Cheap tweaks...What would YOU reccomend?

Actually, CDC, the BLER rate of properly burned CD's is much, much lower than that the mass produced high BLER disc that you purchased at the store. The burned copies sound much better.

Some audiophiles have been for years, buying the store bought disc and making a better, higher resolution/lower Block Error Rate copy. The guys I know have been using the better pro burners to do this, like the Alesis Masterlink, for example.

If you haven't heard the difference, you may want to.

Happy Holidays!

From what I know about the subject and have been told by those who actually produce CD's and SACD's is that Block Error Rate is a key factor in resolution. CD Burners such as the Alesis Masterlink will produce CDR's with very little BLER, much, much lower than the mass produced CD's you'll buy in the stores. This is not subjective.

FYI, "subjective" listening tests have been done on my friends system comprised of TRL GT-400 amplifiers ($80K retail), TRL GTP-4 Linestage ($15K retail), Esoteric UX-1 (?) ($13K retail), Magico Speakers ($84K retail) and probably around $16K worth of cables from Nordost, Purest and FIM. Distortion? I don't think so.

The Yamaha has been out for a few years. I think that they are really onto something, I only wish that they had the software and A to D section that matched. IME, the Masterlink is hard to beat if you are looking for a high resolution/low BLER CDR. The Masterlink does not "soften" or tame brightness as your Marantz CDR 500 does.

This said, I stick with my same statement, "If you haven't heard the difference, you may want to".

Happy Holidays!

Megasam, No I have not tried the Reality Check duplicator yet. I did have my Masterlink modified by Tube Research Labs for $550 which made a HUGE sonic difference, especially on the quality of copies now made. Info is at www.tuberesearchlabs.com Stephaen Harrell of 6moons.com has a review of the TRL mods at that site.