CD duplicate...

Aroc...I do all of the recording on my PC, an AMD 1700 with 512Mg RAM and a simple CD-burner, using an older Aureal Vortex soudncard. I've heard it should only get better if you can use equipment that is external from the PC, but I have been quite happy with my equipment already. The most important parts are using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to make the copy on the hard drive, and to do the burning at the slowest speed possible (preferrably 1-2x).

I have had very good success running two CD-R decks for direct duplication between decks.
Requires purchase of $90 external CD-R deck and quality USB 2 cable. Use computers CD-R to read data and outboard CD-R to record (write) at speed slow enough that allows direct steam from buffer without strain. My Pentium 2.4 ghz will easily write at 8x with 100% buffer in reserve. If you want to use slower speed to write by all means experiment.

I have external drive on brass cones and bag of sand on top to dampen vibration. Also prefer black CD-R (memorex works fine and easy to find) be sure and clean blank CD-R with Shine Ola or similar cleaner "before" you record for best results.

All my CDs that have bright/grainy sound get black CD-R duplication. Not only is overall sound cleaned up nicely but bass seems like a full octave lower has been added, very noticeable impact here.

Jea48
While your wallet is out.........I just picked up a Bedini Quadri Beam and it is noticeably better than old dual beam, another tool for CD enhancement worth owning.