ghost of miles Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 Got an e-mail from my dad last night, passing on a post from one of his discussion groups that stated: Seattle: On the CD-R question, and as a former big-time live music trader, absolutely, yes, CD-Rs make a difference. What you want are Taiyo-Yuden brand CD-Rs. They are a pre-market manufacturer, and are made exclusively in Japan . You know you have T-Ys because the underside of the CD-R will be a deep blue, compared to most CD-Rs that are a light green. T-Y's are easy enough to find. Any CD-R that says "Made in Japan " (and this can be Fuji , Sony, whatever) are T-Y's. Most CD-Rs you find are made in Taiwan or India ; you want to avoid those. Either search online for Taiyo-Yuden (shop4tech.com is a good place), or, in big box stores, be sure to inspect where the CD-Rs were manufactured. If it says "Made in Japan ," you're good. If not, don't buy them. Anybody here have comments/experience regarding the above? Quote
Alexander Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 I don't know about the specifics, but I've found that Sonys are my preferred brand through trial and error. So I would agree that Japanese made CD-Rs seem to be the best. Quote
.:.impossible Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 TY's are a board favorite, as are Mitsui, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't bought CDRs in over two years, but I was getting them from american digital. Quote
jazzbo Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 Many Sonys I've bought are not made in Japan. And many Sonys I've bought give me problems in some duplicating machines. There is something to the T-Y claim above I believe. I don't believe it's exclusive, but is a pretty reliable choice. Quote
mikelz777 Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 I think that people make a much bigger deal out of it than they need to. I don't burn a lot of discs but I've had very good luck with Verbatim CD-Rs. I can't distinguish the difference between their recorded playback and that of store bought discs. I've only had 1 out of about 175 that gave me a recording problem. Even that problem was questionable. I had a heck of a time getting the store bought source disc to rip onto my system so it may have been a problem with how it ripped onto my system and not the CD-R itself. Quote
Teasing the Korean Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 Verbatims are good - I've had some for 10 years that play perfectly. The worst are the generic silver ones, without any deep coloring on the audio side. I have some CD-Rs from the late 90s that are absolutely unplayable - they make a horrible sound, and are impossible to extract to make a new copy. Not sure if it was the software, discs, or both. This is why I won't buy official CD-Rs from Amazon, rare titles or not. Quote
robviti Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 if you haven't done so already, you may want to check out some of our previous threads about cd-rs, since subjects like taiyo yuden, unbranded cd-rs, american digital, have all been discussed before. i've had very good results with ty's myself, and although i like american-digital, their prices aren't that great anymore. if you buy a cakebox of 100 unbranded ty from them, you'll end up spending 36 cents a piece when you factor in the shipping fee. runtechmedia sells the same thing for $27 with free shipping (27 cents each). other online vendors like supermediastore also offer ty at this lower price. these days i'm using light scribe cd-rs made by verbatim, 'cause i'm such a freakin' creative genius that i have to make artwork for the damn blanks too. Quote
robviti Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 The worst are the generic silver ones, without any deep coloring on the audio side. unbranded taiyo yudens have a barely noticeable blue tint to them, so i have my doubts that "deep coloring" is a factor one needs to be concerned with. in fact, i read somewhere that some manufacturers added extra dye to their media to disguise the fact that they were using less stable formulas of cyanine. tricky bastards. Quote
Late Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 I always purchase Taiyo Yudens here. Good price, free shipping, reliable vendor. Quote
RDK Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 No doubt that T-Ys are superior, but I haven't had any problems with any brand of CD-R I've bought ever since an early unbranded batch I bought at Office Depot about ten years ago. I just use whatever... Quote
Quincy Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 (edited) unbranded taiyo yudens have a barely noticeable blue tint to them, so i have my doubts that "deep coloring" is a factor one needs to be concerned with. I'll second this too. As a longtime TY user (that sounds more interesting phonetically ) TYs don't have, or at least don't always have a deep blue bottom Like Alexander in the beginning (8 years ago) Sony was my favorite brand, but those were actually TYs with the Sony name on them. The same thing was going on back when Made in Japen Fujis were a trader's favorite. It's just easier to cut out the middleman brand stamper and buy TYs. I suspect soon these disc threads will be replaced by "what harddrive device is best..." (Edit - Actually there are already some of those.) Edited February 12, 2009 by Quincy Quote
Shawn Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 I've never had a single CDR "go bad" and I've been making discs since the late 90's. Quote
Christiern Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 I guess prices don't vary much. I get my Tayo Yudens (and LightScribes) here. I also highly recommend these dispensers... They hold up to 100 discs and cost $10 at SHOP[4]TECH. I have 4, to accommodate different media. Quote
Quincy Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 No doubt that T-Ys are superior, but I haven't had any problems with any brand of CD-R I've bought ever since an early unbranded batch I bought at Office Depot about ten years ago. I just use whatever... Most "bad" CD-Rs play just fine, the trouble can happen when you use EAC to extract them. I ran into this problem regarding some made in Taiwan TDKs that I bought in the late '90s. The same discs are now also a nicotine yellow color (for those smoker/ex-smokers out there.) I'll use the past tense as it's been some time since I've come across it, but it meant that EAC wanted 40 to 90 minutes to work on a disc to copy the material. And often it was taking all that time to make sure 3 seconds of applause was reproduced accurately. In this modern age though it's so rare I copy from a CD-R anyway. Possibly at Christmas, and now I'm more inclined to just give discs away as I have too much. I figure if I want the show again I can find it at the usual sites, possibly with upgraded sound. Or maybe contact an actual human for a copy, be it friends in real life or online. Rarities just aren't as rare as they used to be. Quote
.:.impossible Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 if you haven't done so already, you may want to check out some of our previous threads about cd-rs, since subjects like taiyo yuden, unbranded cd-rs, american digital, have all been discussed before. i've had very good results with ty's myself, and although i like american-digital, their prices aren't that great anymore. if you buy a cakebox of 100 unbranded ty from them, you'll end up spending 36 cents a piece when you factor in the shipping fee. runtechmedia sells the same thing for $27 with free shipping (27 cents each). other online vendors like supermediastore also offer ty at this lower price. these days i'm using light scribe cd-rs made by verbatim, 'cause i'm such a freakin' creative genius that i have to make artwork for the damn blanks too. Good to know re: pricing. As I said, I haven't used a CDR in over two years, so I'm pretty out of the loop. I just can't think of a need for them anymore. Quote
kinuta Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 I use Taiyo Yuden or BenQ. I've never had a dud. For dvd-r I only use Taiyo Yuden. Quote
Chuck Nessa Posted February 12, 2009 Report Posted February 12, 2009 Burned many hundred cdrs over the last 10+ years and AFAIK everything is dandy. I did have one player that had random problems but I decided it was a hardware problem and replaced it. Quote
robviti Posted February 13, 2009 Report Posted February 13, 2009 well, now i've seen everything. a pez-dispenser for cds! Quote
Shrdlu Posted February 15, 2009 Report Posted February 15, 2009 Shortly after CDrs started, there were several panic posts about them rotting away, almost making you want to jump off the Empire Hancock Building (who remembers that? lol). I've never had one go bad on me. For years now, I've just been getting the cheap ones at the computer stores, usually in a 100 spindle pack with no covers. Quote
Christiern Posted February 15, 2009 Report Posted February 15, 2009 That dear of impending rot was not unfounded. Remember LaserDiscs? I have about 200 of them and I'm sure none play well at this point. A LaserDisc did not have to stay on one's shelf for long before developing what they called, "laser rot" (actually the result of shoddy lamination that let the air in). I have not experienced this on any CD, but I was among those who saw it as a real possibility. Quote
Shrdlu Posted February 15, 2009 Report Posted February 15, 2009 Awww. Sorry to hear that, Chris. I hope you didn't lose any music that you don't have in another format. Quote
Dave Garrett Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 That dear of impending rot was not unfounded. Remember LaserDiscs? I have about 200 of them and I'm sure none play well at this point. A LaserDisc did not have to stay on one's shelf for long before developing what they called, "laser rot" (actually the result of shoddy lamination that let the air in). I have not experienced this on any CD, but I was among those who saw it as a real possibility. You might be surprised, Chris. I have considerably more than 200 laserdiscs and only a handful have rotted - the rest still play just fine. It's pretty well-documented that discs prone to "rot" (oxidation of the aluminum substrate sandwiched between acrylic layers) were the result of manufacturing defects at specific pressing plants. The US Sony-DADC plant was the worst offender in terms of rotted discs - discs pressed there can easily be identified by mint marks containing the prefix "LDVS" in the area where the deadwax would be on an LP. If memory serves, the "Story of Jazz" LD in your picture was pressed there - I have that same disc, and it hasn't rotted yet but it did have some speckles the last time I watched it. More detailed info on laser rot here - you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to it. Quote
Enterprise Server Posted March 1, 2009 Report Posted March 1, 2009 Interesting stories. I haven't really noticed any difference but I haven't been burning lately either. Perhaps this is something I need to look into. Quote
AllenLowe Posted March 1, 2009 Report Posted March 1, 2009 since 1996 I have burned between 10,000-15,000 cdrs (used to do a lot of custom mastering and limited CDR runs); for my three reissue projects I have burned, maybe, 1000 - I use Tayo Yudens and have had, at most, 6 go bad - Quote
Christiern Posted March 1, 2009 Report Posted March 1, 2009 (edited) Thanks, Dave. I guess I should hook up a LD player and check these out before I throw them in the trash. Doubly sorry to hear that The Story of Jazz is probably doomed, since I wrote the script (hence the prominence in the photo ) I'll report back on how well or not my collection fared. Apropos deterioration and technological dinosaurs, did anyone catch Favid Pogue's piece in that subject on today's CBS Sunday Morning show? Edited March 1, 2009 by Christiern Quote
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