MikeLavigne - I was involved in the shootout at CES. The RC provides a real improvement, but so does my rewriting system, which I call the CD Tune-up. I am using a modified Yamaha writer that has low-jitter modified Superclock and battery power. I rip using EAC on the computer to insure a good read.
At least half of the improvement is by using the right treatment before writing the CD-R. I have tried a lot of them, and so has my partner, highdeftapetransfers.com. I have my own magic fluid now, Spectra and we both like it. The advantage is that these treatments benefit BOTH the write and the readback with these CD-R copies. I do not plan to offer modded writers like the RC and I have not added a rewriting service to my website yet, but I'm considering it. The media is extremely important and I have found that the Mitsui Audio Master is every bit as good as the black Melody disks, which vary a lot in quality, and the Mitsui's will last a LOT longer.
Another important feature of the writer is that it "stretch" or otherwise slow the writing speed in order to get well-defined pits. I write a 1X speed and my writer has a special algorithm to get well-formed pits.
As for the difference in the data, I found that the trailing info is different when using different writers and writing software. The beginnings are all the same. I conclude that the difference that you hear is the lower jitter.
I equate the magnitude of improvement to about $1K-1.5K in mods to a typical transport, so it is a really good value IMO. I performed a number of jitter demonstrations at CES that showed that the improvement was about the same magnitude as a typical digital/power/clock mod on a transport. Of course, if you mod the transport and ALSO rewrite properly treated disks, the results can be amazing, albeit not quite as good as a high-end computer-driven audio source. This will always be lowest in jitter.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Manufacturer/Modder
