OFF: frrrrrrrrrrripp! and stuff

[Paul Mather]

On Fri, 13 Nov 1998, John A Swartz wrote:

=> > Although, for pragmatic reasons, the "gold discs sound better" is
=> > essentially bogus,
=>
=> I've heard that (although I don't know if it's true - any audiophiles
=> care to comment?) that the gold discs actually do sound better to the
=> material because, I believe, that gold has better reflective properties,
=> which ends up resulting in less missed bits (and subsequent error
=> correction).  Certainly, however, I agree with the assertion that the
=> main reason they sound better is do to remastering.

Well, that's why I said "essentially bogus" (maybe "mostly bogus"
would've been better?).

A gold substrate does have certain advantages over the usual aluminium
one found in "regular" CDs.  Mostly, it is less reactive, and so less
likely to corrode or oxidise (e.g., due to scratches), thus increasing
the longevity of the disc.  Since it is a more "stable" substrate, it
will give a lower bit-level error rate (BLER), *but* not enough to
justify significant extra $$$.  The thing I find most bogus about MoFi's
"justification" is that they seem to imply that a higher BLER will
somehow "strain" your CD player's electronics.  This is intuitively
silly.  The error correction (EC) circuitry couldn't give a rats ass
about the BLER so long as it is below correctable levels.  Bits in, bits
out; it's all the same.  It just gets on with the job, whether the bit
is right or wrong.

Besides, if a gold substrate meant the price had to be higher, how is it
that the Kodak "gold" CD-R blanks (w/InfoGuard and gold substrate) are a
dollar *cheaper* than all the non-gold substrate green/blue/gold dye
blanks in the local campus bookstore here???

Methinks something fishy gwine on here. :-)

MoFi should just fess up and say it's higher quality mastering you're
really paying for, but I guess it's easier to sell something tangible
like "real 24K gold discs" to the masses.  Gold, that's expensive,
right? :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD-R: Gov't Mule, _Dancing Across the Water_

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time"
        --- James Marshall Hendrix