Black CD-Rs

[lekguan 0]

I remeber a month ago or so when fishball79 sent me this link

http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/whitepa...Black_CDsII.pdf

Check it out, it talks about Black CD-Rs sounding better when burned correctly, compared to original CDs. Personally I tried using a laptop running on batteries buning at 4x on the recommended Melody Black Diamond to try. I could not really tell a difference. fishball also commented that he could on hear any difference on his setup.

 

This week on Computer times, pg CT28, however, there was article on this. Although it pointed to a URL of the old white paper (Black_CDs1.pdf), it refered to the same thing, the part 2 was just a revised edition. Ok, for the benefit of those not in SG, i will type the article out:

 

Mr Gary Leonard Koh, chief executive officer of high-end speaker company, Genesis Advanced Technologies, release a controversial white paper on the internet last March.

 

The paer said that rerecordding audio tracks - extracted from audio CDs - as Wave files stored on a hard disk - on black CD-R discs yield a better sound than the originals. The "black" potion refers to the colour of the layer of organic dye on the recording side of the disc.

 

The paper (URL to the part 1 paper) also contained some technical explanations for its findings, but one theory is that the black dye layer has better absorption and reflection of the laser beam compared to the usual silver or gold colored CDs.

 

I tried to replicate the process by usign computers to carry out the recordings. I burned the music onto a black Memorex CD-R and also on a silver-coloured Sony CD-R. (Memorex was one of the tested brands)

 

The basic process is to capture the music tracks onto the hard disk on then copy or "burn" the files to a blank CD-R.

 

You need a software program to extrack the best audio possible form your CD. (went on to talk about www.exactaudiocopy.de which I found could not connect to online CDDB properly, making naming the tracks a hassale)

 

The programs performed well, capturing the music tracks smoothly as wave files at a 16-bit, 44.1Khz sampling rate.Wave is an audio file format that Microsoft developed.

 

Then, it was a mater of burning the capturedtracks onto the CD-Rs

..blah..

 

Now hear this

The tracks on the black CD-R did sound different. I played it on a computer and a DCD player hooked up to the Creative Inspire 5700 speaker system.

 

The mix of acoustic songs and dance tracks came across as brighter and somewhat more melodious, compared to the slightly harsh and sharp tones from the original CD. The Sony CD-R recording sounded sharper.

 

Comments from colleagues ranged from "it's more mellow and less sharp" to "It's more pleasant to the ears"

 

 

 

WOW. What magic did they do to hear the difference from a computer source to a entry level PC speakers, when fishball79 could not even hear. Hm....

[fishball79 0]

Omigod im deaf!!!

 

Lemme check back the irc channel logs... don't think thats exactly what i said... i didn't compare between original and black cd-rs tho.

[matbon0013 0]

I have been experimenting myself and the recent one was two Black CD-R that I burnt for a friend. One was burnt directly from a CD and one was burnt from a .wav file from the hard drive.

From the Mac there is a slight marked improvement on the Black CD-R burnt from the .wav file but ever so slightly, the one burnt direct from the CD, I hear no difference. Strange indeed!

 

However! Replaying both Black CD-R's on my Meridian/META42/7506, D-303/MINT/ER4S and my speakers system I hear no distinction on either, compared to the original.

 

I hope I'm not deaf

[gryphon1972 0]

I hope I'm not deaf 

 

I am sure you are not.....if you are deaf you dont need so many portable cdp

Edited October 8, 2003 by gryphon1972

[lekguan 0]

From the Mac there is a slight marked improvement on the Black CD-R burnt from the .wav file but ever so slightly, the one burnt direct from the CD, I hear no difference. Strange indeed!

Possibly that explains why I can't quite hear? I did a CD copy using a single drive, i.e. the software automatically copy an image onto hard drive and ask you to insert a blank disc to write onto. There might have been a slight difference, but I have to say that unless you do A/B, you can't quite hear the difference. So if you were to pop in a copied and an original one with an hour in between, you might just say they are the same. If so, then the gains would not be really worth it. Possibly psychoacoustical satisfaction.

[N@Z 0]

This was discussed also a couple of months back here.

 

Quite frankly I couldn't hear any difference either but I only burned 2 discs, Tenacious D & Diana Krall - The Look of Love.

[ting 0]

I have some experiences on this, I use Plextor cd-r drive with my laptop and the software is nero cd copy, while the black cd-r are warmer sounding with less sibilance, but the image also a bit blured compared to original cd.

[lekguan 0]

Hm. Well, yesterday night, I tried listening to Kenny G Greatest hits A/B. I decided to try again because I am now using a different source to the one I used to A/B the last time. I felt that it was less bright, not very obvious though. Its sounded more rounded and less harsh, but it spoilt the main instruement - the saxaphone. I have not tried other instruments, but my hunch is that it might sound bad for brass instruements because brass instruments are more harsh sounding. Black CDs might just destroy that harshness.

 

But well, it was not that obvious, and you would not really hear difference for casual listening.\

 

My copying method: CD Copy using Easy CD Creator, using 1 single drive, meaning it is first copied as a CD image to the HDD by the software's automated CD copy process.

CD used: The recommended Melody Black Diamond CD-R

Drive used: a 24X DVD/CDRW combo drive with max read of 24X on a compaq laptop running on batteries. Burnt at 4x.

 

BTW can any mod help to merge this thread with the old one. N@Z, its your thread, well so you decide if you deem this suitable to add to your thread.

[headphonecrazy 0]

There is definitely a difference in sound characteristics for the Black CD-R. I've problems playing back some that were burned on a CD burner but others that were burned with a DVD burner were OK.

BTW, I do realise that the DVD burner actually burn a little deeper than the CD burner. Using two similar CD-R disc to burn the same material on both a DVD & CD burner and you can actually see the difference in the color after. Sound are different too.

 

My personal preference are discs made from the DVD burner, period, whether black or regular CD-Rs.

 

 

[lekguan 0]

My personal preference are discs made from the DVD burner, period, whether black or regular CD-Rs.

 

Hm DVD burners? Could try, but well, no $$ to buy one for now. Maybe can use my school DVD-RW drive instead. hehe!

[N@Z 0]

Mine was a generalised CD-R & CD-RW but the Black CD-R was discussed at some length, since this is specifically on the Black CD-R we'll keep it seperate.

 

I think that's a good point to mention about the type/brand of Black CD-R used. I used Memorex whereas Mat used Imation. I didn't know there was a Melody Black Diamond. What others are there, if any?

[lekguan 0]

N@Z, its stated in the white paper II that he and his wife found that Melody black diamond was the best.

[ahgoh7 0]

Hi!

 

off topic here....

 

My DVD/CD player cannot read CDR/CDRW...

Issit because of the way i burn my disc??

 

will burning music to black CDR able to solve the problem???

 

[fishball79 0]

Lekguan,

 

It is also stated that all black cd-rs have a general improvement over non black ones and the melody black mentioned is the best of the black cd-rs

 

Ahgoh,

 

Burn at a slower speed, if u try black or other good cd-rs at even 4x and your dvd/cd player still don't read then it's lens probably cannot take cd-rs (which happens but not usual)

[Sipher 0]

where to get Melody black diamond CDRs?