Bit perfect copies

Previous poster - chances are that your computer had a program running in the background that taxed the pc's memory. Try burning discs with all other applications shut down and there should be no pops or clicks. Data CD-Rs just don't pay royalties to the RIAA but their quality varies as much as CD-Rs for "audio" use.

I use to burn cd-r's directly from the source and I heard clicks and other occasional distortions. I now extract the music from the source and save it onto the computer. I then burn it a 1X (the original speed) and they sound excellent. Also some brands of cd-r's cause problems with auto and high end cd players. I find Sony CD-R's to be the best and most reliable for audio. Memorex is not very good, TDK are blue in color and some audio cd players won't recognize them.

I too have had problems with cheap CDR's. The blue ones that I bought in bulk would skip terribly especially on my car and portable machines. I switched to SONY (silver in slim cases) and have had much better luck ( still only around $.75 each)

There are several audio CD-R units on the market that sell for about $350. There was an ad in the Sunday paper from either Good Guys or Circuit City for a Phillips unit, and Sony has recently brought out the RCD-W1. (The RCD-W1 also has a special offer thru July 31st for a free 20-pack of audio CD-R disks.) I recently bought the RCD-W1 so I can transfer a lot of my vinyl collection onto CD, but have not had the chance to play with it yet. As others have commented above, all of the units do a perfectly adequate job of copying -- but don't expect them to be great playback decks.

Scott, it would be great if you would report on the RCD-W1 when you've had a chance to record some vinyl with it. This unit tempts me, but I've wondered if I'd have to spend money for a pro machine to do justice to LPs. From the promo blurbs, it doesn't sound like the RCD-W1 uses the same A to D technology as their new, pro unit, but who can tell from that stuff? -- Jayson