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Burning better CD-Rs from Mac/rec eternal burner

Before you jump on me about searching the archives, let me say that I have done so exhaustively and have not found what I need.

I want to burn a compilation CD for taking to audio shows and meetings, but I am always disappointed with the sound quality of CDs I burn from iTunes on my MacBook Pro. I rip with Apple Lossless, burn at slowest possible speeds, and have all the settings where they should be as far as I know, but the quality is still inferior. Good enough for the car, good enough to give to non-audiophiles, but sufficiently inferior to the original CD that I would not want to use them on a really good system. (Short story: a guy came to my house a few months ago to listen to some speakers I was selling. He brought a compilation CD he had made. The sound was really mediocre. Over his mild objection, I put on an original CD and he was stunned at the improvement.)

I know many of you do make compilation CDs and then there is the whole copies-sound-better-than-originals camp, so there must be a better way. Is the secret to get an external CD burner? If so, which? Plextor was a favorite, but they are out of that business.

Dan
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drubin OP
3,275 posts
 
What would be "regular CD burning software" on a Mac, and would it allow you to make compilations?

This notion that iTunes is at fault is interesting and has serious implications for all who want to base a music server around the popular interface.
photon46
1,088 posts
 
Your experiences do not coincide with mine at all. I use both a 12" Powerbook and an iMac and I have both Toast and iTunes. I've also got a LaCie external burner to use. Using either Mac and either software, I get excellent burned cd-r's with both the internal (Superdrives) drives and the LaCie. The LaCie might be slightly better, but I wouldn't want to take the "Pepsi Challenge" on that one. One difference, I never use Lossless. Many insist that it is supposed to sound identical to WAV files. I don't store music on my hard drives and don't care about file sizes, so I always burn WAV files. In import preferences, I use error correction and import in WAV. Burn speed is 2x. I also use either Taiyo Yuden or Mitsui cd-r's. If anything, I'd say burned cd's often sound better than the original discs.
jpod
59 posts
 
In my last post I said "I use both Itunes and the Vista CD burner and get the same results either way." I should have said something like "I use Itunes and various other audio software for CD burning and get the same results."

As far as I know, Vista, XP and Leopard cannot burn audio CDs. I believe audio programs such as Itunes, Media Player, Toast etc must be used to burn audio CDs.

Rwwear, was it these types of audio applications that you were referring to as " regular CD burning software"? The reason I am asking is that if one of these OS's have the capability to burn audio CDs I'd like to give it a try.

Any clarification you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
JPO

carl109
134 posts
 
There could be a case for you hunting down a cheap older PC/laptop with a CD-RW burner (not DVD/multi burner) and downloading the free EAC software ("Exact Audio Copy"), which as far as I know wont work on a Mac.

I use EAC on my Dell laptop (Win XP) and get indistinguishable CD copies. Find out more by typing EAC into a search engine.
rwwear
2,873 posts
 
When I said regular burning software I meant the software that came with your burner. I use Nero, Sonic Stage, Exact Copy or Veritas Record Now depending on the computer I am using.
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