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Prefer Plastic as it is always the same size, but don't really use any of them since the 200-300 disk changers came out.
Last week's Soapbox inspired this week's question: Which do you prefer
Anything paper is preferable, whether sleeves or with the plastic insert (you know, the round mounting thing?) The plastic jewel boxes don't hold up well with continual use and components of it are often broken before the cellophane wrapper is removed.
As much as CDs cost, the package ought to be as elegant as possible. Jewel boxes fill that bill; they just need to be easier to unwrap. As for cardboard or other less expensive mediathey have yet to achieve a reduction in the price of a disc. So let's just keep the status quo.
For new CDs, I prefer the jewel cases. They are more practical to handle than cardboard sleeves, and there is no physical contact between the CD surface and any cover, minimizing the risk for scratches. But all the same, whenever I see those limited CD editions of old analog recordings with mini-replicas of the original LP covers, then there is no questionI cannot resist them. They both look better and often sound better.
I don't like the DigiPaks. If you use CD wallets or CD albums, you have no cover art to put in their windows. If you have a CD jukebox (it's the wife's, I swear), you need the cover art for the CD booklet file so you know what's loaded in the machine in which slot. Also, the jewel box protects the CD booklets from being roughed up over time.
H-A-T-R-E-D (thank you, Tonio K.) is what I feel for anything other than a standard jewel box, and please give me "bars" rather than "bullets" in the lid so that the booklet doesn't get notched. When I buy a remastered reissue of a CD I already own and the new one is in a DigiPak or XRCD booklet, I put the new CD in the old jewel box and give the DigiPak/old disc to a friend. I've even been known to BUY an old "unremastered" disc in a jewel box just to have a neat package to put a new disc INTO. I bought the Miles Davis/Gil Evans box when it first came out, and then felt badly "burned" when the contents later appeared in standard jewel boxes as individually remastered discs. When the Paul Desmond box came out I just waitedand so far I've gotten each disc I wanted in jewel boxes, except for "Easy Living" (I'm still waiting). I haven't yet bought Rhino's "Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul" yet eithercutesy, inconvenient packaging which I'm convinced was designed by an art director entirely for the purpose of impressing other art directors.
DigiPaks suck! What am I supposed to do if for any reason the center hub breaksthrow the whole thing out? With a jewel box, if ANY part breaks, I pry it apart with one of the prongs of my handy "Ah-So" wine-cork puller and replace that part. I've found that it isn't wise to be the first on your block to get CDs released in DigiPaks from major labels. Cases in point: both Los Lobos' "Colossal Head" and Joni Mitchell's "Hits" were first released in cardboard only, and a few months later were also available in jewel boxes, as will apparently be the case with Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Greatest Hits II." And also, how am I supposed to store my Clifford Brown "Complete Blue Note and Pacific Jazz" 4-CD set? It's in "folio" form with open-top "envelopes" for the discs. If I put in on a shelf facing UP, dust gets in; if I put it on the shelf facing DOWN, the discs fall out! My solution? Put the whole damned thing in an unsightly and crappy-looking Baggie!
Cardboard but not DigiPaks. Japan puts out a limited-edition cardboard sleeve that is an old-fashioned album sleeve. They not only look great, but take up much less room. Blue Note in Japan has done this with the RVG series, as has Sony with the complete Miles Davis.