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Burned CDs - Sonic Improvements?


SteveFord

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BillD mentioned starting a thread on burned CDs.

I've been fooling around, comparing burned CDs against the originals, and I'm finding that the burned CDs DO sound better than the originals.

I'm not quite sure why that is - I suspect that my burner has something to do with it. Here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.hhb.co.uk/hhb/global/brochures/CDR830Plus_Brochure.pdf

 

That burner has been discontinued but they pop up every so often on Audiogon for a reasonable price.

 

At any rate, have other people on this forum noticed a difference between the copies and the originals?

 

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As I said, I have. My rationale for this is that the disk is actually written (burned with a laser), not stamped. There are other possibilities, too, that I do believe come into play. Unlike the popular myth that error correction just "guesses" at what is right if it can't read a section of a disk, most algorithms just stop at that point and declare the disk damaged and unreadable. Good error correction techniques always get the data bit-perfect through various means, alternate tracks, error-correction codes on the data, redundancy, etc. A dubbing machine will buffer that information into memory (or if you're using a computer, into zeros and ones, first into memory then onto disk). Burning reads this information and re-creates the disk with a laser onto a hard surface, not stamped into mush and allowed to cool. I think the better defined edges of burned CDs are what make them sound better. This could be total bullshit, but it's my rationale.

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Blues,

I can not discern any difference between black and silver discs on instrumentals.

I'm doing a CD with a few more vocals on them (Zappa - You Are What You Is) to see if that will help.

Anyone who wishes to try for themselves, just say the word and I'll ship you some discs to listen to.

 

Just listened to some vocals with Stax headphones on and I can't tell which disc is silver and which is black. I'd flunk a blind test on this one.

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Steve that would be awesome. If you could send some my way that would be great, I'll give them a listen.

I use a Phillips 775 CDR and seem to get good results with it, would like to hear some burned on another stand alone unit.

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