pressed cd vs burnt cd

[visvan1970]

Is there any difference in Sound quality. Does a pressed CD sounds better.and whats the degree of difference if any.rgds

 

[ranjeetrain]

Any difference in them can only be due to the following factors:

1. Weight (and other physical properties) of the disk
2. Quality of the material used for manufacturing
3. Quality of the software used for burning the disk
4. Options chosen to burn the disk

If one takes care of the above points, there is nothing that distinguishes a pressed disk from a burnt disk.

A lot of people would differ from that observation though. Especially, the people who sell or own super high end gear.

 

[Rabepobemababe]

There should be no difference in sound quality. According to what I read a few years back on an online forum like this, there is a difference in terms of longevity between the two, pressed CDs lasting longer than the CD-Rs.

 

[Just_in]

Is that true, old CDPs of 80's can read only pressed CDs, I have got one AKAI which read only Pressed CDs. It wont read any burnt CDs.

 

[Shivam]

Some people have reported CD-R written from pressed CDs sounding better than the original pressed CDs. I don't have such a good transport/player which can distinguish this and neither do I know the exact method used to write such CD-Rs and so I have never tried it.

 

[just4kix]

CD sound is digital and digital means 0 and 1 only. So pressed CD or burnt CD should sound the same. They would even last the same life if the CD-R was of good quality.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

So pressed CD or burnt CD should sound the same.

They would sound the same indeed if the data read is identical. I do think that, in most cases, it would be --- but burnt CDs do seem to be much more fragile than pressed, and even pressed CDs are not immune to developing errors.

A perfect pressed CD against a perfect burnt copy? In a player able to handle both equally well? If anyone can hear the difference there then I want to know that it was a blind test!

They are certainly nothing like identical items. As Just_in mentions, some older CD players will not read writable CDs at all. I think that many modern CDPs will still not handle CD-rewritables?

Of my car copies, some seem to last longer than others!

But it is not a perfect world. Not all pressed CDs play properly, some having faults even when new. Some writable CD blanks are not perfect, although the days when we used to expect to throw away a proportion of the "coasters" we burnt seem to be over.

 

[square_wave]

I have done a lot of this burning thingy. I am with Ranjeet here. If you take care of all those parameters, they are identical. Else they sound quite different. But getting all those right involves some diligence.

With badly burnt cds, the difference can be quite a bit.

 

[just4kix]

I have done a lot of this burning thingy. I am with Ranjeet here. If you take care of all those parameters, they are identical. Else they sound quite different. But getting all those right involves some diligence.

With badly burnt cds, the difference can be quite a bit.

What is a badly burnt CD?

 

[alpha1]

Anything which is older technology "automagically" becomes better upon introduction of newer technology, more so if you cannot quantify it.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I haven't found any difference in sound, but there is a lot of difference in reliability and longevity.