Verbatim and others make a burnable "gold" CD-R disc for high quality archive grade CDs. MFSL also has these, but they are very pricey.
Otherwise use Taiyo-Yuden or Verbatim professional grade CD-R to create discs with the lowest error rates. Burn at the lowest speed you can stand to maximize quality.
I also use a CD scanning software utility for my Plextor drive that scans the burned discs for errors. You want BLER (block error rates) below about 20 C1 errors max at any one point, and an average below 1 or 2 for the whole disc. C2 errors should be zero.
For music, your source files should be "bit perfect" if possible.
I have been scanning a number of MFSL discs and Japanese imports lately. All have been excellent and surpass my criteria above. Even MFSL discs that are 10+ years old. So my point is if you can buy material for a reasonable price (compared to the cost of your time to burn your own), then by all means buy it. And I am not considering the quality of the remastering process, which may add further benefit to buying something as opposed to burning a file from an older rip.
Even the latest commercial US products are looking pretty good from an error point of view. The version/mastering may be another issue.
Otherwise use Taiyo-Yuden or Verbatim professional grade CD-R to create discs with the lowest error rates. Burn at the lowest speed you can stand to maximize quality.
I also use a CD scanning software utility for my Plextor drive that scans the burned discs for errors. You want BLER (block error rates) below about 20 C1 errors max at any one point, and an average below 1 or 2 for the whole disc. C2 errors should be zero.
For music, your source files should be "bit perfect" if possible.
I have been scanning a number of MFSL discs and Japanese imports lately. All have been excellent and surpass my criteria above. Even MFSL discs that are 10+ years old. So my point is if you can buy material for a reasonable price (compared to the cost of your time to burn your own), then by all means buy it. And I am not considering the quality of the remastering process, which may add further benefit to buying something as opposed to burning a file from an older rip.
Even the latest commercial US products are looking pretty good from an error point of view. The version/mastering may be another issue.