best burning software :

I have had great success with Nero since day one. I have found tremendously variable reflectivity issues with some very inexpensive cd-rs. I have one CD player that is very tempermental about poor reflectivity discs and I use it as my benchmark for buy cd-r's. Right now my fav is Sony at $20 for 50 at Best Buy. I have never had a problem with them. I also had good luck with Maxell's but have not used them in a while. Ocasional problems with reading Memorex on my "test" player. My Yamaha 24x10x40 burner was a big upgrade over my Ricoh, but burning speed is more like 6-8 times total start to finish when doing 8-10 wav songs. Fast enough.
Jim Tavegia

I use Toast for general purpose burns, WaveBurner Pro 2.2.1 for compilation CD-Rs from different media with varying levels. I like it better than Roxio's Jam because WBP has a much better interface. It also allows you to adjust the sound of individual tracks, or the entire mix, with built in audio tools. One problem though, the version I use is for Mac OS9; the OSX version only comes in Logic Pro now that Apple bought Emagic (WBP's creator). Some on the WBP forums say that the OSX version isn't as good as the OS9. You may be able to find some places that still have a copy of the older version, or someone willing to sell.

Here's a link to a review of the OS9 version:
http://www.sonicstate.com/articles/article.cfm?id=50

As EAC offers the best reading of discs, I have found Feurio to be the best at burning. Its not the easiest to use but does deliver if you are prepared to invest the time.
Free eval from www.feurio.de I recall.