bob p

I burn all of my audio CD using data-type media on a PC that's running linux. I've never used "audio" CD media or an "audio" CD burning appliance. i've had surprisingly few problems. some thigns i have noticed: - memorex media used to be really good, but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse. i recently bought a 100-pack of colored memorex CD on sale at tigerdirect and i've had far too many burn failures -- all in the certification stage. - verbatim bulk media (the shrinkwrapped CD stacks without a spindle) works well, though it seems to have more occasional duds than i remember in their spindled CD packages. again, the burn failure happens at the certification stage. slowing down the burn rate doesn't seem to help. - some players can be particularly grumpy when it comes to playing CD-R. i have a 1980s Denon DCD-1500 that is very picky about whether or not it will play CD-R. sometimes it won't play them, sometimes it will play them but i occasionally hear harsh graininess and/or static (like tape noise) on playback. its not a problem on newer players that were designed after the advent of the CD-R. my old 1500 was essentially designed prior to the advent of recordable media, so it has trouble reading the CD-R that a modern $20 DVD player plays without a problem. thanks for the pointers about CDs left in the hot sun. i've left my CDs unprotected in a hot car and never had any problems, but then i never leave them in direct sunlight . they're either in the player or in a zippered case.

I *KNOW* it will happen to my gear. To prevent valuable stuff from getting thrown away, i've started to keep a database that tracks what I pay for things when I buy them, what they're worth when I buy them, and what they've been worth at other times. (both bid and ask prices). I hate the idea that my stuff will be thrown out, or sold in a yard sale for 25-cents. I don't expect anyone who's left when I'm gone to get paid top dollar for my "junk", but I don't want them to get taken, either. I'd like them to get the fair market bid price for all of my stuff ... the problem is that nobody else has the patience to deal with someone else's collection of crap, so the temptation is to just blow it all out for next to nothing, or to just throw it all away...

Hey! Did you see the way that guy "pawed" the most valuable record in his collection? I recognize him now -- THAT is the guy who "borrowed" my Miles Davis records in 1965 and never gave them back! But seriously, I can't imagine that anyone will ever pay his $53,000,000 asking price. If he's got 1,000,000 records, then he's valuing his records at $53 each. You know, for every "valuable" record in his collection he has to have hundreds of worthless records that nobody would want. Those Christmas albums that you could buy at the tire stores are a good example. Like he said, most of those records were "leftovers" in the store that failed to sell, so he kept them in an "archive." I'm sure his store's accountant wrote them all off as worthless inventory. I hate to say it, but just because a collection is large doesn't mean it is good. There's got to be a lot of junk in there that serious collectors would never want. I think he'd be smart to separate the wheat from the chaff, and sell off the valuable portions of his collection before he dies, and while he can still enjoy the money. You know what will happen once he's gone -- his wife get rid of it all, lock stock and barrel -- without discriminating between the good stuff and the bad stuff. His wife will throw away his lifetimes work, giving it away for nothing to anyone who will haul it all away, just go get that "crap" out of their hair. Remember this guys -- its the same thing that's going to happen to all of our stuff after we're gone...

flac.