Best CDR brand for making CD copies

I use a Philips CDR 820, a 3-disc changer and CD recorder combo to make CD copies of audio CDs. So far, I have only used Memorex brand Music CDR for recording. For other forum members who make CD copies the same way, what is the best Music CDR in your opinion? It may sound strange, while I rip MP3 files from my PC (and regular audio CD) onto my MP3 player, I have never recorded any CD on my computer. My understanding is my Philips will not work with CDRs intended for computer.

 

I have a good luck with Taiyo Yuden; they are highly rated. You can price them on line at www.rima.com.

 

I buy whatever brand says made in Japan. Sometimes its Memorex, currently its sony.

 

go for gold they last forever especially the 24 karat gold MFSL cd-R from Anton

 

See this thread --> http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=88030

 

Maxell CD-R Music Pro's are a favorite around this house.

Just make sure they're the Japan made ones NOT Taiwan.

 

I have a standalone Philips CD recorder too, the old CDR880 that one could trick into using computer discs by manually pulling out the drawer and inserting the cheaper disc.

Lately, I've had problems buying CD-R blanks, since the easy-to-be-gotten Memorex CD-R's don't want to work in this unit anymore. If I put one in, I get a message saying OPCFAIL. If I use the old swap trick, however, I can use these discs, just as if they were data discs - but they say "MUSIC" on them.

I thought perhaps it was a bad batch, and went to a different store and bought a different flavor of Memorex discs - colored ones. These exhibited the same exact problems. The stories I've read on Internet postings indicate that others are having the same problem since Memorex switched to a 40x speed disc. Our old recorders are having trouble with those.

Since then I've found some Sony blank discs that seem to work properly, but it's dismaying that my choices these days seem to be limited.

Harry

 

Maxell sells quite a few variety of CDR's, many of them have "Music" on their packaging labels, though I do not believe they will all work on my Philips audio CD recorder unless the CDR explicitly says "digital audio" on it.

 

Harry, Thanks for comparing notes. It is particularly useful since we both have audio CD recorders made by the same manufacturer. I bought my Memorex in a spindle of 50, I believe at my local CompUSA a few years ago. I have not shopped at CompUSA in a while since it changed control due to its subsequent lousy customer service (it is now owned by Carlos Slim, some Mexican billionaire). My Memorex CDR has a white label that also says digital audio. I have never used any other CDR's (about to finish my original Memorex spindle) since the owners manual says the 820 will not work with CDR that does not say digital audio. As I have been shopping mainly online, it is not clear which of the Maxell-made CDRs will actually work on my 820 since many of them are sold in bundle that also say "Music" on the packaging label. I suspect most of them will not work with the 820. That forced swap you described was possible initially probably due to an unintended design flaw, as the music industry wanted to make sure people paid more to get the digital audio only CDRs.

 

will it say where their made on the packaging???...Japan or elsewhere...
thanks,
Bill

 

I would think so. But Maxell shifted the manufacturing of cassette tapes from Japan to Mexico a number of years ago. I would imagine some of their CDR's are probably made in Mexico also. The only way to tell is to shop in person since you can never tell where something was made if you buy it online.

 

The Black CD's

http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/whitepaper/White Paper on Black CDs ver 3.1.pdf
(.pdf, 2.5 MB)

 

I use the black memorex cd-r's, they work well, can't say really about sonics but they sure work just fine.

 

I too had used CD-R (Music) blanks from Memorex in the past, and they worked just fine. Then I got this new batch that have a "40x" on the outside label (not on the disc). These differ slightly in appearance too. The old Memorex discs that worked had a picture of the breaking glass on the left side and were bluish in color on the data side. The new ones have no pictures of a breaking glass, and look a very pale green, but more silver on the data side.

When I poked around the Internet, others were discussing the Memorex brand as no longer working, doing the OPCFAIL things, and they blamed it on the newer "40x" speed capabilities. My recorder is only 1x - that is, I can only record in real time, so it's having a problem with these newer, faster discs - at least as far as checking compatibility goes. By the way, I was looking in a store just this afternoon and saw some Memorex CD-R's listed as "52x", so I'd bet these wouldn't work either!

As I said, since my unit has that design "flaw" where I can put in a "good" disc, let it do it's compatibility check, and then pull out the drawer with my finger, and then put in one of these faster discs, and manually push it closed, I find I CAN use these discs, just not as conveniently. I've used a few this way, and they seem to work fine. I'm using them for straight disc copies rather than stop-and-start recordings like a home-made compilation.

Your recorder doesn't have that "flaw", - I believe it was only the 770 and the 880 that did - so you'd be out of luck. Try another brand. As I said, I've had luck with Sony since this recent incident, and I might try the Maxell's again too, though I've had problems with those in the past.

