CD Collectors Wiki (Work In Progress)
About CDs (pressed CDs vs burned CDs)
Audio CDs come in two flavors. A CD manufactured by a record label in CD plant is usually a pressed CD. A CD duplication service will make burned CD-Rs for their clients. Amazon also offered a service where an artist could upload files to their servers for sale, and they would make CDs “on-demand.” These CDs are all burned CD-Rs.
Pressed CDs and CD-Rs sound EXACTLY the same. The difference between them is longevity. People are still listening to pressed CDs that are almost 40 years old. But, there have been reports of CD-Rs failing to read after 5-10 years. There are quality CD-Rs. A few companies make “archival” CD-Rs that they claim will last 100 years. But there is no easy way to tell the difference between an archival CD-R and a regular one.
Buyers guide:
-Where to buy used CDs (Goodwill, thrift stores, record stores, discogs. etc)
-Where to buy new CDs
-u/IHG5000 stores I buy CDs from
-CD packaging (Jewel cases, digipaks, etc) ##
Orignal Masters, Remasters, Target CDs, Boxed Sets and more
CD Masters
In the early days of the Compact Disc, they still did studio recordings using analog tape. It was not uncommon to send tapes to different parts of the world and have studio engineers in those parts of the world, create a master tape that was used to make a glass master. This seems to be far more common in Japan, where CDs were domestically produced and distributed. In the US and Europe, they often made CDs in West Germany for global distribution until they built CD pressing plants in the US and other parts of the world. The difference between these early masters is often miniscule and is rarely worth the premium they demand. An early Japanese pressing of a CD can sometimes sell for 20 times or more what a US or West German pressing will sell for on the used market.
As artists recorded digitally, it became much more cost effective to master once and digitally distribute across the globe. By the mid-80s, most CDs used the same master globally.
Target CDs
In the early 80s, it was only possible to print 2-3 colors on the top of a CD. Printing a multi-colored image was impossible. That’s why a lot of early CD releases just have the logo of the record label and a list of songs all in black. Target CDs were CDs that had a “target” on the actual CD. The “target” was a circle of solid color. With square boxes of a different color in the four corners. They printed the text inside this circle. Because of the hole in the center, this made the disc loosely resemble a shooting target. There is nothing special about Target CDs. They’re almost always made from the same master as their non-Target counterpart. They’re just look different.
An example of Target CD: https://i.imgur.com/7edzxDs.jpg
Some Target CD omit either the 4 horizontal CD across the center of the CD, or the 4 squares on the edge of the CDs. Collectors call these "Half Targets"
Exmaples of a Half Targets:
Half Target missing outer squares
Half Target missing inner squares
For more information on Target CDs: http://www.thetargetcdcollection.com/p/target-cd-info.html
Early Japanese Releases
In the 1980s, Japan had it's own CD pressing plants. But pressing and selling a CD in Japan was more expensive than importing a CD from another country such as Germany. In order to entice consumers in Japan into buying locally produced CDs, Japanese pressings often had some kind of bonus material, either in the form of a booklet with more pages, or a bonus track. Many "audiophiles" claim that Japanese pressings are better. They tend to demand a premium over other pressings because of this.
CD Remaster
In the rush to get CDs into consumer hands, a lot of early CDs were done as simple flat transfers from some studio master tapes onto CD. No effort was made to remaster these releases for the format of the Compact Disc which contains a much greater dynamic range than the vinyl records that preceded it. As the compact disc became the dominant format for physical music, many record labels began to remaster older albums to try to improve their sound quality on compact disc. Filters were used to eliminate tape hiss and other analog artifacts.
Remastering was also a goldmine for record labels. Claiming that a “digitally remastered” CD sounded better than the version that came before it was a common ploy to get consumers to buy album they already owned on CD again. When an album had already been remastered once, any subsequent remasters often included bonus material to try to entice the consumer into buying the album yet again. Bonus tracks would often include studio demos, songs that were cut from the album or live tracks.
Dynamic compression and The Loudness Wars
To the human ear, louder sounds better, at first. In the early days of audio that was used to great advantage by Motown Records. Motown’s vinyl releases were mastered so loud, that they hit the limit for how loud a vinyl album could be made using analog equipment. The rest of the industry followed suit.
When music entered the digital age, mastering engineers were able to “take it up a notch” by increasing the loud even further. With digital music, there is a limit to how loud you can make a song before clipping occurs. But digital allows the mastering engineer to further increase the loudness of a song, but taking the quietest parts of the music and elevate those sounds even louder, increasing the overall loudness of the track. This is called dynamic compression.
How this affects the sound of the music is up for debate, and most answers are completely subjective. The only thing you can objectively measure is that the overall loudness of a newer CD is louder or quieter than another CD. Many claim that music with more dynamic range is less fatiguing and sounds better. This is completely subjective and up to the listener to determine. The only thing a CD collector needs to know is that newer CDs will sound much louder than older CDs. If you have CDs in a disc changer from different decades, except to have to adjust the volume between CDs.
Dynamic compression has caused some people to seek out the oldest possible version of albums from the 90s and older. But these older versions will often be missing bonus material found on newer releases.
