Gold disk VS regular disk?

gold ("redbook") discs are supposed to sound better than their silver counterparts. in some cases this is true, in others it is not so. i don't believe there is any correlation between "reliability" and the color of a cd's playing surface.

The gold disks are often remastered. This can make them sound better than, or at least different from the standard silver issues.

I read somewhere that JVC tried different disc types for their XRCD premium line and concluded that siver discs sounded a bit better than gold when both contain the same source material.

Gold disks are (usually) derived from original master tapes or, at least, have had extra attention during the mastering process. Also, as gold does not react with oxygen (oxidize), they will not fail (like aluminum) if their plastic shell acquires a crack or hole. This is stretching things as anything likely to crack a CD will also destroy the data pits (small hole more likely to occur).

I do not know of any direct comparison. If anyone does I would love to know of it and try it. As previously pointed out the gold disks are remastered. I have always assumed that the gold was somewhat of a gimick to attract attention, but the reason they sounded so good was the remastering process-not the gold. I did not know that JVC tried both gold and silver (aluminum) and found that the aluminum was sonically better--but judging by the sound quality of those disks I imagine they did try nearly everything to push the envelope--they are equally as expensive as many gold disks--and in many cases much better sound quality. Again, I'ld love to hear the same mastering on gold and aluminum manufactured CD's.

I have two gold discs that I also have on regular aluminum and vinyl. Vinyl sounds best, then the gold, aluminum last. The difference between the vinyl and the gold is quite noticable, whereas the difference between the gold and aluminum is noticable, but not substantial. In this case I would probably have to say that the increase in the cost of the gold over the aluminum was probably not worth it. Keep in mind this a small sample. There may be and probably are many cases where the difference between gold and aluminum is more substantial. Thanks, Doug