Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and wanted to pick the brains of the very knowledgeable peeps on this board.

I recently bought a LITE-ON SOHR-5238S. My other drive is a PIONEER DVD-RW 106.

I burnt the same audio CD on both drives (via NERO) because my main audio CD player seemed to have a little trouble with one I had burnt on the LITE-ON at 52x previously.

I tested both discs and found that the one done on the PIONEER sounded noticeably better than the one burnt with the LITE-ON, it was closer to the original CD's sound quality and generally sounded more natural and realistic.
(I have an audiophile quality hi-fi set up so sound quality is a major factor for me).

I thought that this was possibly due to the fast speed on the burn (52x compared to the PIONEER's 16x)
So i did the same disc at 16x on the LITEON and did one at 4x (the slowest possible speed) on the LITEON also just for comparison.

I listened to both of these and neither one sounded better than the PIONEER's burn (although the 4x did sound a little better than the 52x and 16x burn I thought).
I got my brother to do a blind listening test not telling him which burn was from which machine and he too said immediately that the PIONEER sounded better, he said 'miles better' in fact.

Has anyone else had this experience?

It's left me feeling very confused because for some reason I hadn't figured in the factor that the drive could make a difference to the audio quality of the burn.
I presumed, I'm sure like others, that it's all digital information and there wouldn't be any difference.
I also presumed that LITE-ON were one of the best brands so that's why I've stuck with them over the last couple of years.

Now I don't know what to do.

I looked on net and can't find anybody who seems to have had a similar experience to myself which is very frustrating.

My dilemma now stands as such:

I wondering if I upgraded to a better, more expensive CD-RW drive say a PLEXTOR whether this would have better audio quality on the resultant burns or whether the quality of the laser is the reason and that perhaps DVD-RW drives are more suitable for CD's also (better quality laser)?

Should I just ditch the LITEON for a PLEXTOR and use that for CD burning or buy another DVD drive to replace my PIONEER and just use the PIONEER to burn CD's?

I use my CD burner ALL THE TIME so it gets heavy useage and burning speed is an issue to a degree (16x is a little slow for my liking).
I need a workhorse but I'm just not sure whether my current PIONEER could cut it as the main CD burner?
The PIONEER's audio extraction is not the best either which is also an issue, about half as fast as a LITEON or PLEXTOR for instance.
But sound quality is the most important factor for me overall, I want the best sounding burns possible.

I read that PLEXTOR employ a black tray to reduce jitter and an enhanced PCB board for better sound quality so maybe their drives would produce as good a sound as my PIONEER?

Sorry this is so long and if I asked about something that you've already covered again I apologize but any experience or help from you good folks would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks