# Jewel cases with smooth edges etc



## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

Since this year I regularly buy CDs at thrift stores. Recently I noticed that some jewel cases are different. No ribbed edges but smooth edges (You can see the difference in the picture below). What I find on the internet is that until 1986/1987 all jewel cases had smooth edges and the ribbed ones came after that. But when I look at my CD collection I come across a lot of CDs from 1983-1985 that have ribbed edges. The jewel case may have been replaced? But on Discogs I regularly read with a CD from 1983: "Jewel case with smooth edges and patent pending relief." What do they mean by this? That this CD was released in 1983 with both ribbed and smooth edges? That would mean both existed from the beginning?

In short, I don't get it. Are there people here who have experienced that time period and know the facts?


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Hmm I don't know anything about this. I found a patent for a jewel case which seems to have smooth sides, but it doesn't explicitly mention this in the patent text. I think I can link it here without worrying about copyright? Well here's the link: (link) freely available on Google Patents and if that isn't allowed, it's US patent number 5,244,085. The side wall seems to be labeled *26* (the patent calls it a "lateral wall"). I couldn't immediately find any reference to this ribbing in the text, and it's hard to search because the word "rib" is used in the text as a plastic column to reinforce the CD tray, rather than this injection-molded pattern on the external lateral wall. I haven't read it thoroughly and it doesn't look like it would be a lot of fun to read, either... sorry I couldn't be more helpful but maybe this is a starting point.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

I don't know; I checked some of my oldest CDs of which I knew when I bought them (fall 1988 - winter 1988/89) and they are all "ribbed". And I am pretty sure I have not replaced the cases. Smooth cases are rare and a bit annoying because not so easy to grasp in my tight packed shelves. They seem very rare; I don't think I have got more than a handful among several thousand CDs.


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

I understand a little better (thanks to Discogs) A CD has an ID number, for example 400 048-2

This number is on the top of the Disc (and in the booklet etc.) but also on the bottom of the disc. On the bottom there is an 01 or 02 or 03 behind the ID number. If it is a CD from the early 80s (82-86) with 01 after it, it should be in a smooth jewel case. An 02 or 03 may have been produced years and years later and released in a ribbed jewel case. CD and CD booklet show no difference in appearance, but there may be years of difference in pressing 01 and 02.


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

Kreisler jr said:


> I don't know; I checked some of my oldest CDs of which I knew when I bought them (fall 1988 - winter 1988/89) and they are all "ribbed". And I am pretty sure I have not replaced the cases. Smooth cases are rare and a bit annoying because not so easy to grasp in my tight packed shelves. They seem very rare; I don't think I have got more than a handful among several thousand CDs.


Rare indeed because it concerns a period of only three years: 1983-1986.

I read that pop music lovers at thrift stores don't look at titles but at the smooth edge of the jewel case. They pick those out. This is one visual way audiophiles can tell if the music on the CD has suffered from the loudness wars (which came about in the late 1980s and early 1990s). For audiophiles, the CDs with smooth-edged jewel cases sound best, because they are the earliest transfers from the source tape to a digital medium.

I didn't know the difference and have regularly replaced jewel cases in the past due to cracks in the front. Bought yesterday 3 smooth jewel cases at a thriftstore and I've given three early CDs their original smooth jewel case. So my mistake is undone.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

A lot of this are legends or if not, not directly connected to the cases.  "Loudness wars" might have been a thing but it was much later and presupposes a new mixing! 
I'd think that for lots of CD mixed/mastered in the mid-1980s there were new batches pressed without any new mixing/mastering that would have had the newer cases in the stores. So I think a smooth case only shows that this disc hit the stores before ca. 1987.

I cannot go through all my discs  it's remarkable how few pre-1986 I have because I have a quite a lot (often bought used much later) from 1987 through early 1990s). I should be old enough and although I only started buying CDs in 1988 there should have been enough smooth cases around at that time but I don't remember the difference. (Apparently there were also large CD cases, similar to modern DVD format for a while in the 1980s but I have no recollection of them whatsoever.) 

