Prefered CD-R Burn Speed

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Prefered CD-R Burn Speed

Tons of opinions on this topic out there...mostly conflicting or outdated, so I'd appreciate your thoughts.

I'd like to burn CD-R's from Music using a USB Superdrive and MAM-A Gold Archive 74 minute blanks that are rated 1X-12X. What burn speed would you select for a Music CD burn? Does "Maximum Speed" select speed based on the CD being used at all...or just the burner's ratings? Is there a way to measure how good the final burned CD-R is on a MacBook Pro? Greatly appreciate your time and comments.

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 24, 2020 11:18 AM

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Answer 1

ed2345

Level 9

63,834 points

May 24, 2020 6:42 PM in response to Pelikanyo

Pelikanyo,

It's been a few years since I burned a CD, but do not use "max speed." I found it was best to go with a slow speed, maybe even 2x.

The symptom of using too fast a speed is poor audio quality that is especially noticeable in the higher numbered tracks.

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

63,834 points

May 25, 2020 5:28 PM in response to Pelikanyo

Hi Pelikanyo,

I would not interpret that field as being the ideal burn speed for audio CDs. But it would be a fine place to start.

If the CD burn errors out, or the resulting CD will not play in a normal CD player, then the problem is probably not the burn speed.

If it burns and plays successfully, but sounds scratchy or distorted, especially on the high number tracks, then re-do with a slower burn speed.

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Answer 3

Pelikanyo Author

Level 1

9 points

May 24, 2020 8:01 PM in response to Pelikanyo

BTW, Diskutil displays the following info. Does this mean ideal burn speed is 10X?

Will the drive burn this media at other speeds? Thank again!

Apple SuperDrive:

Firmware Revision: 2.03

Interconnect: USB

Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)

Profile Path: None

Cache: 768 KB

Reads DVD: Yes

CD-Write: -R, -RW

DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW

Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

Media:

Type: CD-R

Blank: Yes

Erasable: No

Overwritable: Yes

Appendable: Yes

Write Speeds: 10x

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Answer 4

Pelikanyo Author

Level 1

9 points

May 25, 2020 7:33 PM in response to ed2345

From what I can tell this far, once this blank CD-R is read by the drive, no matter what you select for speed, the burn takes the same amount of time...about 10X...even when set for 1X, it takes 5 minutes to burn a 50 minute CD. Same when setting it at Maximum.

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Answer 5

ed2345

Level 9

63,834 points

May 26, 2020 4:53 AM in response to Pelikanyo

OK, I have not seen it work that way, but you may have a better setup. Do the audio CDs coming out of this process sound good in a normal CD player?

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Answer 6

Pelikanyo Author

Level 1

9 points

May 26, 2020 6:27 AM in response to ed2345

The finished CD-R sounds very good...slightly smoother high end. The m4a files in iTunes are a bit harsh on the vocals but the CD's are smoother. This might work...

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Answer 7

ed2345

Level 9

63,834 points

May 26, 2020 4:30 PM in response to Pelikanyo

Good! :-)

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Prefered CD-R Burn Speed

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