CD duplicate...

I will join the camp that says under certain conditions a CD-R copy can sound better than original CD, especially a poorly recorded one.

There is an article in current Positive Feedback about completely tweaked out CD-R unit from company called "Reality Check CD" that you should read. Positive Feedback author is completely sold after having two of his CDs burned on this tweaked CD-R.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue16/RealityCheck.htm

Design theory is that mass produced "stamped" CD will never have superior readability of the more pronounced pits found on "burned" CD-R. Article expalins other features/technologies used in this tweaked CD-R unit.

Jea48
To add to Nutella, the CD-R copy "can" sound better because the data copied is easier to read by your CD player than mass produced CD. The physical burning with laser used to copy data to CD-R is different and superior process to mass produced stamping for commercial music CDs. Also the dyes, metal layer, and protective coating can be superior with quality blank CD-Rs.

Different brands of blank CD-Rs can sound slightly different, black CD-Rs are popular as well as premium brands like Mitsui. The quality of the CD-R drive doing the burning, laser used etc can also vary results. Finally different burning software can have variable results, most popular commercial brands are Roxio, Nero, Musicmatch, Recordnow. Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is available as free download.

Anyway fun and inexpensive to experiment with, as mentioned above most dramatic improvements can be heard on CDs that are not well recorded and have typical CD grain/glare/sibliance. Almost all new computers with CD-R drive have some CD burn software installed so play around and experiment....or just skip all the trail and error and check into getting tricked out Reality CD burner mentioned in Positive Feedback article.

I have not experimented with home audio dual deck CD recorders, and not sure how they compare to computer copied CD-R. Be interested to hear anyone who has tried both methods and which they prefer.

Here is another very interesting in depth aticle about experimenting with different CD-R copy techniques for audiophiles:

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

I have had very good success running two CD-R decks for direct duplication between decks.
Requires purchase of $90 external CD-R deck and quality USB 2 cable. Use computers CD-R to read data and outboard CD-R to record (write) at speed slow enough that allows direct steam from buffer without strain. My Pentium 2.4 ghz will easily write at 8x with 100% buffer in reserve. If you want to use slower speed to write by all means experiment.

I have external drive on brass cones and bag of sand on top to dampen vibration. Also prefer black CD-R (memorex works fine and easy to find) be sure and clean blank CD-R with Shine Ola or similar cleaner "before" you record for best results.

All my CDs that have bright/grainy sound get black CD-R duplication. Not only is overall sound cleaned up nicely but bass seems like a full octave lower has been added, very noticeable impact here.

Jea48
While your wallet is out.........I just picked up a Bedini Quadri Beam and it is noticeably better than old dual beam, another tool for CD enhancement worth owning.