Whilst sorting through a box of old MD's to decide if they were worth keeping, I found quite a few that wouldn't spin up in my R55, giving disc errors. Opening the shutters of these discs I saw pin-prick holes in the disc surface that light was able to shine through. I have found discs like this before, and last year sent a sample to Arnaud Devilder of MPO to examine. He told me that the disc lacquer was still intact on that disc, and could not explain the holes/dropouts caused. I reasoned it was an isolated incident, but now I have a box of 20 or so I am not so sure. It cannot be the equipment I use, as I have owned many units, change my portable recorder every 6 months or so to avoid wear and tear problems and these discs have never been heavily edited or used frequently, some once recorded only ever being played in a car unit.
So what is causing this 'rot' in my discs? They are different brands, different ages, and have had different amounts of use, so I doubt it's a manufacturing fault. Theories, anybody?