Optimal CD burning speed?

[43st]

A year or so ago I burned most of my audio disks at 52x. I had a failure once and start burning at 12x or 16x for safety sake. What's optimal? Am I being too cautious with burning at these lower speeds?

 

[Jittos]

I actually burn them at lower speed too. at 16x or 12x as well. It's fast enough for me.

About optimal speed, that I dont know, it probably depends on many factor, the drive, the media, the software.

 

[Lonyo]

I haven't had a failure with my ~3 years old 32x burner burning at 32 speed.

 

[Sunner]

My 48X Liteon burns everything fine at 48x.
Maybe that one failure was caused by something else? Seems overly sensitive to me to drop the speed due to one single coaster.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, audio is more sensitive to burning-speed issues than data is, seeing as how Mode-1 data has ECC bytes, and Mode-2 data has at least a few EDC bytes (which if they are bad, could trigger a re-read of the sector, in hopes of getting it right the next time). Whereas, audio doesn't have any higher-level error-correction. Also, some CD players sync the output of the audio to the disc, instead of having a crystal-clocked DAC, so playback on those devices can be affected by severe jitter problems with burned discs.

I probably personally wouldn't burn any audio discs at 52X, and I've had problems with opening cutscenes screwing up when burning console backups at 52X too, that were fine when burned at 32X or so. For the really important stuff, I burn at 16X or 8X, CLV mode, just so that the laser doesn't have to adjust power while writing. Lower rotational speeds also lead to lower vibration during burning, which should help to produce a better burn. But in my 52X Sony/Lite-On, I haven't found any significant difference in terms of burning quality for Mode1 or Mode2 data burning slower than 32X. (My old MCC metal-azo discs are only rated for 8X, which is why I burn them slower, either 8X or 16X.)

Interestingly enough, I can't burn cyanine 8X-rated Hitachi-Maxell media at all in my Lite-On, no matter what speed I set it too. Yet those same discs burn fine in both a Yamaha SCI and a Benq 52X IDE, at 8X speed. Go figure.

 

[Hurricane Andrew]

I generally burn audio at 20x, but more for sound quality. I've never had a problem burning at 48 or even 52x, but I have found that burning audio at very high speeds can sometimes lead to a "metallic" sounding "tingy" audio when played back on a good system with good speakers. The degree vaires depending on the quality of the source of course, but in general 20-24x and under is best, but that's just my 2 cents. Of course most won't ever notice, or really care anyway, and it very well could be all in my head.

 

[Zepper]

For sound quality and longevity burn at least one step lower than the disk's speed rating. If the target is an older car player or portable players, burn no faster than 16x. For the top quality your burner is capable of, burn at the lowest speed possible with the highest contrast media you can find (Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim/Mitsubishi Super Azo, which I've heard can also be found under the Khypermedia label).
.bh.

Rain, rain GO AWAY.!.

 

[nealh]

Hmmm...what are the sources that show you need to burn audio at lower speeds

I have always burned at max speed...can you hear a sound quality difference?

I hear alot of people saying this but every cd I have ever burned sounds fine at max...I have a liteon 52x burner

I do need to reburn so cd..I will see if I can tell a difference

 

[Oyeve]

My Samsung cdr/dvd combo makes lousy audio cds if I burn at 24x or faster, at 12x or slower they work fine.

 

[boran]

Since I had a whole bunch of 2 year old CD's go bad that were written at 48 speed, I just burn again at 4speed, the extra 10 minutes dont bother me since I just do something else anyways.

Higher burning speeds might or might not generate coasters, but they definetly produce burns that contain more errors (anyone with a tool such as Kprobe can see this for himself)

 

[43st]

Thanks for the information guys. I'll stick with 12x and 16x, better safe than sorry later on down the road. I'm usually burning concerts and then deleting the source files. I'd hate to lose this stuff, but I know one day I will.