Enlighten me please - why does the quality of copied audio CD's deteriorate so bad?

[mr_push_pull]

Maybe this is one for the "Digital" section but...
I usually don't make copies of audio CDs but when I first did that I used the most expensive "special for audio blank" and copied a CD with my Asus burner. Well, shock and horror. It sounded worst that a $1 tape copied with on my first boom box. I'm not talking subtlety here. Ever since I use the crummiest CD's I can find and never encountered that deterioration of quality again. But I'm so paranoid with copied audio CD's that I'm always thinking I can hear some distortion and noise.
What are your experiences with copied audio CD's?

[Cal Weldon]

PP,

I can't relate to the problem. When I make copies, I always listen to them and to the original and I can't hear the difference. Mind you, I'm doing it in itunes on a Mac so I can't really tell you what might be the problem, only to say that you can make excellent copies.

Cal

[thomas997]

Maybe your burner is no good?

Are you making a clone of the disc, and are audio settings all on high in the program?

"Special Audio" CD-Rs are a waste of money imo. Just stick with a good known brand with low error rate.

You can also try burning at a lower speed to reduce errors.

cd rating site: www.dvdrhelp.com

[jean-paul]

Originally posted by mr_push_pull
But I'm so paranoid with copied audio CD's that I'm always thinking I can hear some distortion and noise.
What are your experiences with copied audio CD's?

At the end of the cd burning era :

Rip at low speeds with a known good CDROM/DVDROM drive that has a chipset suitable for ripping audio. Leave the pc alone while ripping.

Keep firmware of both CDROM/DVDROM drive and especially CDRW/DVDRW drive up to date as new ( as in newer than the drive itself ) media need different settings of the drive.

Be sure to use UDMA and 32 bit access in the BIOS instead of PIO mode. It would not hurt to update the BIOS before checking. When using W98 please check DMA at the Settings of the optical drives and harddisk.

Especially with mainboards with VIA/SIS chipsets: please install all drivers for the chipset. Certainly with VIA boards, they are called Hyperion !!

Use known good burning software ( Nero, Blindwrite ) and keep it up to date and use good media.

Never copy audio cds "on the fly".

Burn at low speeds ( but not at x 1 and x 2 speed ) like 4 to 8 x max. Also when you have a 52 x speed burner.

Do not open other software while copying audio cds.

Treat your cdrs with care and do not leave them in moisture environment nor in direct sunlight.

I am sure you know that a virusscanner and spyware scanner help to keep your pc clean from any anomalies that could disturb the burning process.




Now listen again.

[steenoe]

why does the quality of copied audio CD's deteriorate so bad?

Normally they don't. Try a 25c disk like most of us.
I have never had that problem. Some shiny company can tell you to buy audiograde CD blanks, but I have never been able to hear the difference Maybe they are even worse than std. disc's? Considering the fact that a bunch of 0's and 1's has to be copi'ed,
where does that leave you? You might have a problem with your burner if this is consisting.

Steen.

[analog_sa]

I used to compalin a lot about the quality of copied cds. Always sounded to me like a couple of bits were missing after a copy. And when you only have 16 to begin with...

Then i changed drives a few times and realised that the extraction is the most important part of copying. And discovered EAC. Recently my copies sound fine; there is still a difference with the originals and one has to be careful with the blanks but generally results are very reasonable.

[steenoe]

I used to compalin a lot about the quality of copied cds. Always sounded to me like a couple of bits were missing after a copy. And when you only have 16 to begin with...

I always complain about having burned copies in my collection. I simple can't have them Not beeing able to pull out the cover and have a little read about the music and musicians is enough to get me started yelling at someone accidentally passing The pleasure is not the same as when you have the real thing. Gave up on this long ago Besides, the artists have to live, somehow

Steen.

[cocolino]

Originally posted by jean-paul
Burn at low speeds ( but not at x 1 speed ) like 4 x max. Also when you have a 52 x speed burner.

I don`t have much own experience in burning CD`s and I can only tell from hearsay that burning at too low speed may be as bad as burning full speed.
Wouldn`t surprise me that this indeed is true and that once more the "golden middle" way would be the best.

[phn]

Maybe this can be of some help.

[Coulomb]

Humm all sounds like Digital black hole logic to me! Digital duplicates should be just that, identical duplicates. This is regardless of the phase of the moon, atmospheric pressure, ambient light, drive speed, etc. etc.

What I have noticed is a lot of players on the market, I mean a huge amount of players on the market are not 100% CDR compatible and though they can read the copied discs they do not play them very well.

That's my two cents anyway.

Anthony