CD-R media reviews?

[c0mfortably_numb]

Well since no one else said it I will All brands in your retail mega-mart are never made by said vendor Memorex one week could use Prodisc, the next Ritek, usally never usally even that good to tell what brand media you really have you need software such as Cdinfo Pro or DVDinfo

The best media as most others already said is Taiyo Yuden, it's not a brand per se, but a Japanese manufacture of discs. The best place to get them IMO is Rima.com I have ordered from them quit a few times and been very happy and they have a perfect score from resellerratings.com

Also it pays to get them from autorized dealers, there has been allot of counterfeiting ID tags to read cheap inferior media as Tayio

 

[GreatDane]

Remember CD-R Identifier ( not to be confused with DVD Identifier)??

http://www.burtonsys.com/CDR_Identifier/

I'll agree with everyone else...Taiyo Yuden are tops. I've used TY DVD-Rs but never CD-R. I have good luck with Fuji or others from Comp USA for 15 cents ea.

I've had good results with Verbatim DVD-R and I found them on a crazy sale at Best Buy one day for $4/50 spindle...that's right, 8 CENTS EACH!!...I bought 450 of them.

 

[Asr]

Ah, forgot about Verbatim. They make quality discs too. I'd consider them second in place to Fuji TY discs.

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

Fuji are no longer Ty, at least the last 50 pack I bought at Bestbuy....I keep hearing how good verbatim is, I think they are highly over rated and junk, I bought a 50 pack at office depot in January, I have only been able to burn data, any attempt at burning music either a backup of a redbook CD or from back up .flac the cd's skip on any source I have tried them on (usally track 3 strangly) This don't happen with the Ty media I have. I have tried a back up Lite-on burner, and my main burner an NEC DVD burner...I burn at 8X and tried both with and with out buffer under run....still the same...so I recommend spending a little extra and stick with the Ty media, I know I learned my lesson

 

[Rambaud]

I tend to stick to TY and Verbatim.

 

[markl]

I like the TY discs, in terms of preserving the integrity of the data, they are highly rated no matter where you look. Low low error rates,plus good sound (a bit crisp, a bit bright, a bit didgital, but highly highly resolving). But I have to say, I've found that many of them become hard to read by my CD player and my CD-ROM and DVD-ROM players after only 18 months or 2 years. YMMV.

I have taken many of these TY discs over to a friend's place to re-copy, and they copy OK *on his burners*. So my results are my results.

Nevertheless, I switched over to the Verbatim DataLifePlus with Super-AZO dye a while back and these disc exhibit no such problems, and they sound great. The DataLifePlus is also "archival" quality (we'll see

), and premium price (but affordable), but well worth it, IMO, they seem more stable over longer periods (for me).

I could maybe afford the Mitsui MAM-A discs if I didn't burn so darn many CDs. If I had infinite budget I'd just buy those and be done with it. However, in the reasonably-priced (though still premium range) I would rather use the Verbatim DataLifePlus over the Taiyo-Yuden.

Time will tell how long all these *really* last.

 

[Mikey01]

For music recording I use Memorex Black disc's recorded at 8X. I never have had a disc reading problem with them.

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikey01 For music recording I use Memorex Black disc's recorded at 8X. I never have had a disc reading problem with them.

I believe those were among the ones discussed in the Stereophile article.

 

[replytoken]

I could maybe afford the Mitsui MAM-A discs if I didn't burn so darn many CDs. If I had infinite budget I'd just buy those and be done with it. However, in the reasonably-priced (though still premium range) I would rather use the Verbatim DataLifePlus over the Taiyo-Yuden.
QUOTE]

There is a distributor (who happens to be local to me in Seattle), dsgi.com who sells MAM and Verbatim in bulk. I am not certain if you can get better prices, but they are worth checking out.

 

[tourmaline]

Get cd-r with a gold layer! Like the old kodak gold. They are the best, i still have a batch and never had any read error for years.

 

[warubozu]

The TY gold, Mitsui MAM A gold, HHB gold, and MFSL gold are all gold layered cdrs like the Kodak gold which have been discontinue a while ago. I still have an unopened box of Kodak gold cdrs and yes they were excellent cdrs.

 

[pedxing]

TY is good, but not as good as the stuff that could have been bought at a retail store 8 years ago. My 8 year old CD-R's right now have less C1 errors than a recent TY CD-R.

MAM/Mitsui is expensive. I heard they can resist CD rot in extreme temperature and moisture, but like anyone else's products, they also suffer from an occasional bad batch. Because they are so expensive, it just hurts that much more when you get a bad batch that turns into coasters a year down the line.

Fuji started outsourcing their CD-Rs a couple years ago which means the spindle you get is not what you are really expecting. I also read mixed reviews about Verbatim, depending which factory the discs were made from. In general, if you didn't buy it directly from a reliable source, it can be a fake or from a different and unexpected manufacturer.

I think the biggest factor for archival life is how you store them. Every single CD-R I left out open on the desk suffer from significant degradation within months.

 

[Yukster]

Weird... The CD-Rs left on the dash of my car is still read perfectly by my Sony in dash CD player...

 

[BluesDaddy]

I use the Maxell's TY. Look for the "Made In Japan" as some are "Made in Taiwan". My understangind is that all discs "Made in Japan" are T-Ys. I've never had a T-Y fail me and have been using them for years, both the silvers and the Maxells. I don't burn as much CD-Rs as I use to because I archive lossless to DVD-R and mainly listen to such stuff right off my computer, but when I do it's T-Y. Sam's generally has 100 count spindles for fairly cheap (but I haven't checked in awhile).

 

[LFF]

I have gone through tons of brands and have exposed each brand to normal wear and tear, including resurfacing. I have used them for data-file management to MP3 discs to Hi-Fi applications such are remastering and mastering. Here are the ones that never let me down:

MAM-A - THE ABSOLUTE BEST and VERY EXPENSIVE.
TY - Great discs with great shelf life.
Pro-Disc - Little known company. Their CD-R's are the same as TY Silver/Platinum discs except that these are much cheaper.

These are the three brands I tend to stick with. Verbatim and Fuji used to be good and the made in japan ones are ok. I would stick with the above three. For everyday use, I absolutely love PRODISC. I never get coasters, they are extremely cheap, and look professional. TY I use when remastering something for a client since people tend to be name brand oriented. MAM-A I use for archives of rare remastered or mastered works which are going to be pressed.

In short, stick with Prodisc as they are cheaper and excellent quality. Otherwise, go TY or MAM-A.