Disc colour = darker is better

[rick57]

There is a website where a guy found that black
CDRs gave a better sound reproduction, and that Black Diamond was the best of the blacks.

A friend went to a computer swap meet and bought
some Melody Black Diamond. He recorded an LP onto his computer, from which he burnt a copy onto a cheapie Gold and the above mentioned Black.

He was very supprised to note that the Black sounded better. Later five others agreed. In a very quick comparison I thought in simple terms the difference was like a class A amp vs a class AB, ir the blck was warmer and clearer.

Given that the gold disc was a cheapie, he tried again with a TDK XA80 Audio CDR Blue. Two people found that the black was still better but the TDK was very close.

Any other comparisons?

Does anyone know if there are similar choices & issues in using CDs for dedicated audio burners? Presumably similar colour effects, if there are similar choices?

Cheers

Richard

[Netlist]

Interesting, can you give us some more details about the way you performed the tests. Did you do blind listening test?

BTW, I have a fairly good method to organize blind listening test.
It’s a bit complicated but I‘ll try to post it one of these days.
Meanwhile try this site: http://www.cdrfaq.org/

/Hugo

[jleaman]

i too like black cd's i find that cd players that cant read cd-r's will read the black cd's..

[rick57]

It was just a simple 'play 30 seconds of one CD, then play 30 seconds of the same music on another CD'.

The difference was apparent after just a few seconds. I would say the black CD was about 10 or 20% better.

[Netlist]

And what about all the other colors?
I have to admit I'm rather skeptical about all this fancy stuff.


/Hugo - Experts will shed some light here.

[jleaman]

I'd Like to find more coloured cd's so i can code my cd's for my aplications and stuff for my computers heh.: O )

[rick57]

Searches showed
http://www.tweakaudio.com/Cd%20tweaks.html
"#10. Some people have said that copying a CD onto a black CDR sounds better"

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5500
Where Virtua Trancer states:
"I've heard supposed *audiophiles* say that the black cdr's give a warmer sound to audio cd's however i never heard the difference so i think thats just a bunch of BS"

Mmmm, warmth was the #1 attribute i hear.
I guess trancers generate there own warmth.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/11470
"memorex blacks are more reliable than all the other cds that many manufacturers make, especially memorex itself.
it seems to me memorex dun really care bout their cheap light cds very much (that's why they r so cheap), but tries everything they could to make sure their black ones r always of hi quality"

Worth a try

[Christer]

A locally well-known tweaker and audiophile, Josef Svalander,
wrote about this a few years ago, claiming the black Memorex
CDRs superior then. I saw that he has found a new favourite,
though, and I don't remember if they are black. He also favours
the german idea of cutting the edges to 43 degree (or 47 or
whatever it was) by a special machine, and you can even send
him your CDs to get them cut. He even have a few packs of
CDs, one normal, one black, one with cut edges and maybe a
few more, that you can borrow from him, you just pay the
postage (onlu within Sweden, I am afraid). All of this things
have to do with (or, well, are supposed to have to do with)
stray light and/or undesired reflections of laser light. Another
comment he made was that portable CD players sound much
better if you cover the window some of them have on the lid.

This is taken from memory, but I think it is an accurate account
of what he wrote, which of course is purely based on his
subjective impressions. I don't think his own text is available
in english, but I may have a look if someone is interested.

[Netlist]

An important thing to consider is that there are not too many cdr manufactures. Many buy their cdr's from the same production plant.
This means the brand of cd is not a good source to determine if a cd is "good" or "less good".
The only way to know who is who is reading the ATIP code.
This can be done by a little program CDIdentifier that can be downloaded freely. Watch out: there are two different programs out-there with the same name. You need of course the one that reads ATIP.
Nero also has that feature but less accurate.
Now, as this is the only objective info you can get, I wouldn't be surprised that two different brands are compared, people will appreciate them differently, but when reading the APIC they could be the same.

/Hugo

[Nuuk]

The CD in a CD player is read by a laser, ie light. Surely the greater contrast between the laser and the ambient light level surrounding it will make for better performance!

When I modified my CD723 to a top loader, I went to some lengths to make sure that the lid was 'lightproof' and that the disk compartment was lined with black felt material to keep things as dark (and acoustically quiet) as possible.

Using black disks would be a logical extension of this approach.