Gold disk VS regular disk?

Abstract7, you are correct in comparisons of "early" digital versus later versions of the same disc. This has been well documented, the early stuff was crap. Most of that stuff that had any respectable sales was remastered and sold again in many cases still on aluminum. In many cases I believe it was remasterd and not indicated on the label. As an example, when my wife and I married four years ago our CD collections merged. She had several early discs that I also had later versions of. The later versions while not always stating "remastered" do sound much better. My only explanation is that it was remastered. I also agree that the "audiophile" versions do sound better, but may not be worth the extra cost. I think this is probably like throwing darts. It's tough to pick the remastered discs that will sound much better. The other thing to keep in mind is throwing the cost factor in. I just don't feel that the few gold discs I have just have not been worth the extra money. In every case, other than the two test discs I mentioned above, I have not searched for the gold version. As far as digital goes, I simply buy what was currently available.

Hi,
Thanks for all your helps. I asked this question because there are several albums that I like have both Gold and Silver. However, the Gold is double the price comparing to Silver disk. Well, I decided to buy the Silver disks.
Thanks again
DT

I agree that remastering is the main source of any improvements. As long as the laser decodes both aluminum and gold disks correctly then there will be no difference in sound. Is gold more reliable then aluminum? Maybe a CD transport designer will weigh in with an opinion.

I believe Mobile's claim was that gold is more malleable, reulting in better pits which can be read more accurately, therefore requiring less correction aka distortion.

With regard to earlier and later version of the same album, if they were manufactured in the US, early US plants had a terrible process quality problem. The yield of acceptables was very low and it took a long time for some plants to even come on line. Perhaps a lot of the earlier discs, although deemed acceptable, still had "bad pits" and required a lot of correction.