Burning Audio CDs for old CD players

[damon]

I have solved the problem with my Philips CD-RW after install of new drivers for WinOnCD.
Anyway. I burned two audio CDs on Maxell 80 min. 48x compatible media. My old CD player Techics read the discs but sometimes skips especially when is cold (when the player warms the skips are rare) - the skipping problems are present and with dirty matrix discs - I know that the Player is dying but the situation in the moment is not so bad anyway. I tried other Audio CD-R recorded before three years and there is no problem with playing with my Technics. Where is the problem - media or writer or the two? I recorded the discs in TAO mode with 4x speed. And what media should I use for pure AudioCD for Audio CD-player not CD-ROM? Can I get better results at high speeds - 8x, 12x... or try 650MB media. Or change the writer...

[cfitz]

You will just have to do some experimenting like you have already begun to do. Some people say cyanine discs (e.g. TY) are better since they are easier for burners to burn. Others say phthalocyanine discs (e.g. Ritek, CMC - your Maxell discs are phthalocyanine) are better since they have higher reflectivity and, if you will be keeping the discs in your car, are more resistant to the detrimental effects of sunlight. For what it is worth, my 17-year old Realistic (Radio Shack) CD player handles cheap Memorex CMC discs and good quality Fuji TY discs equally well.

People often find that slower burns make discs that are more playable in audio CD players, but this isn't a guarantee. Some of the newer high-speed burners are apparently optimized for the rigors of high-speed burning at the expense of slow-speed burning and actually make better quality discs at moderate to high burn speeds.

Yamaha drives come with an Advanced Music Quality (AMQ) feature that they claim improves the sound quality of audio discs. It may also improve the readability of the discs, but I haven't been able to discern any difference on the AMQ discs I burned with my CRW-3200EZ.

Sorry I don't have any single, definitive answer. As with many things in life, there isn't any one, easy answer. Continue experimenting and find what works best for you.

cfitz

[jase]

In addition, some modern media also burns better at slightly higher speeds. I would try the same discs at 8x or 16x (I find the best compromise speed is generally between these two) and see how that goes.

If you want the best media for older drives, my personal experience is that Mitsui SG tend to work where others don't. My crappy old Bush (a once-great British company who is now reduced to rebadging far-eastern junk) mini-system I have in the kitchen only takes Mitsui CDRs, everything else it struggles with.

[damon]

I've read some documents in Internet and understand the best results will come after experimentations with media. That's for sure...
I knew that audio CDs must be burned in TAO mode, but I've read in a site this: "In TAO mode, each track of the CD is laid down in a separate session. The result is that some garbage is left behind in between each track. That garbage does two things. First, it can cause pops or clicks on some players when they read over that section. Second, on any player, it causes a two second gap to appear between tracks. This means you can't have music running continuously; at the end of every track, there's a pause whether you want one or not. For both these reasons, only DAO mode is recommended for making audio CDs".
And the question is: TAO or DAO mode for audio CDs?

[cfitz]

And the question is: TAO or DAO mode for audio CDs?

Sorry. I meant to address that in my first post but lost track of it amongst all the other stuff I wrote. Neither audio nor data CD's must be burned in TAO mode, and DAO is better for audio.

cfitz