Amazon CD-Rs

[mikelz777]

Does anyone have thoughts good or bad about the CDs sold directly through Amazon as "manufactured on demand", i.e. CDRs? Are they equal to the mass-manufactured discs? Is there anything I need to be concerned about or can I be rest assured thay they will provide decades of fine listening?

[Dan Gould]

Does anyone have thoughts good or bad about the CDs sold directly through Amazon as "manufactured on demand", i.e. CDRs? Are they equal to the mass-manufactured discs? Is there anything I need to be concerned about or can I be rest assured thay they will provide decades of fine listening?

I don't think they are meant to imply "decades of fine listening" (I think I've heard that commercially made CDs aren't supposed to last that long anyway).

I've had no complaints with the CDRs I've received from Amazon, but they are just that - CDRs like the ones you may have burned for friends or had burned for yourself. They may very well not last as long as commercial-grade burns.

In my opinion, the best thing to do with them is to extract wav files and save them on an external hard drive. Second best thing to do is to burn a copy or three as backup. Even given the vagaries of CDR quality, what's the likelihood of having the original plus a backup disentegrate or become unplayable?

Bottom line, I haven't hesitated to buy Amazon CDR-s, particularly for things like Venus CDs that are OOP or cost twice as much otherwise.

[colinmce]

Here is an older thread on the subject:

Somewhere once somebody posted some hi-res pictures of one of the Blue Note titles (Gil Melle 50s Sessions) and it looked very much like the actual CD and seemed well worth the cost. I myself purchased a couple Black Saint titles expecting about the same thing, but they were way, way worse; very poor inserts printed from a computer and no linear notes. I personally like the idea, but it sounds like the execution varies (as does the price, to be fair).

[J.A.W.]

Here is an older thread on the subject:

Somewhere once somebody posted some hi-res pictures of one of the Blue Note titles (Gil Melle 50s Sessions) and it looked very much like the actual CD and seemed well worth the cost. I myself purchased a couple Black Saint titles expecting about the same thing, but they were way, way worse; very poor inserts printed from a computer and no linear notes. I personally like the idea, but it sounds like the execution varies (as does the price, to be fair).

I once got a Blue Note CD-R from Amazon (not realizing at the time of ordering that it was a CD-R) and, although I found out soon enough that it wasn't "the real thing", it looked OK to me. It did have all the artwork, including the liner notes. I got rid of it when I managed to find the original CD, so I can't say whether or not its quality deteriorated over time.

[king ubu]

Yeah, that happened to me with a Big John Patton one... and more recently with a Bobby Byrd disc. Both times I didn't realize what I was buying. I hate it that they're so deceitful to mark these as "Audio CDs" on top and you don't notice the CDR thing printed farther down the page if you don't check closely.

The Patton had a nice copy of the artwok, but the Bobby Byrd had nothing but the outer covers (not sure if the regular CD has anything more, but I guess so). They should label these as "CDRs on demand" instead of as "Audio CDs", in my opinion.

[CJ Shearn]

I have one, Bobby Hutcherson: Live at Montreux. The booklet copy is a little dark but otherwise, it's ok.

[Aggie87]

One thing to consider is that you're buying something that doesn't have one feature a normal cd has - the ability to re-sell it.

This may or may not matter to you, but there's no real market for used CDRs, regardless of their origin. I know I'd never buy one.

[Ken Dryden]

One thing I've learned: Swapacd says it will accept burn on demand CDRs from Amazon for trading. No, thanks, I want the a real manufactured CD...

[papsrus]

If the audio quality is comparable, and the artwork is satisfactory (and you don't plan to resell them) they seem like a fine alternative for OOP or otherwise prohibitively expensive discs.

[mikelz777]

It looks like Amazon pricing for these things is tied to the stock market or something. I've been watching an on-demand item and the pricing seems to change every 3-4 days. It's ranged from $13+ to $15+.