Burning cd's for my modestly high-end system...

Are you downloading compressed music? Most of Limewire is mp3. That's this biggest problem I see.

I'm with Elevick. Your quality may already be compromised. Furthermore, downloading music without paying is illegal. Don't do it. Everything you do can be traced and is backed up and stored on servers somewhere => your IP address identifies you. And the tools and technology to catch people is getting BETTER and FASTER. It is only a matter of time before these activities get caught. It is only the sheer volume that slows the process down and may mean that people are given amnesty. (Just read the newspaper about the way they are now catching child porn and you will see that technology is being developed to track/catch people.)

In Canada there is a levy on every blank CD-R to fund artists - yep believe it or not if you are HONEST then in Canada you get SCREWED and pay TWICE...once when you download from iTunes and AGAIN when you buy blank CD-R. So I understand Canadians who feel that free downloading is completely justfied...Go Figure!!

Must respectfully disagree with the "CDs are CDs" claim. Stick with name brand such as TDK, Maxell, Sony, Fuji, Imation, etc. Office Depot, Memorex and those of the ilk are prone to error and will miss track and pop more readily. And they do sound differently under close scrutiny. The Matsui are probably the best of the lot, but expensive.

Celtic, I've been using Memorex Black CD-Rs exclusively for the past 2 years and never had a bad disc. Burn on lowest possible speed.
I also use Mitsui discs.
BTW, Matsui is a baseball player in NY Yankees :)

You are right though, CD-Rs sound different and for some recordings I do prefer Memorex Black because I found them to sound a bit smoother than Mitsui.

I burn CDs using Nero7. I like it better than Roxio.

Hi, in my professional DVD copiers I have found the following:
Pioneer 112 sounds better than any other under $60 burner, and the LG (frgot the model) "top of the line DVD burner" sounds better than that at $89.
As for the disc, in CDs TDK and Tascam sound very similar and I'de use nothing less. However for taste the Maxell's have tubey mid-bloom.
There are gold discs that sound much better in total balance than either of those, but those are the least I'd use.
Place your computer on some type of zorb pucks as there's alot there that can cause mechanical or electro-mechanical vibrations.
There's a few other things, like demag the discs, or put them on a disc lathe to perfectly cutting them.
I will only speak of the actual physical end of it and I guarenty that this will make a dif to even a Sony boom box as a playback device. Especially the choice of disc; where as the other features may take better gear to detect. But if a Rotel (which I liked) can, than the $500 players are either worth the investment or not.
Forgive me being jaded.