DGG CDs Dying

Much to my horror I've discovered that several of my DGG cd's, which I have owned for approximately 8-10 years, have started to become unreable in multiple cd players

I have the Sibelius disc you mention below. I picked up used in Orlando, and it is a BMG issue. I played it as recently as a couple months ago and it played fine.

I don't know about DG, but I would almost be willing to bet that the BMG Club wouldn't be able to help you. This disc has been out of print for a while (if its 427 647-2 were talking about with the waterfall on the cover, right?), and I can't imagine them keeping extras on hand.

Dana Hill Gainesville, Florida http://www.danajohnhill.com

How do they behave in single-disc players? Is it possible that the problem is in the player rather than the CDs?

Thanks for posts so far. I really appreciate them.

The disk (#2 in the set) would not play properly in a standalone cd player, my dvd player which plays cd's, or my computer. There is one sign of hope, however, I have been able to create a copy, using a cd burner, and though the copy gave me a couple of pops at the very beginning, it is happily playing on my dvd player at the moment. I am not an expert on such things, but the computer's laser got through to the digital info and the burner software probably added some error correction to give me something that so far (and I have checked several tracks) is quite listenable. I think that with some additional tweaking I might be able to get rid of those first pops, so maybe I'm fixed for a few years. I redid the Sibelius and it is perfect as well. Now I will dig through my collection and haul out other BMG's and copy. With the cost of today's cdr's and the speed of burners I would prefer this solution to hassling with BMG. I have written them and will share what comes back. In six minutes I can have a new disk. Perhaps we should all go back through our collections and start to back up those very old discs....

Again, thanks.

/ron

Martha & Russ Oppenheim wrote:

Hi Ron,

CDs have always been marketed as having an unlimited shelf-life. I would assume that if your disc went bad, DG would be liable for some sort of a replacement.

Matt C

That is indeed a hopeful note and not only for 'dying' CDs. There is the matter of the 'bronzed' CDs notably from Pearl/Opal and other labels manufactured by PDO back in the late 1980's into the early 1990's. It happens that the few bronzed Pearls that I have do still play despite the reported problems with them. I'm thinking of burning copies of these (e.g., Beecham's prewar 'Messiah' in the hope of forestalling the bronzing effect on these CDs in later years...

The oldest DG discs I have are the Perlman/Levine Mozart Violin Concertos #3 & 5; Elgar Violin Concerto w/Perlman & Barenboim; Argerich & Economiu doing Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninov. Never had any problems with

By coincidence, I listened to that Sibelius disc this very weekend, and my copy played flawlessly. (A great 5th, too.) Your problem sounds different than the PDO bronzing problem, which manifests itself visually before it creates sound problems.

Paul Goldstein

You're absolutely correct. I cannot see any deterioration, save that the labels seem less slightly less bright than they would normally be on a DGG recording. But the only constants easily identified are discs made under license to BMG, the fact they are DGG's, and the nature of the problem, which is near unplayability in various devices while permitting me to make copies that seem to play very well. I'm now searching for other BMG discs and will post anything of interest. Thanks.

Just wait for the owners to intone the Holy Words: 'responsibility of the former owner'.