Continuing our recent thread of audio CD burning issues and inSync reader responded with the following: “To further cloud the issue of CD audio extraction … I was told that the brand of media used when burning CDs makes a difference in the sound quality. How can that be? Digital is digital.” This person goes on to describe in great detail testing he did on various media that did reveal obvious (to his ears) differences in sound quality.
This isn’t a surprise. All other things being equal digital is digital and should be able to be replicated. Of course in the world of CD burning and playback all is definitely NOT equal. There are a number of variables that can affect the quality of CD audio. Errors on the disc and how the error correction of the playback machine responds to it are one. There are those who also believe the physical properties of the disc (mass, roundness, how flat it is, etc) can cause differences. Further, discs are not all even burned exactly the same way. Some burners and some media cause the data to be written differently from one another. I don’t know of any scientific studies cataloging these differences and their net effect on the audio, but I’ll bet it’s out on the Internet somewhere. The bottom line is that with all of these subtle variations there isn’t much you can do other than experiment with your equipment and read up on the subject. You will become as much of an expert on it as your desire pushes you to be. The raw information is all out there.