cdr mistake (1 Viewer)

[don b mullis]

all htf members,
I recommended 'durabrand' cdr's
(sold @ walmart) on the basis of a
fellow audiophiles
recommendation.After completion of
my memorex blanks I recorded a
couple of these'durabrand' blanks
on my pioneer 509. Unfortunately
both playback & recording was
flawed to the point of being
unusable in any of my cd players.
For those who purchased these, I
apologize, & for those who haven't
then beware of these cdr's.
Thanks,
Don M.

 

[Scott Strang]

If you can find those Nashua's at Wal-Mart (50 for $9) they work very well for me. I have a Marantz CDR-615 and an HP 8200 USB burner. For audio they've played back in every player I've tried. Cheap Sony Walkman, wife's Delco player and my Delco player.
These discs aren't meant for archiving. I use them for stuff that I know will die in our cars in the Louisiana heat.
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We are the citizens of the United States of America. Resistance is futile. We CANNOT be stopped so don't bother trying.

 

[don b mullis]

Scott,
Just curious, have tdk, maxell, sony, or memorex cdr's been unreliable in your experience?
Having used all these with no failures in my pioneer, it is too labor intensive for me to dub (no high speed dubbing with my deck) to NOT use higher quality blanks.
Don M.
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[Scott Strang]

The only discs that have been continuously trashy have been some Great Quality's from Fry's and some Hi-Val's. Both were absolute garbage.
On the other end of the scale those Office Depot CD-R's have been good and I've yet to have a bad one. I've burned about 200+ of them.
TDK's are good when they're not being manufactured by Ritek or CMC Magnetics. The Office Depot cd's are made by Ritek but they're also purchased at cheap prices. TDK will charge a premium price for the same media that can be had at far cheaper prices. If you find some TDK's that say Made in U.S.A. or Made in Japan on them, they'll be good cd-r's. Maxell's are pretty much the same way. When they were made in Japan by Hitachi Maxell they were typically good media. Now they're made by some of the Taiwanese firms like Ritek or CMC Magnetics. I've never had a bad Sony disc. They're usually (if they say made in japan) manufactured by Taiyo Yuden which is premium quality. I have yet to see any that weren't made in japan.
Memorex can be a mixed bag. I bought some at Office Max one day that were made by Taiyo Yuden so needless to say they were good quality. However, more often that not they're made by the lowest Taiwanese bidder which means Ritek and CMC Magnetics among others. And Memorex is not always cheap, making them a non-bargain.
If you want high quality media buy the following.
Kodak, Fuji (Taiyo Yuden), HP (Taiyo Yuden), Sony (Taiyo Yuden) and Mitsui. Verbatim is also good, but not always cheap. Kodaks and TY's can be had at good prices making them sometimes cheaper than Verbatims. Just about any media that says Made in Japan will be Taiyo Yuden or Kodak. Occasionally you might find some Hitachi Maxell's floating around that were also of Japanese manufacture.
If what you're recording is important to you, make sure to buy any of the above listed high quality names. You probably won't go wrong. With the exception of HP, you can find all of the above brands in an "audio version" which is what will be required for your consumer stand alone burner.
If you really want to dig in, check out http://www.cdmediaworld.com. A great source of info.
Good Luck.
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We are the citizens of the United States of America. Resistance is futile. We CANNOT be stopped so don't bother trying.

 

[David Susilo]

Rule of thumb... cheap media in most cases equals cheap quality.
You'll get what you paid for.
Durabrand (Jutan Electronics, maker of Citizen and Sansui brands), Memorex, RCA, Gigastore, Cursor (also by Gigastore), Smart and Friendly (another one by Gigastore), Pacific Digital, DISC, iDisc, Shark, Sharc are some of the cr@p media out there.
The most reliable media so far from my experience is Princo. Many duplicators use them due to the relatively cheap price but extremely high reliability. From (approx) 2000 Princos I've used, only one disc failed.
Ritek is not necessarily bad, depending on the brand they made them for. Yamaha blank medias are made by Ritek (SKA series) and Taiyo Yuden (HY series).
AFAIK, Taiyo Yuden is owned by Sony and NOT all Fuji are Taiyo Yuden. Verbatim is Mitsubishi.
ps: I go through 600 pieces of media each month for the past three years and the statements above are the direct results of my personal experience.

 

[don b mullis]

Scott & David
Thanks for the info!
No more cheapies for me.
Don M.
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[David Susilo]

Since too many brands OEM from another manufacturer, you can use free program such as CDRidentifier to ID which manufacturer actually made the media and what kind of chemical they use (seeing the surface color such as blue, gold, etc doesn't help).
If you want the program and if I still have it in my possession in the office, I can e-mail it to you.