Burning CDs; QUALITY!!

[mouettus]

Didn't know in which section to put this one so I decided to write it in "general".

Hi guys, just bought a new computer --> new dvd burner. Downloaded some nice flac files and I want to burn them on a CD-R. The only problem is that my new DVD burner burns CD-Rs at 16x minimum. I was wondering if burning an audio CD at that speed could alter the sound quality since I find it pretty fast. I used to burn them at 4x.

I've tried one at 16x and found no artifacts that I could hear troughout the entire album. I know you guys will tell me that if MY ears can't hear the difference, then I souldn't complain but hey; audiophiles always want the best possible quality

Thx for the replies, if any

p.s: I have the latest firmware for my hardware (LG H22L)

 

[JKL1960]

If it's good enough for data it's good enough for music.

The music on the CD is just digital data. If your burner will make accurate copies of your photos and word processing files it will accurately copy your music.

 

[skizzerflake]

it should be OK to go at top speed. Unless you have a dual core PC and software for it, it is probably worth your while to allow the burn to complete when you are not planning to do anything else on the computer. At that speed, it won't take very long anyway, just a few minutes. Data cds are much more fussy about incorrect writes because one wrong bit can trash a program. If the drive is good enough for data, the sound quality for audio cds will be as good as the source material and the basic 44.1/16 bit format will allow.

 

[MDS]

Things change as time goes on...It used to be that you would ideally rip at a low speed like 4x but burn at the highest supported speed of your burner (on the theory that the drive has been 'optimized' to burn its best at its highest speed).

Fast forward to modern times...It doesn't make one bit of difference. You can rip and burn at the maximum speeds and get the exact same 'quality'.

I have been using Sound Forge for over a decade now. I used to rip at 4x. I currently have an NEC DVD burner. I have compared rips with the NEC at 40x to the same rips at 4x from my older Yamaha burner. They are IDENTICAL! Burn one at 16x and one at 40x, rip both tracks back from the CD-R and compare with Sound Forge and again - Identical.

The media has a far greater effect on the resultant CD-R than the burner. Modern drives have 'write strategies' stored in their firmware. That simply means that the drive has been tested with various media and the parameters for a successful burn are stored in the firmware. That is why many drives have a list of recommeded media. In practice, just about all media except the cheapest of the cheap will result in perfect burns at any speed.

 

[j_garcia]

It does seem to matter what speed for me. With 74 min or less, I can burn at 32x, but with data that is more than 74 min (related to the media itself most likely?) I cannot burn faster than 4x without creating coasters out of 1 in 3 discs. Once I dropped to 4x, I have 100% success rate for burning. The quality of the resulting discs doesn't change, but the rate of failure was noticable based on speed alone. I say try it at max and see if it works - if it does, you're all set. If not, drop it down until you find the rate that works best, sticking with the highest rate that your system will do.

With data, it doesn't seem to matter what speed I write at, but then I haven't done any discs with enough of data to fill a disc completely yet.

 

[GlocksRock]

16x is pretty slow anymore for current cd burners, I wouldnt' worry about it at all.

 

[jonnythan]

Bits are bits. The same bits will get on the CD whether you're burning at 1x or 52x.

This isn't analog dubbing. It isn't like the sound quality goes down when you do high speed dubbing on some tapes or something.