Thanks for the apology.

Appreciate your feedback on AMQR. I am now only about 1 month into CD burning and there's so much to learn. I would like to perform some listening comparisons with and w/o it. I just burned a disk today with it and it sounded fine on a standard "boom box."

Here are two questions about it:

1) Since AMQR doesn't burn exactly to the same spec as ordinary burning (although it supposedly offers a sonically superior and longer lasting result), is there any reason to be concerned about compatibility issues in the future with other readers since AMQR is "non-standard" in a way?

2) You burned AMQR at 4x. Others have suggested the "Best writespeed" option. Any comments? Some say 8x is best for media designed for high-speed writing. Too slow and the pits get too wide?

One downside to AMQR, which you are likely aware, is that it reduces the capacity of the disk. I found that 69 min. is not enough to fit many of today's audio CDs in their entirety (some run 76 min. or even more). And no one wants to burn two disks. As a result I decided to go with 8X, no AMQR. I tried to overburn to fit an entire 76 min. album onto the CD in AMQR, but that didn't work. It failed.

Here's a little tangent about Nero's utilization of the F1's "Optimum Writespeed Control." If the "Optimum Writespeed Control enabled" box is checked off in the "Choose Recorder" window, does that mean Nero will pick the best writing speed even though you can specify a particular speed on the "Burn" tab? So if you pick 44X and it says writing at 44x, does this mean it actually can be writing at a slower speed, and not even indicating that in the display? I get the feeling that that might be the case but it's all a bit confusing.

I was a total newcomer to CD burning only 1 month ago and the learning curve for Nero has been a little steep. I don't think it's all just "intuitive." But for someone who really understands all the ins and outs, it seems to be a very complete program. Like for example, what is the difference between "DAO" and "DAO/96" mode? When to use each?

Regarding the contradiction in my approach, maybe this will explain my mindset. My laptop has been serving my current needs very well, for the most part, in a very compact space, and I don't really have room for a desktop, so the thought of buying a desktop was not in my head. As far as getting such an expensive burner, I wasn't planning on spending so much, but after taking a look at the selections in the store, I was seduced by the drive's features, speed and Yamaha's reputation (funny that they announced they were leaving the business two days after I bought the drive! Good thing is that they vow to continue to support it).

And when I realized that my only chance to use the high-speed options was to try my laptop's old S200 iLINK Firewire interface (which the salesman said would work), I went with the dual Firewire/USB2 model, which happened to be the most expensive (if there was a Firewire only model, I would have taken it). Turns out that having both interfaces offered me twice the options (better chances of finding a successful connection), plus, I figured that it might be a pretty advanced and versatile drive that I could connect to my next computer. I happened to have the money in my pocket that day and was planning on buying a drive, so I did. I was not up for buying a whole new system (lots of research for me and I didn't perceive the current necessity).

So now that I finally figured out the right way to connect it, I'm very happy with the drive. Nero was a bit of a bitch to learn as my first program, but that's not the drive's fault, it's just what Yamaha chose to include. And I've figured it out well enough to start getting dangerous. And features like DiskT@2 make it fun (gotta find me some 48X metal azo disks now that I'm through with my DiskT@2 media). The quality of the drive seems to be great.

And you can't ignore the psychological "coolness" factor. I like the styling and the blue and purple LED. Obviously the style of the unit is not a technical advantage, but it does make me somewhat more excited to try and make it "do donuts in the parking lot," if you get my drift. And I seem to be able to burn rubber with it just fine, even with my dinosaur of a laptop.

(in reply to parabolic)

"Thanks for the apology."

That's my obligation. Sometimes I surprise myself with blindnesses like this one. Anyhow, I'm glad you forgive me.

"Appreciate your feedback on AMQR."

The way I learned the AAMQR (and DT@2 as well) was not much questitioning directly. Instead, I did extensive searches and read the articles and posts. The CDRInfo host (main page) and forum (not only the Writing Quality) provides one of the best, while of course not exhaustive, information on the issue. In fact, there are very many excellent, if not outstanding, articles on all the aspects of CD recording on that main page.

I can recommend this way of learning to anybody. Really, you can't live up by someone's brain. Not to mention personal abilities, way of thinking and preferences.

I do not want to be much involved in the AAMQR discussion. Well, first off, I do not have much experience in the matter, yet am totally not an audioman; there are much more educated and experienced people in the issue who posts on the forum. You can do the searches and read on.

Secondly, there are specialized threads of the forum dedicated to Quality Recording and AAMQR in particular.

Finally, such the discussion would blow up any post to an unacceptable, in my opinion, size. There is no need in the view of numerous dedicated highly technical articles by knowledgable people.

Nonetheless, here are some brief notes - in the hope they can help you save time.

"...is there any reason to be concerned about compatibility issues in the future with other readers since AMQR is "non-standard" in a way?"

Almost - NO. Nonetheless, I've seen reports that some CD readers do impose problems with reading the AAMQR disks. Can't recall where I've read on this forum but you can do searches on "AAMQR" and "AMQR".

From my own experience... Well, a PC never has such the problem. Nor a plain boombox does. Though, I have an old Aiwa player that needs its heads' cleaning. It randomly reads or refuses to both conventional and AAMQR CDRs. With the same CDR, it toggles from time to time. Thus, I can't state something definite when it comes to this player.

"You burned AMQR at 4x. Others have suggested the "Best writespeed" option. Any comments? Some say 8x is best for media designed for high-speed writing."

Well, you do need to read the John's (this forum's administrator) article on testing the audio writing abilities of different CD burners. There are actually two of the articles but I'm talking about first and short one. Of course, I believe everyone aming to making some good audio disks has to read the second huge article - it is an outstanding one!

The CDRInfo's tests show that 4x speed produces the least jitter level at least for the tested recorders (including the Yamaha F1). Without a dependence on the used media, by the way!

The same tests show that the F1 drive does better audio job than any other PC writer even at 4x conventional writing. Nonetheless, the AAMQR at 8x also yields very good results. As for the 1x AAMQR, it is indeed too way slow.

I used AAMQR at 4x for the only reason. I've made altogether just a couple of AAMQR CDRs. Had I have a need for this kind of writing on an everyday basis, most likely I'd stick with 8x.

In general, as far as I am concerned, it is indeed advisable to slow down for the audio, as opposed to a data one, recording. Personally I totally agree with this: 24x is as high as you can go for a good sound.

NOTE: From the referenced John's article I also carried out the impression that for the AAMQR the enabled Optimum Write Speed Control is desirable (of course, why not to?!).
As for the "Best writespeed" option, I don't know. Both ways cannot be bad. Just play with it a little, and you'll be a guru.

"One downside to AMQR, which you are likely aware, is that it reduces the capacity of the disk."

This is just what shies me from heavily using the AAMQR. To deal with this, I used 99 min disks. The F1 drive has no problems with them at least to some 85 mins! Though... I've never tried to fulfill such the CDR.

I have to stop here as the post will be too big - against my wish.

Once again: do searches and read on yourself. This is the best way to go.

Good luck!

(in reply to parabolic)

Thanks for the good advice. I got carried away and went on some more tangents when they're not really germane to the initial topic and would best be handled in other areas. I've got plenty of reading to do...

One problem which I had mentioned earlier is that I found the Search function on this forum to take a long time to load. I'll admit that I often cancelled rather than wait it out. I have certainly browsed other topics. There's plenty of great info here.

Seems like this topic has reached a successful confusion (I mean conclusion).

Over and out.

(in reply to parabolic)