Are CDR Audios better than normal CDRs?

[icebergx]

Hi all,
just wanted to know a bit about these audio CDRs.
a) Can they be used in a PC's CD writer as well as a standalone recorder?
b) Are they any different to standard CDRs?
c) when burned on on PC/Standalone do they provide better compatability with standard CD players than regular CDRs (some of my burned CDs don't playback perfectly on my home/car CD players)?

Thanks,

Iceberg.

[noki]

a) Yes.
b) Yes, higher reflectivity index. reflectivity of cdrs about 62, reflectivity of pressed cds about 72, and reflectivity of audio cdrs about 68. by comparision reflectivity of cdrws about 25. It is said that the higher the reflectivity index the more compatible it is with home/auto players. makes sense. most people do not have any problem playing standard cdrs. sounds like you are one of the lucky few who do. audio cdrs are down to about $0.75 each on sale while cdrs are, well, free at times after rebate
c) Yes.

[vitualis]

(a) Yes

(b) Yes - but nothing to do with "reflectivity". They are ordinary CD-Rs. Many companies will pass off saying that they are more compatible / optimised for audio burning but I would take this with SCEPTICISM. IF they are any different to ordinary CD-Rs, it would be that they are optimised for lower speed burning (thus, not too different from CD-R discs from a few years ago). The only other difference is that Audio CD-R discs have some sort of additional marker put on the disc that audio CD recorders can identify. This serves no purpose other than allowing audio CD recorders to reject normal CD-Rs. This marker is ignored by PC CD-R/W drives.

The other difference is that Audio CD-Rs invariably cost more as there is a tarriff that apparently goes to the media companies.

(c) Advertising will suggest that they are though empiric experience states otherwise. IMHO, audio CD-Rs are no better than ordinary ones and el-cheapo audio CD-R discs are probably WORSE than ordinary ones. If you care about the quality of your audio CDs, then I suggest: (i) getting a high quality CD burner (the high end Yamaha burners have special audio CD burning modes that yield lower levels of jitter), (ii) get high quality CD blanks (e.g., Verbatim Datalife Plus with the metal azo formulation), (iii) high quality source material (if you are backing up an audio CD... use something like EAC rather than the super fast ripping routines in most commercial burning programs).

Best regards.

[mike1061]

If audio CDr's are the same as music CDr's, that are the same. Part of the proceds went to the music industry. I'm not even sure that do that anymore though. I saw info at cdfreaks.com about how CDs are made.
Thanks Mike

[icebergx]

Thanks for the quick response, much appreciated.
One more thing. I especially have this problem with mp3s which have been converted so that they can be played on normal cd players (usually done through NERO 6.0). Could this also have an effect?
What would be the best tool to do this mp3>CD conversion and burn it to CDR.

Thanks again for all your help.

[indolikaa]

'CD-R for Audio' discs have a flag bit that CD-Audio Recorders look for before they will initialize. If the deck doesn't see the flag, the deck won't engage. It's very similar to SCMS, which prevents you from making an exact digital copy of a digital copy.

As for your MP3 conversions, that's a good question. I use SoundForge to convert all my MP3s to WAVs for burning. I wouldn't let Nero touch them, even v5.5.10.42 which is 100% stable on my system...

I also use Advanced WMA Workshop without problems.

[dbecker]

you arfe wasting money buying music cdr's ... these were made for the standalone music cd recorders....they have a different setup and the extra money for these went to pay for copyrights.. as for converting mp3's to audio that would play in a standalone cd player, get the trial version of feurio at www.feurio.com... it has a little bit of a learning curve but it does the best with mp3's..

[vitualis]

I personally would always use a third party program to convert any MP3s to uncompressed WAV first before burning an audio CD.

I usually use Winamp out of convenience.

If you want the best possible quality, you should probably use the MAD decoder which internally handles the audio in 24 bits and then renders it to 16-bits. It apparently sounds better (but I can't tell the difference).

Best regards.

[Kurt S]

That's intersting about the MAD decoder. Why would you take an MP3 that was most likely ripped from a 16 bit source convert it to 24 bit, then dithered back down to a 16 bit format? Seems to me this would just create more dithering artifacts then it would create better sound.

[vitualis]

Read the documentation for MAD.

It makes sense. In essence it has to do with rounding error... you get less error in the least significant bit.

Best regards.

[proton]

Most simpel solution: buy CDR's from the brand MAM-E , they got a reflectivity of 72! And got a better dye layer! I lately bought a spindle of 25 for about $8 ! Seems these CDR's have indeed a 100 years lifetime, because of that new dye.

[vitualis]

A 100 year warranty is irrelevant if the company that makes it isn't around that long...

As for "better dye layer"... says who? The advertisers?

Best regards.

[proton]

No, independant tests show that.

[vitualis]

Do the independent testers publish their results openly so that they can be scrutinised and verified? (i.e., do you have a link).

Best regards.

[indolikaa]

Yeah, I'd like to see a link to that, too.

[Delerious]

I use Lame to decode to wav (--decode), or the razorlame
front-end.

[hech54]

I have an old Philips CD Recorder that supposedly only accepts Music CD-R's but I have yet to find a blank CD-R that it won't record on. I don't get it. I'm not complaining but just can't understand it.
The Philips is actually my wife's. I bought a Pioneer instead WAY back then because I read some not-so-flattering reviews of the Philips recorders. Are they making regular CD-R's more compatible nowadays or something?

[lordsmurf]

Yes, now.

In the old days of CD-R, all of them had that blue dye and high reflectivity because Verbatim, Sony, Maxell and Pioneer made good CD-R discs. I'm talking like 1995-1998 timeframe.

These days, only Verbatim does well, and it's not the same dye, still not as good as music discs. Maxell now sucks. Sony is so-so and Pioneer is gone.

I still have a stash of 5-year-old discs I use for my music collection. They still burn fine. Sometimes the Memorex Cool Colors or the Verbatim inkjet media can be found to work, but it's not flawless, not like a Music CD-R.

They did it to jack up the price on good discs (actually, leave them at $1 each like they were in '98) and then made all this cheap junk too.

[hech54]

I'm not sure you follow me.
The original CD Recorders only accepted Music CD-R's to record on and would NEVER accept a regular CD-R.
This CD Recorder is now accepting regular "computer" CD-R's - ones that have NO purple die showing on the recording surface.