Archiving audio cd's: speed and setup questions :)

[randog]

Greetings,

I'm a newcomer here and I found this place because I've been studying up on the best way to archive my audio cd collection. There's some debate as to whether you can make a copy that sounds better than the original pressing and I won't get into that here, but suffice it to say I'm looking for the best audio quality I can obtain within reason.

I have a Yamaha CRW2200E burner upgraded with the firmware to run Yamaha's Audio Master Quality Recording and the Nero software revision for the same. Now when this feature is used, the drive picks the speed to burn and doesn't display what it is but I'm guessing around 4X.

I've decided on Mitsui Gold cd-r's as the brand and I have a line on getting them at a great price in bulk if I purchase the discontinued 12X version.

My questions: what does the speed on the cd-r label really mean? If my audio cd's are burned at a slower rate than 12X, should I expect the same quality as if they were done on the current 24X (or even future faster blanks)?

Does anyone have any a hitlist of recommendations for the best audio reproduction? (for example, should I remove the burner from the noisy cpu chassis and isolate it or weight it down?, would I be better off using a stand-alone burner?, etc)

Since I am planning to archive my complete collection, I am willing to create a setup that will help to ensure excellent copies.

Thanks for your time and input!

Randog

edit: I forgot to mention that I've been trying to search the archives but it flat out doesn't work for me. Haven't had this problem on other phpbb forums. Am I doing something wrong here? Thx!

[TheWizard]

I think you can achieve the same results with the Yamaha burner in your computer than you could with a stand-alone burner. I think the burner matters more than the actual case it is in, and in your instance, you have one of the better burners for audio recording.

The general rule of thumb for audio recording is to burn at a lower speed, this ensures compatibility with even the most ancient of CD players. My audio burns do not exceed 8X, anything faster and my old portable CD player has a hard time reading the disc. You certainly can burn faster than 8X and have zero problems with your audio equipment, but what if you give the disc to someone else with an older CD player? He may encounter skips and pops in the recording that were not present when you listened to the CD in your player. Again, generally, keep the audio recording speed low.