do burnt CD copys sound as good as originals?

I don't play any redbook that has not been carefully duplicated and not on a computer. I have found you have to consider the quality of your cdrs and your burner. And you have to clean both the original and the cdr. This is all a pain in the ass, but once experienced you cannot listen to redbooks straight out of the box.

I wish I could burn sacds but cannot.

Drubin, I do so with some trepidation. But hey, this never stopped me before.

George Lewis is largely responsible for what I presently do although I use only the burner that he apparently drop-shipped and until recently his black cdrs. The lengthy procedure is as follows. Clean original and cdr with RealityCheck ClearDisk or AudioTop digital and treat the original with Jena Labs 3D-X and Nespa it at 120 seconds, burn the cdr on the RealityCheck burner, which has a highly filter power supply, treat the burned cdr with Jena Labs 3D-X and Nespa it, and finally use the Walker Talisman magnet for each playing.

I have done about 200 cds using this procedure, even though I suspect the future will see internet downloading and storage on computer hard drives.

Slothman, I have several times gone to a second generation copy and heard no benefits. Frankly, I have lost interest in going further. I don't understand why burners sound different, but I think cdrs vary as does cleaning them and the originals.

Grateful, while I greatly disagree with your results in burning copies, even of bigger labels, I agree that once there are good dacs to convert music put on hard drives, it will negate what benefits there are in burning copies. I sent Vince Sanders of VRS a copy of a disk where he had the original. He heard a distinct improvement when played through his transport but none when both were put on the hard-drive. Until that time I will not play uncopied originals.

Jsouth72, long ago I use EAC to recopy some of my scratched cds. I did the job quite well largely hiding the scratches. I then reburned two on my separate burner and got a substantial improvement. There were several otherrs in the room that day. Also I must disagree with the implications of your post that cdrs do not matter. This is not the case with anyone that I know.

While at CES I heard the HP music server with music downloaded off the internet in lossless format. I had to leave the room because of the music. In particular the young demonstrators said that the Beachboys recordings were old and that what I heard was an exact copy of a bad recording. I heard a bad copy of a decent recording and could not take it. I think many are buying into the notion that an exact copy is an exact copy. In a bit by bit sense it may be true. In a played version, it is not.

Grateful, I have never had a copy that would not read, but I entirely agree that experimenting with cdrs and burners can drive you crazy. I would add also cd and cdr cleaners. I have quite experimenting.

I strikes me that we will increasing see boxes that use big storage to store multiple cds or worse for non-immediate replay from the cd transport. The question is going to be which affords the best sound. VRS was the first of these that I saw and I have no idea what has happened to them. They were at the 2005 RMAF with a nice overall system and good sound.