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Topic: Buying a new writer for burning music (Read 3101 times) previous topic - next topic
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Buying a new writer for burning music

new here. first post. hey, hows it going (sounds cheesy i know) anyway, i am thinking of buying a new writer for burning music mainly, something i can burn at a slower speed and is a good quality burner and external. i have been looking online but have no idea who makes the best burner because everywhere you go it is just sites trying to sell you theirs. what one are most of you guys using? dont want to waste money on a piece of junk that lasts only as long as the box it comes in. thanks.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #1 –
I don't think it really matters in this day in age.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #2 –
surely there is quality burners out there, the only ones i seen that were good were the old plextor ones. just want to get the best burn possible.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #3 –
Yeah, I don't think it's that critical either.   

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but here is some CD ripping accuracy information compiled from the AccurateRip database.  I assume if the drive is good at ripping CDs, it's good at everything else.

What I do is run Nero DiscSpeed (FREE!!!) to check all of my "burns".  If there's a problem DiscSpeed usually shows a "glitch" in the speed graph.  There is a similar (optional?) tool with ImgBurn.

Most "bad burns" seem to be random and related to the blank media.  I had a spool of DVDs once where about half of them were turning-out bad.  Once I figured-out what was going on, threw the remaining discs in the trash and bought some more.    I don't think it was related to the brand, I think it was just a bad batch.

For many years, I've heard that Plextor drives are good.  I've had good luck with them and if I'm buying a drive for my "main audio/video computer", I'll usually look for Plextor.   But, I really can't say they are "the best".  For any other computer, I'll just get whatever looks like a bargain.

Quote
...something i can burn at a slower speed and is a good quality burner and external.
I usually burn at a slow speed too.    I'm not too sure how important that is either...    Someone once posted an article showing an electron microscope image of the "pits" burned at two different speeds on one particular drive, and the slower-burned disc had "sharper" looking pits.    I have no idea if most modern drives behave the same, but I'm usually not in a big hurry and it seems safer to use a slower speed.

If it makes any difference, the slowest speed of any particular drive should be as good as it gets and I wouldn't go shopping for a drive with the lowest low-speed.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #4 –
thanks for that. i also found a "best writer" thread on here that was somewhat useful. seems pioneer makes a good one also, just not sure about external ones though. right now i am using a mad dog writer and an hp and they seem to burn fine, just trying to get the best sounding burn possible for music.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #5 –
Just to be clear the choice of burner will have no effect on quality.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #6 –
Quote from: saratoga on
Just to be clear the choice of burner will have no effect on quality.
That's assuming no errors...  You CAN get a CD/DVD that glitches/freezes when you play it back, and the burner may have a role in that.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #7 –
so what difference does the burner make then if not for for some kind of burn quality?

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #8 –
Quote from: cashonly on
so what difference does the burner make then if not for for some kind of burn quality?


Some are faster, and may have better compatibility, especially with older readers from the 1990s that weren't made to work with CDRs.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #9 –
so you should just look for the one that allows the slowest burn speed that has the least error rate.

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #10 –
Quote from: cashonly on
so you should just look for the one that allows the slowest burn speed that has the least error rate.


Any burner can be set to burn slower, better ones will burn faster.  But yes, a lower error rate is desirable, but its very hard to determine what the error rate is for a burner. 

Like I said before, this really isn't worth caring about.  If you're really worried, buy one and test it with your player and see if it works. If it doesn't, send it back.
 

Buying a new writer for burning music

Reply #11 –
LiteOn or ASUS are the best right now, more accurate etc.

I always bought Pioneer, well, I used to buy LiteOn way way back but then I switched to Pioneer and never changed (still have a DVR-219LBK). I've never had one problem but I don't use it much, I would probably buy LiteOn or ASUS (most probably ASUS) right now.

More info here: http://club.myce.com/f61/