Does burning speed of audio make any difference?

[hyperion133]

I've got a friend who swears that a CD burned at 2x or 4x will sound very noticeably better than one burned at higher speeds. Since I only have a set of mid-quality computer speakers to listen through I have no way to check this out for myself. Is there any difference in the quality of CDs burned at slower speeds when played back through true high-fidelity home systems?

Thanks.

 

[VIPER_1069]

in a word erm sort of ...er thats two words !?

PLEXTOR drives have used

for AUDIO BURNING this is information from plextors guide to

VARIREC

some people claim they can hear a difference !?

some cannot !?

its a personnal thing i think hehe

 

[VIPER_1069]

2nd part of varirec doc ...

 

[dx]

Welcome to the group hyperion133! Stop by this link and introduce yourself. http://www.cdrbase.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=141

Burning audio at those speeds certainly wont hurt anything. But, burning all the way up to 24x is generally considered the maximum safe for audio burning. In fact some burner companies stop you at that speed for quality results.

Mind you, you must also take into account your burner. Never burn at max speed. Most burners are not as reliable at full speed.

Slower speed burning gives you more accurate results. The burned pits will be better and the burn accuracy will be improved.

Will their be an audible difference? Yes and No. The audio won't be "sweeter" per say, but it will be more accurate. If your error correction circuitry is constantly kicking in because of a poor burn, then yes it is possible that the disc will sound inferior and will possibly have unrecoverable data. Error correction circuitry is not always the same from manufacturer to manufacturer, so some players may not completely correct the missing data leading to poorer audio recovery and quality.

Also very important is your CDR media. Quality media should always be used and never at its max speed for best results.

Mind you, this has always been a debatable topic because it is subjective. If your friend swears by 2x or 4x, let him do so. Perhaps his burner is 8x max. But if you have a more modern burner, keep it below 24x and away from your max burning speed.

Other than that, do some blind testing of your own to see if you hear anything different

 

[Strahlen]

Neat question, never go above 16x myself.. (I'm not that impatient..)

>>X<<

 

[dx]

Neat question, never go above 16x myself

Me too bud. I'm a little more conservative than the 24x....but that is a personal choice.

16x for audio and 24x for data. And I use a 40x burner with 48x media. I would rather have a quality burn, than shave a few seconds off the burn time

 

[RASTABT]

Once again it's all down to your PC and hardware. Take in account of the media also many out there are very picky...most program have a built in test to see at what speed you can burn on the fly etc. I tend to burn my audio at 8x sometime's up to 16x on my 40x burner since I'm not in a rush for my disk... These hi speed burner out now I would tend to burn at one 1/3 or one 1/4 of the max speed.....

 

[Wedge]

My experience....

A good question and always debatable due the analog human ear.

I personally burn no higher than 16x for audio cds, and this is with media that is rated no less and being 32x capable. I use an LG 8160B CDRW drive and a handy little (and free) program called Burnatonce. I'm happy with the results. It sounds as good as burns that have traditionally been at 2x and 4x on an older Sony CDRW drive I have, only the burn is a hell of a lot faster.

I do not have an extremely expensive, high-end, high-fidelity stereo system; therefore, I can not vouch for the audio quality at that level. But for all other "normal" cd players the quality is as good as any cd I have every bought. In other words, I think the quality is damn good.

Assuming your CDRW drive is modern and you are using reliable media, my opinion is that you can burn anywhere between 8x - 16x and retain all perceptible quality.

 

[Strahlen]

I'm delighted so many of you have the same habits re:audio 16x.. just never saw the appeal, I tried 32x around 3 times only.. the vibrations and noise alone quickly gave me the impression that the hike in speed also hiked up the odds of something going wrong..

>>X<<

 

[Wedge]

I'm delighted so many of you have the same habits re:audio 16x.. just never saw the appeal, I tried 32x around 3 times only.. the vibrations and noise alone quickly gave me the impression that the hike in speed also hiked up the odds of something going wrong..

>>X<<

Yeah, Strahlen I'm like you when you say "I'm not that impatient". I don't mind burning at 8x or even slower, but the point I was hoping to make is that I can perceive no difference between an audio cd burned at 2x than one burned at 16x, when using my particular hardware and media. My opinion might be different with a different setup, but this is my general recommendation with *modern* equipment.

 

[scarecrow]

The ONLY secure answer is that you should not push your burner using something else than pure CAV burning mode- as zone-CLV and p-cav can insert C2 errors, which are not welcome with audio CD's.
Unfortunately, you did not mention your burner, so the only answer one can give is: use it at the max. speed it works as CAV.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Ditto. I wonder if Sony/Phillips designed the CD-Audio standard with an error correction as strong as ISO all this "quality" doubts will still exist. The CD-Rippers will not exist too, only a straight copy of the .pcm or .whatever files from the CD!

 

[scarecrow]

Well, it would not exist surely, and an audio CD copy would be trivial, but unfortunately its a little bit too late to write again the red book from scratch...

 

[The-poacher]

Well I know what U are supposed to do but I HAVE always burned Audio from MP3 at the top speed of my burner & they are fine.They may have errors but they sound fine.