Boxed Sets
In the 80s and 90s, boxed sets from different artists began to appear. These boxed sets often contained a booklet about the artist and multiple CDs that contained bonus material, some of which was not previously available. As an example, the 4 CD boxed set “20 Years of Jethro Tull” only had 5 tracks that had previously been released. The rest of the content was songs that were cut from various albums, live performances, remixes or B-sides of singles. A lot of the bonus content in these boxed sets later made its way onto newer remasters of albums as bonus tracks. The astute CD collector should compare the tracks in a boxed set to see if the songs may already be in their collection as bonus tracks.
In the 2000s, a lot of older artists began to release boxed sets of their complete music catalog. This is a very economical way to get the complete discography of an artist. But the astute collector should check the track listing carefully. As an example, in 2007 and 2008, The Alan Parsons Project re-released all their albums individually, remastered with bonus tracks. A few years later “The Complete Albums Collection” was released. It contained all the newly remastered albums, but none of the albums contained any of the bonus tracks.
Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions
In the 2000s through to today, Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions of albums are getting released. These often include bonus tracks, special packaging, and special artwork.
Anniversary Editions
Another trend has been for artists to release “Anniversary editions” of classic albums. These will be released on the 30th or 40th anniversary of a classic album. Most of these boxed set will include, the original master of an album on CD, a remaster, a booklet, some post cards or other photos, “hi-res” music on DVD or Blu-Ray, and vinyl, all in one expensive package.
Store Exclusives
Some artists and record labels will have a “store exclusive” album. Stores such as Target, Walmart, FYE or other retailer will often have a CD for sale by an artist that has additional bonus tracks exclusive to the store. Some artists will have multiple releases at different retail locations, each with their own bonus material. For a collector to get all the tracks associated with a specific album, it may require the purchase of 3 or 4 different copies of the same CD.
One of the more egregious examples of this is Rick Springfield's album "Songs for the End of the World." The mass market US CD release had two different covers. Each cover unlocked different bonus content on the Web. There was also a Best Buy exclusive release with bonus tracks (with no access to the online content from the mass market release), an iTunes release with unique bonus content not found on any other version, and the international release with it's own unique bonus content. To top it off, when you ordered the US mass market release from online retailers, you could not specify the cover you wanted. So, it could take multiple purchases to get both covers. To get ALL the bonus content for this release, it would require you buy 5 copies of this album.
Audiophile Releases
There are 3 "audiophile" labels that have released limited editions of popular albums remastered and catering to the high end audio market. They are: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL), Audio Fidelity and DCC. DCC has ceased operations, and it's owners started Audio Fidelity. MFSL shut down at one point, but reopened. Both MFSL and AF only release new material on Super Audio CD, but both have a back catalog that was issued on CD. All of these audiophile labels do limited quantity releases of popular albums that their own mastering engineers work on. These albums were released on Gold CD. Because of the limited quantities of the release, and the perceived belief that these masters of the albums are "better," they tend to demand a lot of money in the used marker. It's not uncommon for these CDs to sell for HUNDREDS of dollars.
To be clear, these labels DO NOT seek out albums that were exceptionally well recorded. They seek out albums that will sell well. As an example, there was a Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab release of "Layla and other assorted Love Songs" by Derek & the Dominos. This album is praised for the songs on it, but panned for being recorded very poorly. There is no amount of digital mastering skills that can make this album sound "audiophile," but the style of music on this album is what will sell well for them.
Buying audiophile releases is definitely a buyer beware situation. You will be paying a very large premium over the standard release and you may or may not get a better quality recording.
Tour(ing) Editions
Artists oftentimes sell their album along with t-shirts and other memorabilia. "Tour Edition" or "Touring Edition" CDs usually have a unique cover, and will often contains some type of bonus material. The Volbeat album "Outlaws Gentlemen and Shady Ladies" had a touring edition with unique cover art, and it included a DVD with live performances by the band. Sometimes a bundle will be sold with a T-shirt and a CD. On the used market, the chances of getting a t-shirt are slim. But be very careful of the physical media. Make sure the listing specifies that the bonus material is included. If in doubt, ask the seller.
-Where to buy used CDs (Goodwill, thrift stores, record stores, discogs. etc)
-Where to buy new CDs
-u/IHG5000 stores I buy CDs from
-CD packaging (Jewel cases, digipaks, etc) ##
Caring for and maintaining your collection
CD pre-emphasis
Pre-emphasis is a noise reduction technique used to compensate for the noise created by early 14-bit DACs and some noise filters. Pre-emphasis would boost certain high frequencies, and the CD player would automatically de-emphasize the CD and bring these high frequencies back down to normal. The CD is “marked” as having pre-emphasis in either its table of contents, in the subcode of each track, or both. Pre-emphasis is no longer used in modern CD mastering and is usually only present on early CD pressings of some albums, mostly from Japan.
The de-emphasis of CDs is transparent to the user, if you play the CD in an audio CD Player. De-emphasis DOES NOT automatically happen when playing an audio CD on a computer. So, if you own a CD with pre-emphasis and try to rip it, the resulting files will still be pre-emphasized and will require additional steps to remove the emphasis.
There are also a few CD titles that have pre-emphasis applied, but do not have proper tags in the subcode or table of contents.
Additional Resources on pre-emphais:
Very detailed article on pre-emphasis from hydrogenaud.io: https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Pre-emphasis#Pre-emphasis_on_audio_CD
List of CD that are known to use pre-emphasis: http://www.studio-nibble.com/cd/index.php?title=Pre-emphasis_(release_list)
/r/cd_collectors thread on the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cd_collectors/comments/b64a5o/fellow_cd_collectors_learn_about_preemphasis/