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CDR Fidelity?

A recent thread about CD's that people use to evaluate changes in their system was interesting because some people are burning their own compilation of songs on CDR to test out new equipment. This would avoid bringing a stack of CD's to the dealers or wherever but...

My question is this: Is the quality of CDR's equal to that of your standard redbook disc? Shouldn't there be some loss of fidelity when copying CD's? I have always thought that my CDRs sounded worse than the store bought original. CDR's always seemed to be more compressed without as good dynamics and detail. This is of course even worse when the CDR is a converted MP3 disc.

What have you A'goners found?

I use a PC running Win XP, sound card is Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy. I use Clone CD to copy discs and Windows Media Player for MP3 ripping. CD burner is a standard Sony 8/4/32 CDRW.
128x128karl_desch
lngbruno
210 posts
 
I will provide my experiences.

CD-R's made on a PC stink, no matter what sound card or PC.

I experimented with stand alone consumer stereo cd player/recorders and found the Pioneer PDR-W839 to do the best job using either Maxell or Mitsui bland music CD-Rs. The near eaqual sound came from recording at real time speed vs 2X's or faster on the Pioneer or on other cd recorders. An email to Dan Wright revealed that a mod was doable it I choose to use this recorder as my main player. I also noticed that some sounded equal to the original, some better and some a little weaker. Check it out for yourself.
kthomas
911 posts
 
It's very easy to prove to yourself that the copy you made is identical. If you believe that a copy sounds worse than the original and you haven't proven that you're making bit-perfect copies, you owe it to yourself to do so. Then, if you still believe the copies sound worse, at least you know you're comparing apples to apples. It is, however, very easy to believe you're making a "perfect" copy when in fact you're not, in which case I would expect the sound to be significantly worse. I personally find the experience of listening to original vs. copy to be identical, but others believe otherwise. Not trying to convince you one way or the other, just suggesting that if you want to use CDRs but believe you're getting sub-par copies, you might want to investigate the method before abandoning them. -Kirk
bstueche's avatar
bstueche
5 posts
 
Which Tascam models are considered good for retaining the original cd quality?
dopogue
1,773 posts
 
My Tascam is a CD-RW700. It plays any kind of CDR, makes digital-to-digital dupes and has proven totally reliable. I had a Pioneer 555 before, and there's no comparison. It sells (last time I looked) for $450 from Oade Bros. I recommend it highly. Cheers, Dave
buckingham
333 posts
 
If you're burning on a computer use the program "Exact Audio Copy". I tried this program and got better results than with the standard Nero or Roxio, but the copies were still worse than the originals. I have to agree that burning on a computer system makes for bad copies for use in hi-rez systems. If you have a hi-rez system, spend the $$$ on a high end recorder like the Burmeister. Apparently the best burners create copies that are superior to the originals. Apparently when the disk is being copied the data is reclocked and the jitter is removed from the disk. There are other forums on Audiogon about this phenomenon.
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