do burnt CD copys sound as good as originals?

No difference...a digital to digital dub will cause no loss - you can make 1000 copies if you wish. Bob Katz and many many others have tested this.

If you are convinced that you really hear a difference then you might question the impartiality of your own skills at detecting differences between other components (amps, cables, IC's etc.).....it seems you have been "got" by the placebo effect (your expectations have framed your opinions rather than your observations).

If you normally rip your CDs with Apple Lossless, should you change that to a non-compressed format for the CDs (or tracks) you wish to burn to new CDs?

Apple lossless should not lose any information - this is one of the few commonly used audio compression algorithms that is NOT lossy. When you burn an audio CD it should give you a perfect redbook CD by converting teh compressed file to redbook (provided the apple software and burner are working fine)

To say that there is no difference merely because a bit for bit copy is being made is difficult to sustain. This argument should apply to all things digital. With this logic, all CD players should sound the same, and all digital cables since it's just bits that are being moved around. Well, we know that's not true, because the timing of the bits as measured by jitter can cause CD players to sound different.

There actually is no difference in a digital recording and a digital copy of the same digital recording....jitter and different sounding CD players come from other factors like the differing clock accuracy, power supply and D to A circuitry between players. This has been proven many times over. Digital data storage is the basis for banking, communications and a whole host of modern technologies...digital data correctly copied (without errors) will perfectly preserve the original digital data - no loss and no difference.

Photon6 and Kmcarty,

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed reading the Genesis article. Clearly the author has encountered some kind of transport/burning problem. As the author states....according to the "data" it is identical, however, it sounds different => this can only be due to a problem reading certain types of "burned" disks on the transport being used.

Some early CD players had trouble with some types of "burned" discs and some lasers had trouble with some types of dyed discs- so this is entirely possible. Also, as the author states no compression or software errors/bugs can occur in the copy process.....in which case the copy is no longer a true copy. Given the unreliability of windows software and hardware compatibility, the complexity in some "burn" programs and the general infinity of permuations of hardware/software...it seems possible that Genesis ran foul of some technical compatibility problems somewhere.

However, these findings do not negate that a correctly executed digital copy of data should be identical to the orginal data...it just means that some sets of hardware/software do not work properly together as they should.

Rather than blame all CD copying as a process fraut with some errors (patently untrue) it would be only fair to conclude that the author (and others) have encountered hardware/software bugs or compatibility problems somewhere in the reproduction chain. (not unlikely given the myriad of possible hardware/software combinations)

So how do you burn CD's "bit-for-bit" on a Windows system without compressing?

It will depend on the software and ensuring that the original file is not compressed. For example, iTunes has a setting in the preferences folder that is normally set to automatically compress any CD you stick in the PC and copy into iTunes (AAC format is the default, just like the iTunes music store)...obviously the setting needs to be changed so that there is no compression when copying an original CD.

...as for iTunes downloaded music=> there is NO solution it is already compressed - so what you burn it to a CD audio format from what was downloaded from iTunes on your hard drive then it will definitely be inferior to the original CD that you might purchase, for example, at Amazon.

Does anyone know how to edit songs for burning, such as to clip just a portion
of a song? I want to make some CDs for component evaluations and don't need
entire selections in many cases. Not something you can do in iTunes, is it?

Drubin,
Here are some low cost tools bit there are many...
ACID Music Studio for PC
Garageband for MAC
Audacity for MAC
Cacophony (shareware for MAC also works but has limited functionality)
+...many others... try a google

Generally you need to convert things to a .wav file (PC) or an AIFF file (Mac) and then you can do what you like to make your own mix or "edit" version.

If you are serious then you might want Pro Tools (both MAC and NT Workstation options...this is serious stuff with many plugins that you can purchase)

Once you have a final set of .wav or AIFF files then you can import them into iTunes an burn them with this to an Audio CD....(of course there are also tons of other programs that will burn an audio CD too...so use what is easiest for you)

Just make sure you work in 16 bit 44.1 Khz Stereo files and try to do as little manipulation as possible (even simple volume level adjustments can easily clip some digital data)

One thing you can do is check the data quality to start with....many modern pop CD's are ALREADY HEAVILY CLIPPED (i.e they actually hit the CD upper 16 bit limit or they have been deliberately soft limited to sound as loud as possible). This is easy to see on a PC or MAC screen. Of course, they sound BAD too! Why consumer associations like BBB do not go after an industry which sells CRAP like this is beyond me....perhaps a "Class Action Law Suit" is in order - make them reissue all the clipped CD's in properly mastered versions or refund a portion of the CD cost! (There are thousands out there. My personal survey is that more than one out of every two CD's of pop that I buy today have been deliberately clipped this way - this is criminal!)

And industry professionals wonder why CD sales are plummeting!!!

CD Loudness War