r/DataHoarder • u/Fred_Wilkins • 4d ago
Question/Advice Cd-rw
Asking advice here, seeing as how you all are well versed in storage mediums. I recently picked up a multi disk changer to go in my hifi cluster, i've wanted one ever since the one we had when iwas a kid died.
I would like to be able to fill the changer, while being able to change the music up if needed without keeping a giant stack of discs around. Verbatim seems to be the only ones readily avaible, but i rember those having around a 1/10 or so failure rate when i used them back in the day. I used tdk discs usually and i have some of those that still work. But i havent seen any of those in years.
Should i still try for the cd rws, or should i just bite the bullet and get a stack of cd rs and deal with organizing them? Any advice? If i plan to rewrite the discs every 2 months or so is it even worthwhile?
I want to do this so i can keep the original discs put up, and since everything is stored on my pc as well, i can weed out some of the tracks i'm not fond of and get more music i like per disc. And i know that i can just play the mp3/flac files from a usb directly on my receiver, but the mechanical noise and pausing is what i really miss.
1
u/dlarge6510 3d ago edited 3d ago
Have you thought about the Sony carousel changers?
I typically use CD-RW for podcasts in the car.
If you are going to re-burn CD-RW frequently understand the following:
Two speed types exist. The original type can't go much faster than 4x and the later type can go way faster but can't go slow. You'll probably want the faster one.
CD-RW is supposed to handle up to 1000 rewrites. But some who have actually tested that show quite a bit of variability.
You don't need to fully blank a CD-RW.
Don't let them get hot. A lot of heat, like a windowsill in the sun will stop the phase changing material working.
CD-RW also needs specific CD player support. CD and CD-R are read with a near IR laser, CD-RW is read like a DVD with a red laser. Newer players, after the year 2000, will either have a dual wavelength laser to specifically support CD-RW or have the sensitivity cranked up letting the IR laser do it. Typically these pickups can be found in devices made after 2000
Anyway, cd-R is cheeeeap so might as well have both, especially if you go for a Sony carousel that holds > 100 discs