I saw in Costco yesterday these 2 options:

Sony CD-R 100 disks 700 MB 80 min, 1-48 speed, $18.49

Sony CD-R Music 100 disks, 80 min (on disk says CDR Audio), $21.something

the latter did not give any info about MB or speed



1) what is the difference between these two?

2) what do u think are the best CDRs and why? (for reasons of quality of sound, longevity of the disk, price, i am sure there are other reasons to consider)


plexi

I'm not sure that there would be any difference. Perhaps just an older type from the same manufacturer? If they are good for data they should be good for audio.

Difference is the ones that say CD-R Music are meant for recording on stand alone CD recorders for home stereo units, versus using regular CD-R's that can be used in computers.
I have a Sony CD recorder with two trays that I use to burn music from other CD's, cassettes, etc.
As far as longevity, it's probably to early to tell how long these CD-R's will last. I use Maxell CD-R Music discs and they seem to be okay. The reality is I play the CD's in my car so eventually they get scratched on the bottom from all the handling and tossing them into my glove box, etc. so I end up tossing them out and making new CD's.
That's a very cheap price for the CD-R Music discs. In Canada, there used to be a 77 cent levy on each CDR music disc but now it's dropped to 22 cents which is what all the blank CD's get charged. I buy my discs at London Drugs and I can usually get a 50 pack of Maxells for around $20 with the levy extra.

For lots of information you might look here:

[hem.passagen.se]

not up to date in all sections, but have a look and judge yourself!

Stay away from Sony and Magnavox.
The stuff I recorded on those brands in 1998 no longer works and I have lost important things forever...

That same year the Verbatims and the TDKs I used are all still working 10 years later. I still try and stick to those brands and haven't had a problem.

I have mostly been using the Memorex with the black topside, heard that it was somehow better.

I just bought some Maxell Music CDRs, then some other straight Maxell CDRs recently, but thought I would ask about what people think of the various brands and what is the best, or some of those that are the best.

So you can't copy straight CDRs on a CD/DVD recorder? only on computers?

plexi

I seriously believe that storing data on CDs and DVDs will die out. With the increase in size of hard drives, this has to be the way forward. All my stones stuff I keep on 2 1 Terrabyte portable hard drives (with a back up of course!).

As pointed out above, no one knows how long a CD-R or DVD-R will last, but I'm sure we've all put discs into our computers and got the dreaded cyclic redundancy error message.

CD sales in the UK have almost died out now due to downloads and my view is that it is only a matter of time before DVDs go the same way.

Hi all,

some interesting thoughts on that matter here.

I have some very early TDK CD-R's (from about 12 years ago) which are very good (probably better than the ones they are producing now).

In any case stay away from no-name products. Had some of these and none made the 10 year mark... ;-)

Some good points, strettonbull! Oh, btw anybody wants to buy my CD-R bootleg collection? :-)

if u are serious about that, donny, e mail me at tim_bernardis@hotmail.com

plexi

I've read that MISTUI (now known as MAM-A) are the best CDR's, whereas the best DVDR's are Tayo Yuden.

CDR: Taiyo Yuden

Just buy anyone :-)

I would definitely not just buy any one. If you want the CD-R to last,archival gold CD-R's are the way to go.You pretty much have to order these over the phone or on the internet from places like Encore Data Products.The next best option after that are CD-R's made in Japan such as Taiyo Yuden.

Years ago you could walk into a store and get CD-R's made in Japan but,now it's all the same CD-R's made in the same factories in Taiwan mainly labeled as Fuji,Maxell,TDK,Memorex - on and on.The only half-way decent discs you can walk into a retail store and buy these days are the Maxell Pro Series which are re-branded Taiyo Yuden discs made in Japan.

I'll post links to earlier threads with all of the information.

Here's one link : [www.iorr.org] .There were a couple more threads on this with (more) detailed information but,I can't find them right now with the search engine.To make a long story short,they use accelerated aging tests to determine the longevity of the discs and gold resists the oxidation caused by the earth's atmosphere.