I'm not dreaming - these are great CD copies


I have an out of town friend who's given me some CD-Rs that he's made by simply copying music off of red book CDs. The music quality is extremely good - better than I'm used to hearing from my red book CDs. He's not an audiophile and has no idea what format is being utilized e.g. Lossless, etc.
Question - Can you really improve the quality of music from a red book CD by simply copying to some other format? If so, I'm boxing up all 300 of my CDs and asking my friend to copy make copies for me.
rockyboy
I thought Audioengr (Steve) had commented about this in another thread some time ago. My recollection is he said copying the CD onto a CD-R eliminated one contributor to jitter (I don't believe it eliminates jitter in any absolute sense).  If I recall correctly (and that ain’t anything to bet on) there’s less (imprecision?) in how the dye-based copy is read vs how the laser beam falls on the "pits" making up the stamped CD’s information.
There is a review (that I can't locate) that explained how a laser reads the physical pits and grooves of a CD. It's being done in an analog fashion ( a mechanical process) which then had to be processed into the digital domain. 

With the laser just reading a painted pit and groove, there is less chance of error. Physical pits and grooves aren't as well done as they should be when stamped. A painted one can be very precise, comparatively.

All the best,
Nonoise
I’m not dreaming - these are great CD copies
I think your hear an extra something to you good or bad) that error correct gives.

Original retail is always best.
There’s a lot more laser error correction goes on in a burnt cd compared to a stamped retail CD see the "pits" the laser has to read.

Left moulded/stamped retail CD pits
Middle and right burnt CD-R pits one gold one normal silver
https://www.iasa-web.org/sites/default/files/tc05-fig20.jpg

Cheers George
From what I could gather on the 'ol interwebs, CDRs from Taiyo Yuden (sold as Fujifilm as well) and Vertabim are best for making copies but they are expensive. All other brands will tend to sound the same as a CD.

All the best,
Nonoise

 A lot of CD copies do sound better than the original CD. I think it has to do with error correction. Watch a CD spin in a top loader with a window. CDs are not perfectly balanced and will oscillate. I believe this can cause read errors.  I think some burned CDR copies are easier to read and need less error correction. I am sure some CD players have more trouble than others.

 CDR blanks made in Japan are the best. Taiyo Yuden are excellent. But not all Fuji are Taiyo Yuden. Look for made in Japan on the package. I know that a number of years ago, you could pick up 50 CD spindles of made in Japan Fuji  for a few bucks just about everywhere. I think they may have been closing them out.

 The Blanks made in China are the worst. Cheap blanks can deteriorate  over time and become unreadable. Heat and sun light can also coause deterioration.

 Software, speed and type of burner can also have an affect. I still have a Plextor Premium CD only burner in my compuer. 

 This is all basic stuff that every old Grateful Dead fan knows.