Do CD-R's sound the same as originals

In any case, I have direct experience with minor read errors WHICH DO INDEED pass through to the write process, when producing an audio CD-R, and that was at 1x speed both ways. Most everyone in the computer field reads and writes data CD-R's at least at 4x speed, and usually higher, and the data gets transferred and then recorded WITH ABSOLUTELY NO ERRORS. It doesn't matter to me where the interpolation occurs, it's just that it DOES occur, so in my view and experience, you CANNOT compare the process of reading and writing a Data CD-R, with that of reading and writing an Audio CD-R. The nature of CD audio, is that EVEN SMALL ERRORS DO INDEED "GET THROUGH", and everyone in the recording industry who's involved in the production process knows this all too well.

With up-to-date software and hardware, it is easy to prove to yourself that bit-perfect copies are being made when using a computer CDR setup - there are many programs to grab "files" of data off an audio CD and compare them to files grabbed off other audio CDs. Occassionally the copying software reports an error and won't finish the job, but every copy I've ever compared to the original matches perfectly. I sold my Phillips CD copier/recorder, so I can't do the comparison on copies it made for bit-perfect correctness. To the extent that they are bit-perfect and any difference is in jitter induced by the reflective properties of the media, I can't wait for networked components so the perfect copies can be delivered anywhere for playback. It is also annoying to think that a multi-thousand $$ transport can't retrieve data off a CDR as well as a $69 CD drive for a computer.

My multi-thousand dollar CD player played the original CD better than the CD-R machine played it, when I used the CD-R machine to play the original CD, to make the copy. And the CD-R drive did indeed let a read error through, which was then written on two separate CD-R's I made on two separate occasions, in exactly the same place. And the DVD-rom drive read that area of the original CD just fine, but kept encountering a read error 3 tracks after the first one (which the CD-R drive had no trouble with), and would not even allow the CD to be copied. Again, my $3000 CD player played the original CD without missing a beat in EITHER PLACE, and it doesn't even track CD's as well as my cheap 6 year old Sony carousel changer!! THIS IS ALL VERY REPEATABLE...and I reiterate again that there will never be such a thing as a "perfect" copy of anything, especially in the world of digital audio. You would have to downgrade the term "perfect", to something else that is NOT actually perfect.

For archival purposes we need to strive for perfect copies using any media. That is without a question the audio holy grail! My question to all these posters is, "What are you copying and why?" As I have posted, I copy to archive my vast collection of self mastered concerts and for the cost of media and hardware, as well as storage factors, digital storage appears to me to be the best media. If one is looking to copy their friends CD of "whatever", and they are not satisfied with the clone, well, go buy the original and be happy. If you are archiving your lp collection and your not satisfied with digital, well buy a reel to reel and be happy. If you are doing as I am doing and your not happy with analog or digital, well, involve your self in engineering and come up with something better. Or, voice your opinion with some ideas for action. I think what irks me is damnation without a valid alternative. Okay, your not happy with cloning or recording to digital. What is your alternative? It is easy to be critical. Hey, anyone can be a critic. How about some solutions or alternatives.

Perfection is the Holy Grail. In practice, this means "vanishingly small error rate" relative to digital data. Uncorrected bit error rates (BER) on the order of error in every trillion bits is not uncommon for some high-quality digital data transmission systems. That BER is roughly one error in the equivalent of (whips out slide rule here... hmmm... fiddle... fiddle...) about 184 compact discs, assuming 680 MB of useable data per disk. Not too shabby.