But I now do remember changing a smooth jewelcase for what might be the oldest disc I have (bought in the 2000s), Musica antiqua with Bach's b minor suite and fillers (Handel trio sonata, Purcell etc.) from 1983. And I found one from 1984 with a smooth case, Harnoncourt's recording of the Gran partita! But the companion from 1985 with the other wind serenades has a "modern" case, and so have a few other Teldecs from 84-86 (Bach gamba, Handel concerti, Mozart horn concerti, Double concerto with Corea/Gulda.

Interestingly, two more with smooth cases are from 1990, from the Decca "Mozart almanac" collection but all the others from that collection have modern cases, so probably someone replaced broken cases and had spare smooth ones?
Maybe I should swap these case to give two 1984 discs their "proper" case....


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

The difference in pressing number (01 or 02) can explain why one is and the other is not in a smooth jewel case. On discogs it is often mentioned if there is originally a smooth edges jewel case.

As for that 'DVD packaging'. I came across something like this in a documentary about the CD on youtube. Filming takes place in a record store (in 1983?). The CDs are displayed there unfolded and stored vertically. Never seen before. I can't find any further information about it.


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Montarsolo said:


> The difference in pressing number (01 or 02) can explain why one is and the other is not in a smooth jewel case. On discogs it is often mentioned if there is originally a smooth edges jewel case.
> 
> As for that 'DVD packaging'. I came across something like this in a documentary about the CD on youtube. Filming takes place in a record store (in 1983?). The CDs are displayed there unfolded and stored vertically. Never seen before. I can't find any further information about it.


I have bought CDs from the USA in the 90s that were packaged like that. I had always thought that was for consumer protection because one could clearly see that the disc was indeed included in the package (as one could not really tell if the jewel case was closed, and in fact I have bought a CD in the past that had no disc inside the jewel case!); but if I remember correctly, someone on TC also explained that was to do with doubling the height of the package, so that shops could easily re-use the grid boxes that they had been using for LPs.

The problem with this kind of packaging as I see it with my 2022 sentiment is that the outer plastic shell that housed the opened jewel case was basically garbage that one tore open and threw away. That can't be allowed these days...

Maybe the American contingent here could shed some light on that.

Oh, did the documentary say which country that footage was taken from? That might be an American thing, but I could be wrong.


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

It was in de US indeed.
See:


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

As I understood it some of these "long boxes" were not merely for display. I do remember similar display plastic frames. But I thought that the "long boxes" were in the earliest times an alternative packaging to the jewel case. 
Anyway, it's interesting that they couldn't produce CDs fast enough for demand in ca. 84-85. When I got interested in music about two years later, I do not remember lack of supply but the stores had to stock LPs, MCs and CDs for a few years, some even until the early 90s.


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## campy (Aug 16, 2012)

Montarsolo said:


> The difference in pressing number (01 or 02) can explain why one is and the other is not in a smooth jewel case. On discogs it is often mentioned if there is originally a smooth edges jewel case.
> 
> As for that 'DVD packaging'. I came across something like this in a documentary about the CD on youtube. Filming takes place in a record store (in 1983?). The CDs are displayed there unfolded and stored vertically. Never seen before. I can't find any further information about it.


I bought hundreds of CDs packaged like that back in the day. I don't recall the jewel cases being unfolded; they were closed and the booklet was up there by its lonesome.


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

Yes, you are right. That can be seen - now that you mention it - in the pictures above. Maybe it was packaged this way to give it more body. Could it be that it was a US only thing?

You can see this CD in the first photo, by the way.


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

But did one buy the CDs including the display case or were they taken from it when bought?


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

Kreisler jr said:


> But did one buy the CDs including the display case or were they taken from it when bought?


You got to keep the display case. It provided just that bit of extra struggle (and the occasional cut finger) necessary to fully appreciate a first listen.


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

Interesting. I've been looking on the internet for clear pictures. But I couldn't find it. Nor did I see anywhere that such a CD is offered for sale in its original unopened packaging.


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Montarsolo said:


> I read that pop music lovers at thrift stores don't look at titles but at the smooth edge of the jewel case. They pick those out. This is one visual way audiophiles can tell if the music on the CD has suffered from the loudness wars (which came about in the late 1980s and early 1990s). For audiophiles, the CDs with smooth-edged jewel cases sound best, because they are the earliest transfers from the source tape to a digital medium.


That sounds like an audiophile, alright. Buying CDs based on the plastic case, with no regard for the music.


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