how to get good sounding copies of CDs

I've burned cd's on a Mac platform for years without any of the sonic deficiencies you mention. In spite of the supposed equality to WAV, I never use any lossless format, why bother if you are just ripping a cd copy and aren't archiving the files on your hard drive (in my case.) ? I use only the WAV codec and find that anything burned at 4x or slower sounds as good if not better than the original.

Rrm and Knownothing, out of curiosity, are you burning with a cd only drive or a cd/dvd superdrive? Are you using desktops or laptops?

Rrm, To import WAV files, pull down the iTunes menu at the top of the screen, open "preferences," then "advanced," then "burning," and choose "WAV encodeder." I've used Taiyo Yuden (pretty much any disc that is made in Japan is Taiyo Yuden, I think they are the only cd-r manufacturer left in Japan) and Mitsui gold cd-rs to good effect. Every test I've read of cd-r quality says those two are the best. I've found Ebay sellers that sell Mitsui for a good price. I usually just look for whatever "Made in Japan" disc I can find when buying locally and have never been disappointed. The black discs I've tried in the past also sounded good, don't know if they are as archivally stable as the others though. When I use an external burner, I've had very good luck with LaCie burners, both the Porsche design model and the slightly less pricey models. Can't say I've heard any difference between the internal Superdrive in my Powerbook and the Lacies though. I also haven't heard any difference between Toast and iTunes produced discs, both sound great to me. Interesting that these differences are occuring among us.