does anyone sharpie thier CD's???

Shadorne: Looking at your system, which looks like one designed for high impact and slam instead of finesse/resolution/accuracy, I'd say that indeed you wouldn't hear a difference. Still, you might want to try this for yourself before you pass judgment. You might be surprised.

I thought the notion of after-market power cords making a difference was silly. Nevertheless, I experimented -- knowing that I WOULDN'T hear a difference. So that's exactly opposite of what you're contending we do. And boy was I wrong. I heard a huge difference. And so did friends who aren't audiophiles.

We don't have all the explanations for everything quite yet.

I whatever reason I actually own multiple copies of the few CDs. I guess it is time for a test this weekend.. :-)

I will first play all pairs unmarked, just to be sure neither one has any defects, etc. After marking them I can get someone to switch them back and forth, so I will not know which is which.

Just buy blank CD-Rs to record on, all is done and they sound great, just bought 100 of them not long ago.

Completely concur with Shadorne's response(s).

To Shardorne's point...
1) is it possible marking the perimeter reduces error and allows more bits to be read resulting in louder volume? (I'm not an EE and have only the vaguest of notions about how CDs work...I'm asking because I want to know...not to be contentious).
2) It'd be great if someone with a sound meter could provide some comparison readings with and without marking.

Also, to Sugarbrie...I'd suggest listening to both copies unmarked first. See if volumes are the same initially.