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Here's how a CD copy of a copy can sound better

Just wanting to check my logic here. People keep saying how burning CD copies at 1x speed allow them to sound better (than 32x speed, say) when being played back through Audiophile systems. I have burned copies of several CD's at 8x, and do not have the original. I should be able to take these copies and make re-copies at 1x speed, and these 1x copy-of-a-copy copies should sound better than their counterparts, right?

There is no data lost when a CD is copied, only placed on the disc differently. This is evidenced by the fact that you can copy a CD-ROM, which is a bit-perfect copy.
matt8268
avideo
222 posts
 
I agree with the above posts. I am the owner of a media duplication company; and we duplicate CDs, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. Based upon my 13+ years in the commercial audio and video business I think I can say with some certainty that if you want to duplicate a CD and get decent results it has to be done at 1X or 2X speeds.
Not only do higher duplication speeds create jitter and timing errors; but resulting discs usually sounds flat and lacking in dynamics. I recently duplicated over 200 CD-Rs that each had a different radio commercial on them. They were entries in a festival for Radio & TV Commercial producers. At least 10% of the entries were unplayable. In doing some follow-up, I called the producers and almost every single CD-R that would not play in the five CD players in our studios was "burned" on a computer at high speed.
So take a word of advice - and stick to 1X or 2X CD duplication if you want to get some decent results. Happy listening.
unsound
7,315 posts
 
If done correctly digital copies can sound better than the original. If done incorrectly digiatl copies can sound worse than the original.
mrowlands
54 posts
 
Gboren, jitter most definitely occurs in the digital domain. Do a Yahoo search for "jitter definition" to see some examples. It should be easy to imagine that the "pits" on a CD won't be perfectly timed, and that the quality of the media as well as the burn rate can affect this. I also want to reiterate that music (Redbook) CDs do not have the same error correction method as data CDs!
alpha9
4 posts
 
I burned my cd by using computer cd re-writer @ 3x. The copy sounded about 85-90% of the original. I play them on the Sony XA7ES for comparation (with the high end system ,i.e cables,amp ,preamp and speakers). I think we have to use very good equipments to hear a difference.
ake
48 posts
 
"If done correctly digital copies can sound better than the original. If done incorrectly digiatl copies can sound worse than the original."

Could someone elaborate this statement? Frankly I still don't understand how one can get a copied CD that sounds better than the original.

Ake
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