After a ton of looking into the audio CD-R burning process I'm left with one question. Do black CD-Rs sound better than other CD-Rs for audio? Evidence that says no: - There don't seem to be ANY Audio-only CD-Rs available and I would think someone would make them if they're so great for audio. - In http://www.johnvestman.com/digital_myth.htm the author says black CDs sound harsh and he's a CD mastering professional. Evidence that says yes: - some people here think so http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/15634 - some people here think so http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=51 A search on Google brings up nothing except for the links above. What do you guys think?
The way I understand it the information stored on a CD-R is exactly the same if the source file(s) and the drive/settings used for recording are the same. The reason for auidble differences could be placebo effect, certain media/playback device combinations that cause more errors and thus interpolation than others which could result in audible differences. IMO everyone who claims that it sound's different should provide double-blind-test results (ABX) or record digital output of CD Players and use a sound editing program to show if there are significant differences.
I agree with Tigre, no one has ever provided any proof that a CDR read without errors (we checked so with different CD Players, so any CDR should be) sounds different than an original, though it should not be difficult if there really was an audible difference. BTW there are some black audio CDRs, by HiSpace, called "carbon sound" : http://www.hi-space.com Arguments against a difference in sound : http://forum.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61864
