Help me choose a top quality cd burner/program

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by Watersound

I am currently burning CDs using a Lacie firewire with a Mac G5. I have noticed that the cds I burn do not sound as good as the source and although I did a search, I guess many of you are using Plextor/Plextools but it seems like it is only for Windows/PC. What do you recommend...I need to burn CDs that will be going out for mass duplication and want to make sure I don't screw it up. Thanks!

John

Plextools doesn't work on a Mac G5 (probably does on the newer MacIntels running Win I believe...) but Plextor burners do work with Macs (mine does at least!)

Talking about software there is not much around.

Toast for basic tasks.

Jam which I believe has not been updated in a long time ( and I am not sure they ever will).

Waveburner (but you need to buy Logic as it is not longer sold separately)

Bias Peak 5 I believe burns from within the app (haven't had the chance to use it yet)

DSP Quattro

Sonic Studio Premaster CD or Soundblade (probably the most advanced of the lot as it offers DDP support and 2 stereo tracks)

These are the ones I can think of, I am sure I have missed one or two......

[david1103]

The best quality CD burner so far has been one of the Pioneer DVD writers (the latest I think)

You need to use the best media (Taiyo Yuden) at the best speed (certainly less than 24x)

Check http://www.cdrinfo.com/ and go to reviews/optical storage. They analyse the quality of the burners using special hardware and print the full results in the reviews.

Hope that helps.

[dlmorley]

Originally Posted by david1103

The best quality CD burner so far has been one of the Pioneer DVD writers (the latest I think)

You need to use the best media (Taiyo Yuden) at the best speed (certainly less than 24x)

Check http://www.cdrinfo.com/ and go to reviews/optical storage. They analyse the quality of the burners using special hardware and print the full results in the reviews.

Hope that helps.

Where do you get the Taiyo Yuden discs in the UK?
TIA

[Riccardo]

Originally Posted by dlmorley

Where do you get the Taiyo Yuden discs in the UK?
TIA

You can try ProTape or Riverproaudio, I believe there are many more if you look around.

In Belgium it is probably cheaper to buy them from places like mediaPro
http://www.mediaprostore.com

[Adebar]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

Sonic Studio Premaster CD or Soundblade (probably the most advanced of the lot as it offers DDP support and 2 stereo tracks)

thumbsup

PreMaster CD is the way to go.
there is a trial version too.
http://sonicstudio.com/products/pmcd/pmcd01.html

[david1103]

Avoid River Pro Audio like the plague! Trust me.

You want to get your blank media from http://svp.co.uk/

Get Taiyo Yuden Unbranded (48x) 80min CDR, £17.99 for 100

I have used 1000's of these disks for my cd duplication company, not one return ever!

River Pro Audio are w*nkers in every way, SVP are the opposite. SVP have been my main supplier since 2002 and have never questioned returning anything I was not happy with, and never let me down once. Friendly and helpful. Opposite of River Pro Audio.

[dlmorley]

Thanks!
I'll order some from SVP or Mediaprostore