Do CD-R write-offsets affect sound quality

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

i...@msn.com wrote:
> Though I've been burning CD-Rs for a few years now, I've just learned
> all about read and write offsets. Does the write offset affect the
> sound quality of audio in any way?

the reason for the offsets is to make up for the fact that not all CD
players start/stop at the samepoint

On one hand I would think it would
> only affect the starting points of tracks, etc. and the music
wouldn't
> really be affected.

That is correct.

>
> The reason I bring this up is that I've been having inconsistent
> results burning an album that is on my hard drive. Listening to the
> WAV files, everything sounds great. But I've tried burning at
> different speeds (I have a Sony CRX140E capable of 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x)
> and with different brands and formulations, and the results end up
> either sounding fuller and flatter (as if there's more low-end
> frequencies) or sounding faster in tempo (probably jitter) and higher
> in pitch, to the point where there's incidents of siblance or
"essing"
> that don't appear on the slower-burned copies.

>
> Anyways, all this has led me to wonder if a write offset changes the
> phase of the music, or if the timing subcode is wrong and thus sounds
> different, etc.
>
> If anyone has any insight, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
>
> - Greg Yim
> ibgby@msn.com


Those are evidence of high error rates. As has been stated here in the
past, your choice of media/ burning rate will have an effect on the
sound of the final product.

What works best depends upon your burner / media combination. I have
found that I get the best results by using a burn rate that is no
greater than 50% of the max burn rate of the burner. In your case,
that might be 4x, but 2x may be even better.


Richard Kuschel

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

i...@msn.com wrote:
> Though I've been burning CD-Rs for a few years now, I've just learned
> all about read and write offsets. Does the write offset affect the
> sound quality of audio in any way?

the reason for the offsets is to make up for the fact that not all CD
players start/stop at the samepoint

On one hand I would think it would
> only affect the starting points of tracks, etc. and the music
wouldn't
> really be affected.

That is correct.

>
> The reason I bring this up is that I've been having inconsistent
> results burning an album that is on my hard drive. Listening to the
> WAV files, everything sounds great. But I've tried burning at
> different speeds (I have a Sony CRX140E capable of 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x)
> and with different brands and formulations, and the results end up
> either sounding fuller and flatter (as if there's more low-end
> frequencies) or sounding faster in tempo (probably jitter) and higher
> in pitch, to the point where there's incidents of siblance or
"essing"
> that don't appear on the slower-burned copies.

>
> Anyways, all this has led me to wonder if a write offset changes the
> phase of the music, or if the timing subcode is wrong and thus sounds
> different, etc.
>
> If anyone has any insight, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
>
> - Greg Yim
> ibgby@msn.com


Those are evidence of high error rates. As has been stated here in the
past, your choice of media/ burning rate will have an effect on the
sound of the final product.

What works best depends upon your burner / media combination. I have
found that I get the best results by using a burn rate that is no
greater than 50% of the max burn rate of the burner. In your case,
that might be 4x, but 2x may be even better.


Richard Kuschel