Burning cd's for my modestly high-end system...

The software and the format is the most important issue. Unless you want really HD quality. CDs are CDs and Roxio will do a good job of that, but your recordings will be subject to the quality limitations of CDs.

Changing drives could speed up the process and perhaps improve reliability of the drive, but that may not matter unless you plan to produce a lot of CDs. The drive will not change the quality, in general.

I'm getting a Korg MR-1000 so that I can record my LPs at 5.6mHz and then archive them on a separate hard drive (at least after the 40G internal HD starts to fill) and make DVD-A discs for playback on systems other than my main 2-channel system. I'll also use the Korg for some playback and live recording.

If you're just making CDs of downloads, then your current drives and software should work fine.

Dave

TY for your thread.Sounds good to me.Sounds like I won't need to make any upgrades at the moment.
But,you mentioned HD,meaning high definition I assume.Guess I would have to have a cd player that decodes high def.I'm using an old rotel that plays cdr's but don't think it's a high def player.
Will Roxio 9 make HD cd's and if so would buying a HD player and burning HD cd's make a big difference in sound from my system?

Are you downloading compressed music? Most of Limewire is mp3. That's this biggest problem I see.

I'm with Elevick. Your quality may already be compromised. Furthermore, downloading music without paying is illegal. Don't do it. Everything you do can be traced and is backed up and stored on servers somewhere => your IP address identifies you. And the tools and technology to catch people is getting BETTER and FASTER. It is only a matter of time before these activities get caught. It is only the sheer volume that slows the process down and may mean that people are given amnesty. (Just read the newspaper about the way they are now catching child porn and you will see that technology is being developed to track/catch people.)

In Canada there is a levy on every blank CD-R to fund artists - yep believe it or not if you are HONEST then in Canada you get SCREWED and pay TWICE...once when you download from iTunes and AGAIN when you buy blank CD-R. So I understand Canadians who feel that free downloading is completely justfied...Go Figure!!