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A writeup re Black CD-Rs


RichP714

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I put the CD writer on four

small Isodiscs4 and damp it

with another four large

Isodiscs on top. To ensure a

stable power supply, I

plugged all the computer

equipment into a PSAudio

Power Plant5 to ensure that

power fluctuations will not

affect the writing process.

 

Another impostor..................................Hmmmmph.......................Pfffft.:(( :(( :((

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I'm willing to try it and I'm not going to say once you go black you never go back, either.

Oops.

One comment on another site was that dark colors are easier for the laser to read which is why they sound better and is why Sony went to it for their Play Stations.

I just ordered 100 black Memorex CD-Rs off of eBay so I guess I'll see what the deal is.

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Guest FrankieD

Gary & Mark, the real question is not whether anyone "believes" this but whether it is true or not.

 

As my mentor George Carlin will tell you. A lot of people believe total bullshit.

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Your right of course FrankieD!! ...and howw U doin?!! 8))

 

I was being an SOB smarty with that one word answer. |:)| Trying to get a rise...please forgive me!!!! :---)

 

I've posted, in the past, several papers about digital mechanisms and how they are effected by distortions as they read. I don't think it'd be too much of a streatch to say that it's pretty well understood that sonics are impacted by how much a player has to chase the data. That's why there are so many little tweeks out there that probably mostly make at little tiny bit of difference. Trueing up the CD edge, cutting a specific slant, the green coating, the anti wobble/dampening rings. But there are also things that the higher end manufacturers do inside of player mechanisms too with dampening, darkening and so on. If you want to know more, I'd suggest going through a few of the Stereophile reviews of the better players. Down in articles, you can lots of times find little nuggets of information.

 

The black CD thing has been around for some time. Not a new find. My personal experience with black CD's was I couldn't tell. I have a little analysis program that reads a burned disk and counts errors. It's stunning when you see huge numbers and you can't help but think about all the comments you see about "bit perfect"! In the case of my particular burner, the black ones (Memorex I think, sorry Steve) repeatedly came up with a sizeably worse error count than the same speed, same material burn on regular disks. That could be just a reflection of my particular burner.

 

When I have a chance, I'll find that analysis program, do a few burns and post some results. It's darn interesting. And maybe we could find that program somewhere for others to download and play with too...

 

So I guess I'd say that from book learning side it'd seem possible it could have a positive impact, but it didn't happen that I could tell. But I don't discount that some have had more clear gains. Maybe better players than mine....

 

Mark

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Thank you Gary! Appreciate that! And your my favorite (and only) Rabbi!! [-o<

 

I'm simply fortunate enough to be able to hang around some incredible guys around here! What amazing luck to be able to pick the brains of the truly talented...some eventually rubs off sooner or later. I've seen days at work (less productive perhaps) when 30 or 40 emails have went back and forth about something.

 

Today for example, one of the guys had spent the entire night listening to different rectifier types in a tube DIY preamp. He reported this morning on his impressions of the differences between various rectifiers. Built on octal sockets, he can interchange in just a minute between everything from tube rectifiers to high speed, soft recovery SS diodes. I don't know the exact count, but certainly I saw over a dozen different styles. This is all being done to decide what type of diodes he'd like to have in the pre, which he has designs on turning into a commercial product.

 

Exploring the audio world is truly a marvelous challenge! Those moments that we reach goosebump territory make it all worth while. And some of the laughs with guys are also really, really great moments!

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Radioeng....It must be great to have a job that mates so well with your hobby....I could only dream!!!

 

Gary......I thought you were some kind of CIA secret agent computer spy......I didnt know you were a Rabbi.....maybe BOTH??

 

Sounds like a great TV series.....Code name Rabbit.......:dd :dd :dd

 

Perry

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Mark, I only hope someday I can begin to understand what you have in breadth/depth of electronics knowledge....

 

You're my hero~

 

o:) =d> =d>

 

 

-and a pleasure to meet in person, for sure

 

 

 

-come to think of it...i never persued the blank gold discs [not brand namers]

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just burned a black CD and played it and it sounds tremendous.

My preamp won't let me do volume matching (with the stock CD) so it was recorded a bit louder than stock but some of Zappa's weird noises came through quite a bit clearer.

I don't think that this is a case of the emperor's new clothes.

I'll have to do a normal silver one and see if there's any difference that I can detect.

For what it's worth, I'm using a good burner (HHb BurnIt Plus) so maybe that accounts for it? I honestly don't know enough about the subject.

 

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Not quite true, after the S&M Queen I went Latino!

Did I say that out loud?

Back to the topic at hand, I'm burning a silver one right now to see if I'm kidding myself.

Anyone want to hear a black and silver one side by side and give me their opinions???? Same tunes, some recording level. Zappa's The Grand Wazoo from the remastered CD which is big band music so there's LOTS of different instruments to listen to.

 

I can't tell any difference, maybe someone will hear things that I don't?

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S&M Queen was a gal named Gemine who was black and perhaps that saying got garbled and should read: if you go black you may not survive the attack.

Lynda (my fiancee) is Latino, much more my speed.

 

One difference is that the black CD-Rs are thinner than the silver ones. Perhaps that would make some sort of a difference in sound quality? Like you said, we need young ears for this one.

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Come on guys. This isn't a high frequency issue. It's how does it sound?? If you can hear the difference in speakers, amplifiers or whatever, then you're as qualified as the next guy to listen for grunge differences.

 

Good for you Steve! Trying things, experimenting, building, buying...it's the way we can get so much more out of music. I don't want just have music playing...I want to reach out and grab me, slap me across the face, put goosebumps on my arms and make my hair feel like it's standing on end because something sounds so real, that you're right there in the room with the original event!!! |-|

 

 

Look forward to your impressions Steve. Your burner should do it about as well as it can be done!

 

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I thought I put a reply here.

With or without headphones, on vocals or instrumentals, I would fail a blind test between black and silver CDs.

If there is a difference (seems more bass on the black ones), it's very subtle and might just be my imagination.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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