I'm not dreaming - these are great CD copies

“IMO, label paint is unscientifically applied and contributes to errors.”

The colors of the label paint can influence the sound. Definitely. The paint might even contain ferrous materials though I’ve certainly never checked. It’s just a hunch. Why else would demagnetizing a CD influence the sound? Now, that I have checked.

This is very interesting indeed
I always wondered why a number of my burned discs sounded "better" than the originals?
But I do have to say not all, and now I think on, that could even be down to the blank used.
I did have a stack of Fuji and a stack of Maxwell that I used without paying any attention to which for what if you get my drift, were just blanks to me! 
Some of these have been burned a LONG time ago and are still playing strong.
Course hardly play any nowadays what with Tidal and my Vault containing all of my cds ripped to WAV files.......

In your face and musical are just words. They certainly don’t mean the same thing to everyone. I like things to be in your face if that’s how they’re supposed to sound. I don’t like laid back sound if it’s supposed to be more present and dynamic.

Read again, I didn’t say laid back sound, I said "musical" and not in your face (meaning hard/harsh to me).

Fact is the odds are going negative, more you burn the more errors there will be, as the laser has difficulty reading the not so clean pit/lands of a burnt CD no matter what blank is used, even though some are better than others.
Nothing is as clean as the original stamped/moulded retail cd, as the pics below show.

Left moulded/stamped retail CD, pits are clean to read hopefully to be error free

Middle and right burnt CD-R pits one gold one normal silver, not clean and can cause errors.

https://www.iasa-web.org/sites/default/files/tc05-fig20.jpg


Cheers George

PS: the cd retail stamped vs copy burn pics above comes from Jean-Marc Fontaine just one of digital’s foremost authorities.

Here is just a video conference of his which discusses the drive mechs and storage of digital
https://vimeo.com/16104280

Cheers George

Interesting discussion, but what's a CD (grin)?  Since moving to PC audio well over a decade ago and having over 100k tracks on a 10tb HD, I haven't listened to one of the little sliver disks in years....  In fact, most of my DVD's and Blu-Rays are also going the way of the CD's -- to a HD and into storage.

Back in the day, to confirm what others have said, I did notice a positive difference using a CD damper like Herbie's Grungebuster.  I didn't know why nor care, better sound equaled using the Grungebuster.  

Lastly, from all the posts, ripping and burning CD's may be a sonic improvement for some and in some cases.  But it doesn't seem to be consistently positive.  At least not enough to rip and burn everything to another disc.  If I'm doing that, it would be to a HD and copying to at least another HD for a backup....