do burnt CD copys sound as good as originals?

While my results have been overall disappointing thus far. I must firmly agree that equipment and brand makes a big difference. I notice a 100% improvement in sound quality when I use a gold archive CDR or a black CDR as compared to standard CDRs. In fact, some standard CDRs were not even readable in my BAT supertube CD player - though the same CDR was readable in the car and other players. The CD burner makes a big difference also -- I have used several different models from Sanyo, Sony, HiVal, & Pioneer which produced poor results -- my best results have been with a old (1999 I think) TDK Velodyn burner -- but I hear great things about Yamaha burners (no longer produced) and I hear Plextor burners do a great job -- (though I have not personally heard any CDRs produced from a Plextor or a Yamaha). Additionally, I believe the PSU of many computers are pretty poor & noisy. A good PSU, such as PC Power & Cooling are less corruptive. Anyway - you can drive yourself crazy upgrading & experimenting with computer parts (cables, CD burners, hard drives, cases, shielding, etc.). I do believe there is a good combination out there somewhere

I have to say, in response to Grateful, that the differences I've heard among different blank media (including Mitsui gold) have been a whole heck of a lot smaller than the "100% improvement" variety...

Grateful, I have never had a copy that would not read, but I entirely agree that experimenting with cdrs and burners can drive you crazy. I would add also cd and cdr cleaners. I have quite experimenting.

I have Marantz Professional Cd Recorder/Player. The cd's I have made sound pretty darn great. As for computer burning, don't do it but have had some made via that way and they sound fine.

As it happens a Marantz Pro (model 510 I believe?) was the dual-well machine I referred to in my post of 1/7. Not that it made 'bad' copies by any means, just not as good (digital or analog) as the HHB unit I ultimately bought at the time (meaning less like the original). Differences do exist though sometimes subtle.