CD-r sound quality?

[admin_exported]

Hi! Iv been recently copying and backing up my cd collection onto CD-r. Iv noticed a huge difference between brands. Some TDK (ritec) discs sound very flat and lifeless, while Dysan/Mitsubishi discs that were both manufactured by "prodisc" sounded 10x better. The Mits were slightly better then the Dysan. Within 30sec I cud tell with some discs they were copys while other discs you needed to do a few A/B comparisions. The original CD was better yet again. My question is ... Can some CD-Rs sound as good as the original? Or be that close its hard to tell? Iv tried a few brands and perhaps there are some that are the same as the original? I use a Naim CD5x though im not sure if the cd player matters? Interested in hearing others opinions and how their cd-rs sound compared to cds

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Kiwi_Jonno"]My question is ... Can some CD-Rs sound as good as the original?[/quote]

Can? yes! Although -just as you experienced- often not. MFSL gold-pro used to sound very good. Heard some rumors though they dropped their quality standard. Anyway, you could try Taiyo Yuden (Japanese make) or Apogee (rare and $$$).
By the way, did you manage to solve your problem with the CD5X not playing cd-rs correctly??

 

[Anonymous]

Hey ya!

Yes I did thanks! The Naim CD5x would have many errors with any CD-r that the manufacturer was CMC Magnetics/Plasmon/unknown. I checked 4 cd-r brands manufacturer with Nero and these all had these manufacturers. So every few tracks it displayed error and resetted the CD.

Ritec/Prodisc work fine for the manufacturer 100% error free. Im using Mitsubitshi Golden PC disc (prodisc), which is the best iv seen so far. If the Mits Golden Prodisc were 80% better then the TDK Ritec, they would be 5% better then Dysan prodisc I used also.

We dont have TY here in NZ but have heard lots about them. Im using EAC to rip, itunes/EAC to burn. Creating a cd image then burning the image isnt better is it?

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Kiwi_Jonno"]Creating a cd image then burning the image isnt better is it?[/quote]

No, that shouldn't make a difference. Great to hear that you persisted and solved your problem! Amazon seems to have MAM_A cd-r gold in stock. This is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Archive-minute-CD-R-jewel/dp/B00065DG8W/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t You could try them out. If they are authentic, and still the same quality as before, they should sound very neutral (maybe ever so slightly warm) and dynamic.
And here are the apogee: http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/cdr.phpHaving tried out both Mitsui MAM-A gold and silver I can confidently say the silver cdrs are not worth the effort- much the same result as in your experience. Accurate, a little cold in sound, so not as good as the original cd. Good luck!

 

[Anonymous]

very interested in what you have all said in this thread - i have wondered about this for a while! as a thought - what brand/type of disc are "orginal" cds recorded on? are they available commercially?

 

[Anonymous]

Original cds arent made the same way as cd-r's are burnt. They are made by a phyically huge master disc, a process that cannot be done at home! An interesting page here ... (http://forums.audioholics.com/forums...hp/t-2014.html) ... about how cd-r's can MAYBE sound better then original cds. They claim that the burn process in a cd writer is more accurate then the master disc the original was made from. So they say that even though the data on the original cd/cd-r is like 99.999% the same for example, the cd reads the two discs differently.