I have a very critical ear..and I have yet "with a properly installed device" been able to asertain an audible difference (since the last 6 months) from 1X2X4X8X or 12X. Sorry to be stuck now at 12X..(even though 40X is actually avalable) but it works wonders at all speeds. Remember...new CD's and properly installed system.

I was getting some micro gaps (2 to 9 bits/sec) and some Macro gaps 200/sec) once. I found that the USB hub I was using on the 'puter for outboard appliances was causing it.

Exact Audio copy program checks bit for bit.

ALWAYS unplug all USB devices when burning if you have a hub. Editing too...but as they say YMMV.

1/2 speed burning was possible once..still..now it does not matter to me. Times change!

As "doobie-ious" as 40X seems...Until I get measureable and audible artifacts...Burn on!!

i have a cyberdrive 32x burner and haven't heard any loss of quality from burning at maximum speed of 32x. just remember that the medium you buy plays a big factor and with a single processor system (what most users have) you shouldn't be doing anything else or running other apps while burning. this can give you miss writes, burn errors, and possibly give you that loss of quality. another thing that plays a factor is your system. you should have a faster cpu when burning at faster speeds, it will help alot. also use a good burning app like nero.

We have done a few tests on different CD burners here. We like to cut PMCD's at single speed for a couple reasons. 1, you can listen to it as it burns, this is good for obvious reasons. 2, we have found that our sony 900E burners sound best at single speed. The media you choose is also important. We have a newer plextor burner which is designed to work at higher speeds and the newer CD's that have smaller pits. It sounds good at any speed. We have a disc error checker machine that tells us how each manufacturer's CD's perform in our specific burners. We offer it as a service to people who are interested in finding out just whats going on with there CD's.

Joe, I noticed your mention of the error rate tester - A few years ago I read an article by Roger Nichols on this subject. At the time, 4x was the fastest mentioned. The general tendency at that time was 2x had the lowest BLER on the most media and the most burners they tested. Have you seen any trends such as this with newer hardware/media, or is it all over the map? In other words, does even the crap have a less crappy speed that it likes, and has that speed moved up with newer media/drives, or what? Since error correction tends to cover booboos until it's too late, I'm a little leary of just listening tests. Thanks in advance from a guy without a BLER tester, or the $50k to buy one... Steve

Hi everybody and thanx for the replys.

It seems to me that this is really a question nobody has a definitive answer for (and though I really appreciated your opinions nobody, on other forums too, gave me a straight answer), so I took my chances and went for it, I got the burner and the controller, installed them and they are working like a charm, at least so far (I made a few tests and they gave flawless results); my own experience with higher speeds, which made me want to get a slower burner, was that I almost always had my masters drop out in the CD player I usually test them in before sending them: not a good sign (at least in my book), the masters I burned with this "new" Yamaha SCSI at 2X are performing as they are expected, and they were burned using the same media as the others, so I'm starting to narrow the circle to 2 factors: burner quality and burning speed, now, my IDE burner is a Waitec, and though not the best they are good writers, so the circle narrows even more...As far as sound quality I'm not able to tell any difference (at least in my control room, a good test would be to listen to them in a good mastering room), but as far as compatibility in the widest range of CD players slower speeds are still winning.
I really don't want to sound "old", but I'm sticking to my results, so those of you with error checking machines could shed some light on this subject: is higher speed tied with a higher error rate, and do you think newer burners are getting better at this?
In the meantime I'm burning with this 4X and enjoying some peace of mind :)