Why does the recording sound better?


I have a Cambridge azur 840C CDP/DAC balanced connected to a Krell KAV 400xi amp. I just made a back-up of a CD I purchased (Alanis Morissette havoc and bright lights, great recording)to a light-scribe disk and i noticed the recording sounded better than the original in many respects. Now here's the kicker, I loaded the CD to my I-Pod (lossless)and played through my Wadia IDock 171I through the Digital inputs on my Cambridge CDP mentioned above. I'm at a bit of a loss as to why a recording may sound better than the original, any thoughts? I should mention I just received my CDP back from repair, which included a new transport, caps and firmware 1.2.
rpg

Showing 2 responses by kijanki

Rpg, CDP cannot read each sector multiple times since it is operating in real time. Small errors like scratches up to 4mm along the track will be corrected while scratches longer than 8mm will be audible (pops). Between 4 and 8mm player interpolates missing data (thanks to Cross Interleaved Reed-Solomon error correction code).

When you read music CD as data, drive reads each sector multiple times until it gets right checksum. This process will eventually make CD-R or server file copy that plays better (without interpolation) than original CD.

There should be very little difference on brand new CDs without scratches or fingerprints, but it might be audible on older, less than perfect CD. Important is to use ripping program that reads CD as data. I use MAX for Mac with "Do not allow to skip" option set.
The most efficient backup would be hard drive. I also use Tayio Yuden CD-R. They invented CD-R. Another great, but expensive, is Mitsui Gold.