laser burned!

Hard to see how the tiny currents in a DAC will help it burn-in. Speakers, cartridges and amplifiers possibly. I put an input power meter on my Krell class A amplifier after a rebuild, and the power consumption definitely rose over a few days, even though it was switched off when not in use.

Of the few hundred CDs I’ve owned since the late 1980s only one quit working, and that wasn’t long after I bought it. To this day I’m not sure if it was really defective, or if I somehow damaged it. 

I'd be more concerned about the CD players becoming obsolete and no longer made, like VCRs. 

@ibmjunkman

Too bad this unit runs on 100v...I'd snatch one up and put it in the box!

Regards,

barts

@dekay If I send you postage would you send me your throw-aways?

While I have had CD’s go bad because they weren’t constructed properly, the aluminum inside has corroded and or air pockets have formed, I’ve never had one go bad from use.  Misuse maybe, but not laser induced wear.

Never falls, someone asks a question about CDs and someone else just has to interject streaming into the conversation.

@no_regrets many "experts" (e.g.  professional audiophile reviewers; electronic engineers; neuroscientists; etc.) would argue that break-in or burn-in time for various audiophile sound system components is a myth.  Of course, there are some who argue that some amount of burn-in time for some components actually does benefit their performance or sound fidelity.  Still others argue that what is happening when someone thinks they hear a benefit of burn-in time for some components is that their ears or, more precisely, the auditory cortex of the brain becoming accustomed to the new sound signature, vis-a-vis the acoustical characteristics of the home or sound room.

In my experience, over the last 5 or 6 decades, I've found that electronic components like amps, DACs and CD players require virtually no or negligible periods of burn-in or break-in time.  Although I've never owned or lived with one, I have no trouble believing that very large or very powerful amps need or benefit from warm-up time.  However, I have difficulty believing their sound fidelity would improve or benefit from a certain amount of burn-in or break-in time.  The non-exotic turntables and cartridges I've owned, similarly, did not seem to need any burn-in time to speak of.  However, the TT I have now definitely did benefit from a couple hours of spin time in order for the motor spindle and bearings to become properly lubricated.  As for the speakers I've owned and enjoyed over these many years, I think I've noticed very small improvements in some of them (more high-end or expensive ones) after a certain amount of burn-in time.  However, a somewhat famous professional audiophile component reviewer who shall remain nameless told me this was all in my head (i.e.  auditory cortex).  The salesperson who sold me the pair I have now advised they would need approximately 90 hours of burn-in time to reach their full potential.  A professional reviewer told me they would need closer to 100 hours and yet another wrote in his review of them that they fully blossomed after approximately 110 hours.  Since I had a 30 day return policy from the shop that I purchased them from, I decided to listen very critically and keep a log after I brought them home.  Auditory Cortex notwithstanding, it certainly did seem, to me, that there were small improvements over time, mostly in bass response, to a lesser degree in high frequencies and negligibly so in midrange after somewhere around 60 hours.

So, as in all things, let conscious be your guide!  However, that being said, I think running your CD player & DAC 24/7 is accomplishing nothing other than wearing out those components.

Thank you for all of your comments!

Espcially….”Find something else to worry about” 😆

I never thought about the possibility of heat building up degrading the cd!

I think the best remedy as mentioned is to put in a cd that I can’t stand (of which I have many) and let it play away 👍

Thx for all the help!

Best wishes,

Don

On a related subject ...

We service vintage audio gear and frequently have CD players presented with "can't read" error message of some sort.  Typically, this is a combination of weak laser and slop in the sled assembly. Sometimes it's difficult to present technical information to customers that they can relate to. So, to be "more relatable" to male customers, I use the following:

"Image trying to hit that little target in the urinal with a weak stream that you can't hold very steady anymore."

We usually get an affirmative nod.  And, a smile.

Just know that the "energy" of the laser reading the pits and spaces is nowhere near the energy that was used to create them. So, no, you can play a CD a million times and it will be just as good as the first time. This was indeed one of the "selling points" for CDs compared to vinyl album back in the 1980s.

I would worry more about putting unnecessary wear and tear on your CD player in breaking in the new DACs and use a streamer instead set on various playlists that run for hours and hours. 

Regarding "CD rot", I have a collection of about 2500 CDs, some from the mid-1980s. Out of all of those I’ve had TWO "go bad" because of oxidation of the aluminum substrate. It was like a small pinhole was somehow created (either a manufacturing defect or caused by rough handling in a car). Fortunately, I was able to find copies still in print and simply bought replacements.

If you’re still at all concerned then just use a cd of music you don’t really like and don’t care if it’s damaged. You must have at least one of those in your collection. 

None of my pre-recorded/store bought CDs have degraded unless scratched or otherwise damaged.  The CD-Rs that I burned have shown substantial degradation somewhere in the 50% range.  CD-Rs contain inks while pre-recorded CDs don't.

Find something else to worry about.

The laser will not degrade the CD.
Some CDs get rot as mentioned above.

The only concern I would have would be that it might be getting hot inside the player, and leaving a CD in a hot place for a long time can cause it to delaminate (rot).

@ibmjunkman 

People will buy anything as long as it's expensive.

I hate when vinyl records get magnetized!

Make sure you get one of these. 😊

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175142221348

Thank you!  I appreciate everyone commenting and sharing their thoughts with me on this.

I kind of figured that CD's could possibly remain good for a long time.  In fact, I have a lot of CD's that are decades old that are still playing fine.

However, my concern was, if I just leave the same cd in the cd player, playing continuously on repeat 24 hours/day, for several days in a row..... could the laser, due to constantly reading the same cd over and over again while being on repeat.... could "that" deteriorate the performance of that one cd?

I'm getting the impression that it shouldn't be a concern.

Best wishes,

Don

I usually toss and then replace CD's after that have been played a few times.

I'm all in with the FreshMaker approach.

DeKay

I have lots of titles from 1983 - 90 that still play fine.   I have never experienced a CD that wouldn't play, unless it had obvious damage.

All of my discs look new, I never used them in cars or portables so I think that has a lot to do with my good luck wheni load a disc. 

Sometimes a CD will go bad with age, an issue known as "CD rot."  However, this ties to poor manufacturing practices rather than use.  Poor quality control when the CD was made can result in oxidation of the reflective surface. There can also be adhesive bonding issues or the presence of contaminants. However, none of these problems are caused by how many times a CD has been played.  End users can still damage a CD through scratched surfaces or leaving the CD in hot sunlight, etc., but again, these are not playback issues.

No. Don’t worry, it will not hurt them. I remember the concern was over age and that the integrity of the info on disks was supposed to be only something like twenty years. I have CDs going back forty years without a problem.

My CDs like my vinyl no longer gets played since streaming now sounds as good or better, cost a fraction, and gives access to over ten million albums. They look nice covering my walls. Don’t forget to consider streaming before investing in any more physical media.

Unless the laser was writing to the disc, I don't see how it would adversely impact it. Don't know for sure, though.