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CDR Fidelity?

A recent thread about CD's that people use to evaluate changes in their system was interesting because some people are burning their own compilation of songs on CDR to test out new equipment. This would avoid bringing a stack of CD's to the dealers or wherever but...

My question is this: Is the quality of CDR's equal to that of your standard redbook disc? Shouldn't there be some loss of fidelity when copying CD's? I have always thought that my CDRs sounded worse than the store bought original. CDR's always seemed to be more compressed without as good dynamics and detail. This is of course even worse when the CDR is a converted MP3 disc.

What have you A'goners found?

I use a PC running Win XP, sound card is Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy. I use Clone CD to copy discs and Windows Media Player for MP3 ripping. CD burner is a standard Sony 8/4/32 CDRW.
128x128karl_desch
airtaxi
28 posts
 
Like most things, your tools and your approach will make all the difference. First, always use an application designed to create bit for bit copies (EAC is a good suggestion). Second, invest in a high-quality (pro) burner. Without getting mired in the details, Plextor makes the highest quality, most reliable PC based burners out there. Standalone burners by HHB and Tascam are worth the investment as well. If you're not going to do any digital editing, the standalone units are pretty goof-proof.

I've been doing digital transfer for many years now (mostly DAT > CD) and once you get your groove down (no pun intended) it works like it's supposed to. BTW, HDCD disks should cause you no additional problems - they should copy and sound exactly like the originals.

Good luck!

Alan
reylon
47 posts
 
Hi,I have no logical explanation,but,in some cases,CDR copies that I make with a JISCO jitter decorrelator,actually sound better than the originals.
Quite a few people to whom I have played originals and copies have preferred the copies over the originals.
Raanan
garfish
1,840 posts
 
I agree with Ejlif and Dopogue. And use a Marantz CDR500 Professional recorder (dubbing). I either cannot tell the copies from originals, or sometimes even think that the CDRs are better, ie smoother. But in a blind test, I'm sure I couldn't tell them apart. I've owned 4-5 CD recorders, and found that the Pioneer units (W739 and W37 Elite) also make excellent copies.

Also, I've had no problem copying HDCD discs, ie HDCD shows up on my ML 360S DAC when playing the copy, just like it does when playing the original, and the HDCD copies sound just as good. The default recording speed of the Marantz is 2X and I've used it a lot with excellent results, ie I can't tell CDs made at 1X from those made at 2X-- but I don't consider 2X to be "high speed".

A year or two ago, M. Fremer of Stereophile compared CDRs made by 3 consumer grade CD Recorders to originals and could not reliably tell the difference between the originals and the copies, and he was impressed with them. But for copying LPs to CD, the most expensive CD Recorder (a $1000-$1500. Denon I think), was clearly superior to the cheaper recorders, ie the Denon had a much better AD converter. Cheers. Craig
karl_desch's avatar
karl_desch OP
426 posts
 
Thanks all. Sounds like my PC is the culprit. I am not surprised.
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