Harry

 

The Maxell Pro line is - to this day - specifically made in Japan by Taiyo Yuden. It's a toss-up when it comes to all of Maxell's other lines.

 

Harry, I doubt these particular Memorex CDRs that I bought a few years ago are still being made. My 820 can copy up to 4X the regular speed. The CD drive on most computers are at least 16X today but audio CD recorders have basically disappeared from the consumer market due to the popularity of MP3 players. I guess I may have to try my local BestBuy and see what it carries. It is better than shopping online and end up getting the wrong CDRs.

 

Am I missing something here? Why are you using a standalone CD recorder that only does 1x write? You could use a DVD/CD burner in a computer that handily uses the new higher speed discs. The new computer drives are very cheap as well.

As far as the blanks go, anything made in Japan by TY is good. I especially like the Maxell CDR Pro's. Although I have used Verbatim and they seem to work very well at speeds from 24x to 40x.

 

I have a computer burner but at this point have chosen not to use it for music CDs. If forced in that direction, I'll do so, but I prefer the standalone machine for my purposes. It's part of my stereo system and doesn't have to interface with a computer.

Harry

 

I still don't get this thinking. CD's are digital and so are computers. You are only passing digital bits from the original to the copy. A computer is the perfect tool to handle this "digital situation". Also, trying to burn a current CDR blank at such a low rate of speed will result in more issues than burning the disc at the rated speed (or slightly below). Most of the current CDR blanks are either 48x or 52x. I would not burn those at anything less than 24x. I also notice no difference in the outcome from a quality perspective. They sound great and play anywhere. I have also left lots of these discs out in my car for months in the heat and the cold and they always play without an issue. I think the only disc that has ever gone "bad" on me was a factory produced CD of Robbie Robertson's first album. All of a sudden it started skipping with no visible scratches or anything on the surface.

No problems with CDR blanks though......not yet anyway....A 5 minute burn is a beautiful thing.

 

I use my computer too and burn at 24x sppeds. I did a comparo a while back and found no differences between a 4x burn and a 24x burn.

Of course if you read Audiophile you would believe that 'black' CDs sound best. My ears simply aren't good enough for that statement.

 

Verbatim...I've never had one that didn't play in every player I own.

 

My computer is in one room and my stereo equipment is in another. At this point, doing "audio work" on the computer would be cumbersome at best. Most of my CD recording work has been of the LP to CD variety, digitizing favored albums that'll never see the light of day on commercially- produced CD's. For me, it just makes sense to have a standalone recorder, and I've had one since the late 1990's, when these things first started appearing.

I understand that computer burners give more control over editing, noise reduction, etc., but 99% of the time, I'm not looking to do that. I prefer to hear the pops and clicks on LP's anyway - it's a sign that I'm getting all of the gorgeous vinyl sounds as originally intended and am losing nothing. Naturally, some noisier records are problematic - but then they've always been.

So, if I'm a relic for using a standalone recorder, then so be it. As long as I can continue to do what I need to do and am happy, that's all that should matter. Obviously "coopmv" is in a similar situation, and I was trying to help out with what I know on the subject.

Harry

 

Ahh....now it makes sense. I actually tried doing this on my computer and the sound card seemed to end up in some quality loss. I can see why you want to do this the way that you are doing it.

 

Hi all,

I used to own a Philips CDR-820. Memorex Music CD-R discs didn't work in it. Sonys were fine as well as Maxell in Music discs. Manual track insertion was very fiddly. My boss got it for me and then took it back and got me a Tascam CD-RW 750 which records on standard CD-R and RW discs and is a pro unit. In this unit, I love Verbatim CD-R Vinyl Azo discs, MAM-R Gold and Silver, Apogee, Mobile Fidelity UltraDiscs, HHb gold and silver, Fuji, Maxells, and Taiyo Yuden discs. The Tascam also sounds better.

 

On my Philips CDR-820, I have used nothing but the Memorex Music CDR, the one with the shattering glass image on the front and says digital audio. I am still on the original spindle of 50, which are about to run out and I got them a few years back. My sense is, Memorex may no longer be making this particular CDRs. To be sure, I just got a new high-powered Intel core duo Pentium Dell laptop two weeks ago and can certainly burn music CD's on that computer. However, I love my full-sized sound systems and have always preferred to listen to music the traditional way. I just do not want to burn any music CD's that are playable only on my computer. Any music CDs I made on the Philips CDR-820, I can be sure I can play it anywhere. If I can make perfect copy of music CD on my computer and play it anywhere, I will surely start doing just that since 4X is the fastest copying speed I have on the Philips recorder.