do burnt CD copys sound as good as originals?

i have done many comparisons between copies and original cds. taking into account one's concept of what "better" is, my experience is that i prefer the original to the copy.

there have been some exceptions where a copy sounds less detailed and the original is a poor recording. usually the copy sounds edgier than the original.

I would love to make a compliation CD for evaluating components and for taking to shows, but my experience has been the same: the copies do not sound good enough. I sure it's possible to make great ones, however.

As long as the copy is a "bit-for-bit" copy, then, yes, it would sound identical. You run into trouble when you rip a CD onto a hard drive as a compressed file (mp3) and then burn an audio CD later...once data is compressed fidelity is lost forever.

If done right, the copies sound far superior. But the there are certain things that need to be addressed properly: (1)The software used to rip the CD (load it onto the hard drive), where Audio Exact Copy (freeware) is far superiour to others,
(2) the quality of the CD extractor/burner drive, (3) the software used to burn, and (4) the blank CD, where some are better than others (Black Memorex are popular). There are a number of threads on this issue, both here on Audiogon and Audio Asylum, check it out.

i use copies in the car where it makes no difference to preserve my originals.