Are all CD/DVD writing drives equal?

stevenew · Post by **stevenew** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 4:59 am

Hi,

I just recently finished a home studio recorded/mixed/home mastered(I know but thats how it is) album. During the course of this I would burn a CD in my iMacs slot drive every so often using DSP Quattro, to listen to on the HiFi. The album is going to be mainly for download but I am burning a few CD copies for family/friends and anyone who would prefer CD. I am using good Silver diamond, phthalocyanine based CDs and thought I would use an external Samsung CD/DVD writer housed in a 5.25 USB box to do these as it easier to transfer the disc to the printer for printing than from the slot drive, and I guess I thought it would burn better, less errors etc.

Anyway upon listening to the CDs burned with this external drive I was convinced they sounded different to ones burnt in the iMacs drive. They are both burnt from the same disc image in DSP Quattro using the same type of disc but definitely sound different, its subtle but can be heard. The discs burnt in the slot drive are superior, deeper tighter bass, cleaner extended top. Being listened to through a Rega CD player & amp, Castle Speakers.

Any thoughts?

Steve

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 5:07 am

For a start, you could import some data from each of the two disk, and try a null test. The disks should be a digital copies. Otherwise, they'd be useless for copying or backing up files. If the write sessions verified correctly, and the files don't cancel each other in the null test, something is wrong with at least one of them.

stevenew · Post by **stevenew** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:42 am

Hi,

Excellent idea and they null completely, so I guess my ears must be psychologically biased towards the slot drive.

Btw I was totally sober when listening:-)

Thanks

Steve

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 7:35 am

Great. All is right with the world then. Even on Dec 22!

HCMarkus · Post by **HCMarkus** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:34 am

bayswater wrote:Great. All is right with the world then. Even on Dec 22!

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 10:28 am

Back to the OP...

For the most part, yes on most drives that you would buy new.

The Apple drives, both internal and the bus powered USB, are a lot slower, taking as long as 3x to burn a CD or DVD. Read times are much slower, too.

MOTUnation.com

Are all CD/DVD writing drives equal?

Are all CD/DVD writing drives equal?

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