Do "gold" discs sound better?

Hi Steve; I have several gold CDs, and 3-4 where I also have the standard version. The gold CCR Chronicles CDs, may sound a little smoother, but the difference is by no means dramatic. On balance, I've always thought that the gold ones were less fatiguing in long listening sessions.

Muddy Water's "The Healer" is a very good gold CD, but I don't know if there is a standard version of it. I personally think that the care and technique used in mastering of CDs is much more important than whether they are gold or aluminum discs.

The really good CCR CDs though are the recently re-mastered ones (all 8 originals have been done) using the JVC's K2 20 bit Super Coding system. These are clearly superior to the standard CDs or the gold ones. Cheers. Craig.

Agree with Garfish. Gold has mostly nothing to do with it. Quality of the master tape, mastering of the recording and pressing quality. My disc to beat right now is the aluminium XRCD/Fim of 'Jazz at the Pawnshop'

I agree with the above comments, but have yet to find a gold and aluminum version of the exact same CD, meaning same mastering and everything to compare. Pretty much all the gold CD's have very high quality mastering and manufacturing, which accounts for them being superior--likely far more than the gold itself. I personally believe the gold was about 90% marketing and probably less than 10% sonic or longevity contribution.

Supposedly, gold is more reflective.
But both Celitc66 and Garfish are right, what really matters is the mastering and the quality control of the manufacturing.

KP

Agree with the above. Gold looks fancy, but is essentially
irrelevant to the sound. The two consistently best labels
in my experience for sound quality are JVC/XRCD and
Mapleshade, both of which use exclusively aluminum discs.