Why does the recording sound better?

I found that a burned CD always sounds better than the original....don't know why - perhaps less jitter

You are not comparing apples to apples either. Bad science = bad conclusions.

Stringreen,

"I found that a burned CD always sounds better than the original....don't know why - perhaps less jitter"

There are a lot of people that have the same opinion. How are you burning your CD's? For example, are you recording from a TT to a CD burner or are you just coping a CD? Depending on how you go about making CD, I may be able to answer your question as to why your burned copies sound better.

Rpg, CDP cannot read each sector multiple times since it is operating in real time. Small errors like scratches up to 4mm along the track will be corrected while scratches longer than 8mm will be audible (pops). Between 4 and 8mm player interpolates missing data (thanks to Cross Interleaved Reed-Solomon error correction code).

When you read music CD as data, drive reads each sector multiple times until it gets right checksum. This process will eventually make CD-R or server file copy that plays better (without interpolation) than original CD.

There should be very little difference on brand new CDs without scratches or fingerprints, but it might be audible on older, less than perfect CD. Important is to use ripping program that reads CD as data. I use MAX for Mac with "Do not allow to skip" option set.

I thank all who responded to this post, I think I now understand why my recordings sound better. Using the gold color back of the lightscribe copy of the original may have helped. I am now wondering, does anyone have a suggestion as to the best media to use for backing up? What manufacturer and what type of CD disk?? Thanks!
Rpg