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Burned CDs can sound better than the original?

I recently heard a rumor that some CD burners can actually produce a CD copy that sounds slighlty better than the original. As an Electrical Enginner, I was very skeptical about this claim, so I called some of my reviewer friends, along with some other "well informed" audiophiles, to verify this crazy claim. Guess what, they all said : "With some particilar burners, the copies do sound slightly better!" I did some investigation to why, after all, how can the copy sound better than the original? So far I've heard everything from "burned CD's are easier to read", to "the jitter is reduced during the buring process". Has anyone else experienced this unbeleivable situation? I'm also interested in other possible explanations to how this slight sonic improvement could be happening.
ehider
gregm
3,396 posts
 
Blues man, your experiments are extremely interesting, thanks for sharing! Any way to (artificially) enhance dynamics ?
Indeed, Gregdavis, how do you do the reclocking?

I've played around with imaging, then analysing, "cleaning" and trying to enhance dynamics. The process is painstaking to say the least; as to artificially enhancing dynamics -- forget it. But then, I'm just a user with no (re)mastering knowledge...
blues_man
133 posts
 
The work it would take to do a single copy isn't worth the effort. You really do need the source tapes to do this.
gregdavis
9 posts
 
Remember, if you can't hear the difference, don't pay it (-Peter McWilliams). I have an extremely accurate system and am fortunate that I can compare SACD playback and air-bearing turntable front-ends in my system to my CD chain. In response to an un-informed (typical internet)posting "Copies give a rolled off sound..."; if i couldn't assemble a system that was not bright or "rolled off" with these kind of components, i wouldn't waste time posting to an audiophile site (or burning CD-R's - a wonderful time waster, when i could be wrestling the cat).

Ok, answers to questions:

[Please note - I am not aware of exactly how much jitter correction actually occurs using the software specified below! Is one software better than another?, etc. Maybe Bluesman can help us with this by measurement.]

First, I'm working in the all digital domain using a SCSI chain with, in this case - as described earlier - all Plextor SCSI components - allowing digital error correction - on the fly - when ripping. I'm not sure if an ATAPI chain will allow this (it may now, but didn't used to). Yes, copying CD's with a PC could add issues (risky with cheap CD readers and burners) - why I don't buy the cheap components to copy with and still prefer SCSI over ATAPI.

I'm never interested in making an image of the CD on the hard drive as much as i'm interested in a song by song copying/ripping process with error correction as i take each song track to the hard drive. I'm not sure if Nero handles this - but there's excellent freeware;

To rip, i use -

1. Plextor's software app. that comes with the burner called MVP2000. easy and quick for a song at a time.

2. Terrific freeware option (a Festivus for the non-Plextor rest of ya's) - there is an excellent app for ripping with error correction - EAC.exe. Go to the site below - read the sites contents for great info about comparing wave files, sample error correction, jitter correction, etc. Rips all songs on a cd to HD in a session, one at a time.

Great site/great ripper by Andre Wiethoff of Germany that gives error data feedback track by track.

http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/index.html

Once files are ripped to the hard drive using either of the above, I use Nero to burn them to disc.

Good luck and happy burning.
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