Audio CD Burn Speed

[shadowbox]

I have heard a lot of different opinions on what speed to burn audio CDs at.
Some claim that 1x or 2x is the only way to go. Supposedly, burning at these speeds actually sounds better than faster burns. Also that more CD players will have no problems playing back the CD.

I recently bought a 12X CD-RW and have been burning CDs at 12X. I check my CDs on an old discman, my mac, a denon CD player, and my Sony Cd player at home. It plays back fine on all of them and to my ears sounds the same as a 2X burn? Am I crazy?

[tvband]

no you're not crazy, you just bought a good burner. there shouldn't be any sound difference in speeds over 2x i don't think, it's just there's more room for error when discs are burned at higher speeds. but if the discs are playing back ok in all your cd players then keep on 12x.

[Corey Shay]

It depends on the CD player, but I've found 1x usually sounds better than say 6x. There's no doubt in my mind that both produce no errors, because I've extracted the audio off both and polarity flopped, and they 100% cancelled (this I'm absolutely positive of). The problem with higher speeds is you get more jitter in the writing process. And cheaper CD players are more susceptible to jitter than high end ones. Even though it uses a RAM buffer, all the electronics, transport included is run off the same transformer, which means any problems will be interrelated.

What I usually hear from playing 6x discs is a subtle soundstage and width degredation. It's most pronounced in my car, where it's not exactly high end equipment.