Originally Posted by andrews27

I don't have enough money to be lulled by a placebo. I'm hard-assed for getting the best that my mid-fi budget (Adcom, Creek Audio, Legacy speakers) can afford. When I hear sound greatly colored in one CD-R by Maxell, and less colored on a better quality Maxell, I can't go back.

Also, if you haven't compared extractions by EAC with lesser extractions, you don't know that the gap-stop info that your equipment will use to flesh out a poor extraction will cause noise and distortion. I extract at 4x with EAC and burn at 4x with Nero. Burning at higher speeds will also cause noise from inserted gap-stop bits. High-speed burning is blamed for the poor quality of factory CDs.