CD Pinhole Hell

[Douglas]

What is the current wisdom on pinholes in CDs? There is a lot of conflicting info on the net about whether CDs with pinholes will deteriorate and die by means of the pinholes "growing," and whether or not they affect the sound at all. Do pinholes cause dropouts? One of my CDs with pinholes has a dropout but I don't know if it's from the holes or not. Which CDs get pinholes? Is there a particular label, year, or type of CDs that get them more than others?

[Sckott]

There's no way to determine this. Many older PGD and WB cds had many problems with pinholes, and even physical deterioration ("ROT"). However, the error correction on your CD player does use technologies (and have since the early days) to repair dips or errors in actual data streams.

If it skips or flubs a digital sentence, it's because there's not enough words in the sentence to fill in the blank space. This is when a flub is audiable.

But don't fret much. Pinholes aren't the only little problem CDs have. ;)

[Grant]

Ten years ago there was a big scare about pinholes and CD rot. Neither turned out to be true. Anyone who tells you that a CD won't play because of pinholes is misinformed.

[lukpac]

We all know that some forms of CD rot *are* true. Specifically, discs from PDO. They used silver instead of aluminum. The silver tarnishes and makes the discs unreadable. I've seen it first hand. It's been documented.

[Patrick M]

Originally posted by lukpac
We all know that some forms of CD rot *are* true. Specifically, discs from PDO. They used silver instead of aluminum. The silver tarnishes and makes the discs unreadable. I've seen it first hand. It's been documented.

Yep, and I have a PDO CD that shows it clearly:

http://sector7g.org/music/jitf2.jpg

[Holy Zoo]

Yes, but it has such a pretty sunburst finish now!

jeff

p.s. I like how we can see the reflection of your roof in the cd. :)

[Patrick M]

Ceiling, that is.

Jeff, if you want to buy it, we can talk. :D

[Gary]

It'll never happen. I'm sure I can outbid Jeff for that ceiling.


;)

[Dave]

Hey now wait a minute! I want that beautiful sunburst ceiling.

Shall we start the bidding Patrick?:D

[Douglas]

Originally posted by lukpac
We all know that some forms of CD rot *are* true. Specifically, discs from PDO.

Excuse my ignorance: What's PDO?

[Beagle]

I am of the opinion that pinholes affect CD sound about as much as those "shadows" lurking at the bottom of LP grooves affect it's playback. I would figure scratches on the CD surface would have more of an effect on the sound, yet I have two copies of the same CD, one clean and one badly scuffed. Neither skip and both sound the same.

[Sckott]

Polygram Discs. PDO is mainly in the UK and Germany. PGD is in the UK too, but the US had the same plants and equipment to some extent.

I've seen PDO discs look sunburned too. Patrick, that's a CD EP, no? It still PLAYS, no?

That's the Am I Evil CD single, Creeping Death should be on that too, and less visible: Jump In The Fire and Seek & Destroy??

How much you want for it.

That's a nice Metallica disc.... for me to poop on.

[Douglas]

Does that mean I should expect my 1980s UK and German Polygram discs to die even if they're happy now?

[ED in NY]

Guess I've been lucky. I have 2 CD's that have "bronzed" over the years and they still play as good as the day I bought them:

Jimi Hendrix-Band Of Gypsies w/ Bonus Tracks

Free-Tons Of Sobs

Both are imports, Free being from the UK and Jimi being fro Germany.

Best - ED

[Doug Hess Jr.]

Now before we really trash PDO...let us not forget the all time champion GARBAGE CD maker from Columbus, Ohio (which happily went out of business) DISCOVERY SYSTEMS. Talk about your bargain basement light and uneven coating of aluminum that wouldn't read in some players.

[MikeT]

Some of the worst CD with pinhole problems are early import releases that were pressed in France. I can't remember the pressing plant name (since I am at work). (But it might have been MPO?)

I remember picking up in the mid 80's albums that I thought would never be released here in the states by The Smiths, Joy Division, and others where if you held the CD up to the light you would swear the thing would never play, due to the multitude of pinholes (and some larger in my opinion) littered througout the disc. But, lo and behold, they all played - probably sending the CD player's error correction system into somesort of orgasmic, spasmodic eposide in the process. :)

The thing I noticed about European CD imports from that time was that sometimes titles were pressed in France and later you would see the same title (I assume a re-pressing) pressed by Nimbus - who made a much better, from visible inspection, CD.

[Grant]

Originally posted by lukpac
We all know that some forms of CD rot *are* true. Specifically, discs from PDO. They used silver instead of aluminum. The silver tarnishes and makes the discs unreadable. I've seen it first hand. It's been documented.
Now, that IS true. They also identified a fungus that eats away your CDs if you live in warm, humid climates.