Is there a clear rule regarding recording speed vs. quality?

I am primarily interested in CD-R burns, but hey, we can expand this to DVD+/- burns as well!

I have read the following two proclamations somewhere on CdFreaks.com:

1) audio burns best at 4x

2) best quality often at highest speeds

I am not sure what to make of this, and since I am about to make a cd-r audio compilation for many people, I want the best quality end disks possible with my software/hardware/media.

BTW, I am using tdk velocd 40/12/40 with Nero 6.3 and probably Fuji TY CD-r 48x media

No.

Quote:

1) audio burns best at 4x

No.
4x is usually fine, but necessarily the best.

Quote:

2) best quality often at highest speeds

No.
IMHO, high speeds are usually acceptable, good or even the best with high quality media.
But with the wrong media, errors will grow exponentially with speed.

Quote:

I am not sure what to make of this, and since I am about to make a cd-r audio compilation for many people, I want the best quality end disks possible with my software/hardware/media. BTW, I am using tdk velocd 40/12/40 with Nero 6.3 and probably Fuji TY CD-r 48x media

If they're made in Japan by Taiyo Yuden, then they should be very good.
You would have to make C1, C2 errors tests to know which speed is the best in your system.

I would use a CLV mode (constant speed) like 16x or 8x.

My lite-on cdrw burns lower quality at 4x than at 52x. I just got a dvd burner 415S and 4x makes coasters where as 2x there dvds are readable, but i think its a media problem. Burning them at 24x or 32x should be more reliable than full speed burns and the difference in time between 32x and 52x is not enough unless your burning cds 24/7

> 1) audio burns best at 4x

> 2) best quality often at highest speeds

As said before there's no general rule for this and it all depends
on your drive and media. For a long time the lower speed you used,
the better quality you got, following the absolute difficulty of the
burning job. However recent drives (>40x) are optimized to offer
the best burning quality at relatively high speeds (around 20x-32x),
so 4x could be worse for these. Give it a try and find what's best
for you.

Burn at 16x if your media supports it.There is no loss of quality.I repeat..there will be no loss of quality.To burn at 4x for audio would be a waste of your time and money.Avoid using cheap quality media .Cheap quality media burned at high speeds will not result in a loss of audio quaility but it may result in a coaster. Use decient media and you wont have any problems.
Check the forum under media.


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