Hi dudes,

Media is very cheap around here and you can get them for $0.30 each. From many brands among Sony, HP, Philips and others.

But I was at the supermarket today and I saw this PHILIPS CD-R media almost 4 times more expensive. It had jewel case (probably added to the price), sealed, and the front label was labelled "Gold CD-R" and "For Audio". Is the difference only the reflecting layers (Gold vs. Silver). I have heard reflective layer made of gold is better for standard CD player lasers, is this true? Also, does this feature makes this CD-R last much longer than those of silver?

Thanks!

Well, it might be better if you were burning data to those CD-R.

About 12 years ago, I obtained about 50 of those Gold Philips CD-R media (in respective jewel cases) as part of a large purchase via the company I worked for, and they performed very well storing computer data. Making bootable OS discs of BSD and Linux, as well as ZIP files of important data. I can still easily read those CD-R today without current CD/DVD ROM drives having to slow down to read them. Even though those discs were burned at 4x to 8x speed (they were rated 16x back then I think), I can transfer data from them to a computer at 32x speed or higher.

However, for regular CD audio, I don't think it would make all that much of a difference.

I purchased a 100 CD-R cake box of Office Depot brand CD-R 52x 700MB 80min media for about $10 USD early last year. That makes the unit price $0.10 USD for each CD-R disc. The media itself is silver layered.

I burn CD audio to them (from various source files: FLAC, AAC, MP3, WMA, WAV) at 8x speed with Nero, and haven't had any issue with them playing in anything that accepts normal CDs for playback. I've gone through about half the cake box and all my burns of that media can still be read without any CD skipping, as long as there aren't any major scratches.

As cheap as CD-R media is now, I really don't need nor care if my custom burns last more than several years anyway. If any CD-R go bad in a year or two, I'll just burn a new copy from my source files.

so you would recommend me getting this gold layer instead of the silver layer, just to be on the safer side...

Well, if you plan on burning just standard CD audio on them from say MP3, FLAC, AAC files, I don't really see much benefit in paying 4x the cost over other brands.

Blank Sony CD-R should be just as good and likely cheaper. Well at least where I purchase CD/DVD media. I see lots of those Sony CD-R media around for $9.99 USD for a 50 disc cake box.

To me Sony is one of the best brands of CD/DVD media out there. I've never had a device choke on a Sony CD or DVD (-R or +R) as long as it was properly burned and dust/scratch free.

Also, as I said, I haven't yet gone wrong with regular Office Depot brand CD-R.

Philips regular silver brand is also really good, and I've been quite happy with TDK and Verbatims as well.

Memorex media is also good, but make sure you get the ones made in Taiwan. For a time Memorex had some made in India and the quality control was poor in those Indian made ones, and caused issues for my burners/players.

I've recently discovered Office Depot's higher quality Ativa brand CD/DVD media. I put those up on par with Sony media.

The brands of media that have given me the most headaches (especially DVD media) have been Fuji, Hyundai, and Taiyo-Yuden fakes.

If I want to buy a good CD-R, the only factor I'll be looking is whether it's Taiyo Yuden or not (Made in Japan). If it said Made in Taiwan, regardless of the brand/color, etc, it will either be from Ritek or CMC. CMC is crap. Ritek seems to be okay. I will not pay any premium for something that is Made in Taiwan, since it's a waste of money. If you want to pay premium, might as well get something Made in Japan.

Brand name doesn't matter. Look for the actual manufacture (eg via the ID code). Alas, you can only find this out once you buy them, and more and more fakes are running around.

In the end, if the end use is just for an Audio CD used in cars or what not, I'll just get whatever cheap brand you find. Just burn it at around 8x - 16x and you should be fine. I find that most cheap CD-Rs don't do well if burned at 32x or higher (more prone to errors).

I plan to use it for MP3. I have been doing destruction tests to CD-R logos... I found out that the HP (blue logo) is the most resistant adhesive. Hard to peel even with a needle. Verbatim/Sony/Philips/Maxell/Ridata all fell short in this test (yes, I destructed 1 unit of each)

Now as for the chemical component natural corrosion, everyone seems to be quite exposed to the same vulnerabilities...

The reason these discs are more expensive doesn't necessarily have anything to with quality. Since they are specifically "for audio", it is assumed they will be used for duplicating copyrighted work and are therefore subject to a blank media tax. Furthermore, standalone CD copiers require this special "for audio" media, so I imagine that allows companies to charge a premium for them.

edit: clarity

Hm! I got the point now! Well said! I remember a PHILIPS disc which would say "For Consumer", those would just be written/read from a proper Philips device.

I've heard that "For Audio" CDRs are only for standalone CD copiers and should not be used in computers, is it true? What's really the difference? (apart from the tax issue)

You can use those "For Audio" CD-Rs on PCs just fine. To PCs, they're just a standard CD-R blank.

The 16x rating only had to do with recording. Any CD recorded at any speed will play back at a speed limited only by the reading device.