Classic Ross Amico annoyance du jour:
Yesterday I happened to pull down from the shelf one of my old opera boxes, a multi-CD set purchased in the 1980s, and when I opened the clamshell case, a wave of trepidation swept over me, as I discovered that I had left the sheets of protective foam inside.
For those of you who aren’t old enough to remember, or never purchased anything with more than a single disc in those dark days, it was common practice for CD manufacturers to include thin squares of foam in each of the separate compartments to protect a disc in the event that it was shaken loose from its spindle. Like the practice (long since abandoned, thankfully) of distributing CDs in horrendous plastic blister packs that are still, I’m sure, padding out landfills everywhere, they were an entirely superfluous addition.
In any case (no pun intended), about eight years ago, I took down my set of the Solti Ring cycle – 15 CDs – only to discover, to my surprise and horror, that the foam had begun to dissolve, as if some classical music Thanos had snapped his fingers, and that, in the more severe cases, some of the foam had begun to cling to and actually eat into the surfaces of the individual CDs. Some protective covering! Needless to say, I immediately began to scour the shelves for any other multi-disc sets I had purchased during that era and began dumping out the foam.
Well, I missed at least one of them, as yesterday I opened my Tebaldi recording of “La bohème” to encounter sheets of browned foam that, sure enough, began to dissolve the moment I touched them. Fortunately I was prepared and in the vicinity of a trash can. One of the discs is slightly pocked, but so far, none of the CDs in my collection have been damaged to the point of unplayability. I can’t vouch for long(er) term effects. Granted, I’ve already had many of these CDs for over 30 years. But I urge you, if you haven’t done so in a good long while, to go through all of your multi-disc sets from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and to chuck that foam! Just be sure to do it over a trash can. Don’t inhale, and don’t do it near any foodstuffs.
This also brings to mind the issue of bronzing (which has nothing to do with foam). That’s the unpleasant phenomenon of a CD taking on something of a bronzish hue, sometimes turning a little transparent around the edges, and its beginning to lose information or readability to the point that there is a kind of repetitive swishing or chugging sound when the disc is put into a player – if it even plays at all. Thanks be to the CD gods that this only ever happened to maybe three or four discs in my collection. Classical CDs on the ASV, Hyperion, and Unicorn-Kanchana labels seemed to have been particularly susceptible. I remember reading once that the problem was traced to a single plant in England that was using something unstable in its CD production. The issue was long ago resolved, but some collectors and consumers may still be dealing with the effects.
At any rate, I have since replaced the CDs in question and have had no further problems with bronzing, although I have also encountered the disturbing phenomenon when working at various radio stations.
Thankfully I haven’t yet had the same experience as this chap, whose CDs have become unplayable.
https://www.avhub.com.au/editors-blog/hi-fi/cd-rot-returns-415833
Powerful arguments for downloads or digital streaming? Nah, the hell with that stuff. I’ll be designing my pyramid with ample space for all the CDs and books I’ll be taking with me to the afterlife… Anubis willing.
Clockwise from upper left: (1) CD rot from superfluous foam packaging; (2) the creeping horror of bronzing; (3) the heinous practice of blister packaging; (4) Anubis
