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Hey all -

Just thought I'd share (I like to do that...)

I've been testing a lot of different discs on a lot of different speeds to get the best results and I think I have found what works for me so far. (It should work for you too - all the tests I did were at least performed twice to account for any anomolies.)

In any case, I tried numerous brands and numerous types of CDs to get the lowest consistent burn errors (C1) and this is what I'm getting out of the best batch:

(Dead Link Removed)

These were TY silver-surface printables burned at 16x on a PLEXTOR PX-716UF.

Other discs evaluated were:

Mitsui Silver
Mitsui Gold
DiskMakers Premium
DiskMakers Premium Printable (both color surfaces)
Office Depot and Staples Generic
TDK
TDK Printables
Memorex

Not surprisingly, the generics did not fare well. In fact, they averaged between 22 C1/S to 35 C1/S. The Memorexes were the next running an average of 14 C1/S. (FYI... Averages based on burns of 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, 32x, and 48x)

The TDK standard disc was next and was much better than the others mentioned so far at around 8 C1/S.

Mitsui Silver and Disk Makers Premium (standard surface) came really close together at roughly 5.5 C1/S and the Mitsui Gold besting them both at an average of 3.9 C1/S.

Consistently, the discs with the greater mass (the printable surfaces) did better than all the others. Each of the printable surface discs were under 2 C1/S average with the TY being the best by what I consider to be a rather wide margin of almost 1 C1/S better than the others. These compared rather consistently at .8 C1/S as an average. I definitely found that these discs work best though at 16X, which after speaking with a MicroBoards rep, was confirmed.

Anywho...Got bored last night and had insomnia, so I thought I'd put them to the test. It's been an evaluation a long time in the preparation, but I think it was worth it.

J.

Comments

Cucco Thu, 09/07/2006 - 07:29

Also spindles here. Though I must admit, where possible, I bought individuals or got samples for the above mentioned test.

Zilla -

Yes, I have noticed a correlation between the quantity of errors and sound. On discs with less than 40 C1's per second, the differences (to me) are inaudible. I'm assuming my CD transports are correcting the majority of those anyway.

For errors OVER 40 C1/S, I notice a marked decline in high-frequency resolution.

J.

Reggie Sat, 09/09/2006 - 21:04

It would be interesting to see tests at 1X, for people who use stand-alone CD recorders. I think Mitsui (MAM-A) has like a 12X max CD specifically for this.

Yes, I have noticed a correlation between the quantity of errors and sound. On discs with less than 40 C1's per second, the differences (to me) are inaudible. I'm assuming my CD transports are correcting the majority of those anyway.

^That's pretty interesting. On a side note, I thought I would share an experience I had. I had a master one time that was terrible with errors. I'm talking about an ever-increasing heavy# of C2's as the disc goes along. Looked like a big incline of a mountain in Plextools. I think there were some CU's too, but I forget how many. And it sounded pretty bad too. I was feeding the digital outs of a Tascam big-honking CD player into a Finalizer (for de-essing and light limiting mainly) and it was just rediculous. Then I decided to try playing the CD in the computer drive...and it seemed to do better with the errors not being quite so irritating.
My unfounded theory is that perhaps when feeding the digital signal from a CD player into another piece of digital gear, you are bypassing the error correction of the CD player and feeding all the errors untouched to the next piece of digital equipment. Did everyone already know this, or am I full of it anyways?

Oh, and Taiyo Yuden + Plextor Premium r00lz! :-?

Michael Fossenkemper Mon, 09/11/2006 - 20:04

it completly depends on the CD player. Some players or drives will do error correction, some won't. Almost all CD player per se will do error correction, at least there aren't any that I know of that don't. If there is a large amount of jitter, then the player will react to it. When I play something from a CD player into my system, I'll reclock it.