Burning CDs of downloaded music


Is there a way to purchase/download individual songs and burn them to a CD while maintaining CD quality (16 bit, 44.1 kHz)?

I currently use a home theater subwoofer in my stereo.  I am considering upgrading my subwoofer.  Since my only recent reference is my stereo, I am not really sure what high quality bass should sound like.  I looked at subwoofer reviews on YouTube and unfortunately, I only own 2 songs from their playlists.  My thought was that I would like to get to know those songs from the reviews on my system so when I visit stereo shops I would have a better idea if I was hearing improvements.  I am not set up for streaming.  CDs are my only digital source and my DAC only has one SPDIF input.  If I could create my own compilation of those test songs on CD, I could understand their performance on my system and use the same CD in a stereo shop.  

If I can’t make such a CD, is there a less complicated way to figure this out?  I’m sure the stereo stores will have streaming.  But that doesn’t help me get to know these songs on my current system.  

 

sealegs

With your goal being to have a demo set of songs for auditioning at stereo shops, do you have a PC with a disk drive?  Then download DBPoweramp free version, or full version trial free for 21 days, and rip your CD tracks to Flac lossless files on your hard drive.  Then upload the song files of your choice (still digital) to a thumb drive.  Every Stereo shop worth considering will be able to upload and play your lossless Flac files for a demo.

For a very good, inexpensive intro into digital playback and streaming, Download Audirvana Studio Origin for $119 to stream all of your local digitized library from pc to your DAC.  Or, subscribe to Audirvana Studio Classic for $6.99/ mo. to play not only your local files, but possibly add a high resolution streaming service, such as Qobuzz.  ( a subscription to Qobuz is 13.99 - 20.00/ month). All subscriptions have a trial period.  

Only thing else you will need is a cable from a digital out port on your PC with an SPDIF connection to your DAC.

Then, you can compare this basic streaming setup to your current  CD system and decide next steps.  I think you may be positively surprised.  Good Luck!

@sandstone I recently switched to MacBook.  I’m not sure I can even get the old PC running and it does not have virus protection any longer.  I decided against adding streaming to my system because I already own a lot of music between 600 records and 1200 CDs.  

@dunring007 @ketchup   I did a test run.  I downloaded a song from Qobuz in .wav format to my MacBook.  I burned a copy of the song onto a fresh CD.  I can see the track and it plays on the CD drive of the MacBook.  I have two stereo systems and neither CD player will play the song.  One player indicates that it is using playing time with nothing coming out.  The other player indicates that this is a data file.  Any thoughts on what I am not doing correctly?

@sealegs 

You’ll need to do a little more than copy and paste. There may be CD ripping functionality within ITunes but you’d have to research that. There are also other Cd Ripping software programs available on the web- some are free to download and use. Proper ripping sets up the file structure prior to so that it can be recognized by the player. 

@sealegs I am not familiar with Macs, but I have burned thousands of CDRs on PCs. You need to burn them as audio CDs. It sounds like you burned the .wav files as data. Data CDRs won't play in a regular CD player.

Look for audio burning software. Any good computer should come with this capability these days, but you may have to download an audio burning program. There should be lots of free ones. It’s been probably two decades since I’ve burned an audio CDR, so I’m not sure what’s good these days. Shouldn’t be too hard to find, though.