The Verbatim Digital Vinyl CD-Rs are made by Mitsubishi Chemical as the recording dye on that media is the Azo dye that can't be recorded above 12X (at least with any Lite-On clone). However, they're excellent for the DiscT@2 feature on my Yamaha CRW-F1.
$24.99 is not that bad for 100 DataLifePlus CD-Rs
considering that Verbatim blank CD-Rs are hardly ever offered with incentives (read: rebates) (the blank DVD media is a different story). But compared to the Fuji, Maxell, Memorex, and Imation deals available at Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, etc....yeah, it's high.
The 48X is the first DataLifePlus that burns with few (if any) errors on the TDK VeloCD 4800B (or any high-speed Lite-On clone for that matter). I did read somewhere that Verbatim had Lite-On test and approve the 48X DataLifePlus CD-Rs.