Feurio Questions & Answers - Feurio! CD-Writer
general questions:
Which write speed should I use?
Question: Which write speed should
I use? I have heard that CDs burned at higher speed don't sound "as good". Is
this true?
Answer:
Basically the answer to this is "Rubbish".
The CD is a digital medium and if the data is burned "correctly", then the same
data is read - and thus the same sound is produced!
We took different CDs (burned at different speeds) and reread the data after
burning and compared it with the burned data:
We couldn't tell them apart!
The data, which the CD-ROM reads from CD-Rs burned at 1-times, 2-times, 4-times,
8-times and 12-times is identical - and therefore it sounds the same.
BUT:
Don't forget that the optical properties of CD-Rs are different than those of
normal "pressed" CDs- in particular the reflection properties are different.
A CD-ROM has as a general rule been especially adapted to read CD-Rs (Providing
it is not very old) and is equipped with better error correction.
The fact that "normal" audio-CD players read CD-Rs at all is a thorn in the side
of the music industry.
We have noticed that some audio CD players have problems with some CD-Rs, in
particular those with a green coating which have been burned at high speed.
Our theory on this is as follows:
To oversimplify the matter, the data on a CD is saved in a kind of "Morse-code"
(i.e. so-called "lines" and "dots", (called "Pits") ).
When burning a CD the laser burns the pits into the material of the CD-R. (This
is really a very simplified way of explaining things).
The problem is the following: To be able to write these "lines" and "dots", the
laser has to be switched on and off. Of course the laser takes a certain amount
of time to get to full power. As the time is constant (or at higher write speeds
even increases as with higher write speeds even higher laser performance is required)
but the CD rotates faster at higher write speeds, then the pits become "less
sharp" at higher speeds.
Furthermore the laser has to give 12 times the performance at 12 times write
speed to burn a "hole" just as deep - whether every writer is really capable
of that?
So why could the CD burned sound different?
As mentioned audio CD players were not designed specially to play home-burned
CDs. The "less sharp" the pits are (due to the higher write speed), the harder
it is for the CD player to read in the data correctly.
Due to the structure of a CD, a certain number of read errors can be corrected.
If too many read errors occur, the CD player "interpolates" (in simple terms:
It "guesses" the missing values); as it then of course plays other data, it would
also sound different and may even be audible!
Summary:
Unfortunately there is not a clear judgment on this - in some of the news groups
bitter "wars of faith" are conducted on this. It even goes so far that some people
say they can hear the difference between different programs - or even different
SCSI controllers.
As long as the writer burns correctly and has a strong enough laser, then in
my opinion burning at high speed does NOT cause a loss of quality!
Here again it depends on the correct combination of CD-Writer - CD-R - write
speed - CD-Player. It is very plausible that a certain CD writer can not write
a certain CD-R "well" at a certain speed and therefore a certain CD player can
not read the CD 100% correctly and therefore while playing values are interpolated
and thus a sound distortion happens.
The only option is to Try it Out!
CAUTION: We also know of writers which do NOT produce "good" CDs at maximum
burn speed. In particular if a writer is "flashed up" (e.g. use tricks to flash
the 6x firmware into the 4x model) then you can be sure that that the writer
probably will not write optimally at 6x. Probably during production the laser
diodes were selected correspondingly - the "good" models then got the 6x seal
of approval and the rest just the 4x seal.
But otherwise particularly with "Cheap writers" it is possible that the laser
diode is not strong enough to do the job and thus at maximum write speed optimal
CDs can not be burned.
Therefore our recommendation: If you have
time, we would recommend anyone not to burn audio CDs at maximum speed - it can't
harm in our opinion anyway!
For example with an 8x writer I would recommend a write speed of 4x!
CAUTIONThese are all just assumptions!
See also:
Questions and Answers - Feurio! CD-Writer general
questions
Questions and Answers - Feurio! CD-Writer problem-solving
Questions and Answers - Main Page
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