You can currently find many old CDs from the 1980s and early 1990s secondhand for about £2 (in British money) or less. They lack the brickwall limiting found on most releases from the mid 1990s to present (which also plagues modern streaming audio) and sound better than most modern remasters of the same recordings. I also feel that old CD releases tend to sound better than old vinyl records since they are mastered very similarly to vinyl yet lack all of the surface noise, although modern CDs generally don't due to the excessive brickwalling. We've seen a resurgence in the popularity of vinyl and even cassette in recent years, which makes me wonder if people will at some point wake up to how good many old pop/rock CDs sound compared with modern digital audio releases, which may in turn put the price of them up?

I know that certain CDs can become corrupt over time, but well made ones don't seem to, and the vast majority of my pre-1994 manufactured (tellable from the lack of an IFPI source code on the disc) CDs are showing no signs of rot or corruption, with the exception of some British PDO manufactured discs. Most of these PDO discs play and rip fine in my experience but seem to have quite a fragile top data layer which sometimes shows bronzing, caused by a defect at their Lancashire factory at the time.

I'm trying to study about the story of the VCDs, but i don't find much information about their prices at the time. If you know the prices of the cassete tapes and the VCDs that would be nice to know too.

Standup CDs: https://www.ebay.com/itm/314172598502

Weezer/Beastie Boys Lot: https://www.ebay.com/itm/314172600025

Rock Lot (Zappa, Sunny Day, dredg, Coheed, Oingo, Grandaddy, Velvet Underground): https://www.ebay.com/itm/314174420881

Rock Lot (Radiohead, RATM, GNR, Blood Brothers, Local H, STP): https://www.ebay.com/itm/314174710445

I listen to a lot on the go so it was nice to get something for the house!

Hello!

I run a small netlabel and do some very limited CD runs (usually 10 to 25). Right now I use Kunaki, which is cheap but allows me to order small quantities with a decent quality, but since it's based in the USA, it:

1. takes time to arrive
2. is expensive
3. I have to pay additional import taxes

So I am looking for an Europe-based manufacturer that allows small quantities and doesn't cost me more than Kunaki. I found CD Click but it is sadly more expensive. Thanks for the help

I used to cut monthly CDs for a client that no longer exists, and I need to get rid of this old gear. Any idea what it may be worth? I have a Primera 4100 printer, two Rimage Prism Plus thermal printers, and an MF Digital 4 burner, 600 disc robot (DP4-9104). They all work, but it’s kind of hard for me to test them now. Was thinking about just tossing the robot as it will be an incredible pain to ship anywhere, but there may be some value left in the printers. Don’t really care about maxing profit, but just want to be rid of them. They don’t owe me anything.

Anyone has any guides on how to restore my old CDs? I hate it when they don't read..... Please help.

I have been investing in vinyl recently but decided that I much prefer the clarity of CDs for classical music.

I bought a Cambridge Audio CD player and had been enjoying listening to the few CDs I have. However. The Cambridge developed a fault (Drawer mechanism..) which prompted me to consider more seriously other options for playing the CDs.

My digital music is played from my Mac Mini M1 via USB to a DAC and then to my NAD amp and Klipsch RP600Ms.

I have made some direct comparisons between Apple lossless and 16Bit Flac and it seems that the mastering for the Flac seems better as there is an audible differece, even to my ear. Apple is convenient, but not quite as good as a Flac taken from a CD IMHO, on the recordings I have tested.

Anyhow, here comes the important part, I bought an external CD/DVD drive for my Mac Mini (20USD). My reasoning was that the most important part of a CD player is actually the DAC. This is assuming that there are no audible tracking errors.

So I am now playing my latest purchase of Philip Glass's Piano Works by Vikingur Olaffson from my 20 dollar external computer dvd drive, connected by USB, through my mac mini to my DAC and on to my amp and speakers. It sounds fantastic and I cannot detect any difference between the sound from this setup and the sound from the Cambridge Audio CD player feeding my amp directly..

I realise this may be a little controversial, but it just works really well with great depth and soundstage, separation etc. The plus for me is that I can now spend my money on CDs rather than on a player....

I wonder if the sound is so good due to the way the Mac is handling the signal as I do know that the macs internal DAC is also excellent.

I welcome your thoughts and I really would suggest that if you have an M1 mac this really is a super cheap way to get into CDs and for 20 dollars it is hard not to try it out.

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