CD-R's country of origin: Does it really make a difference?

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Bennett Cerf
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CD-R's country of origin: Does it really make a difference?

Postby Bennett Cerf » Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:56 pm

I've been buying the Japan-made Fujis for years, but I'm no longer finding them in local stores. The Fujis are all made in Taiwan or Malaysia. (Malaysia? I hadn't noticed those before.) I'm not seeing Japan-made CDRs for other brands either.

Is there any real evidence that Japan-made CDRs are superior to others? Or is it all received wisdom and superstition?

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Xenu
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Postby Xenu » Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:36 am

Evidence? Ehh, not really. It may be more likely that you'll hit defects in some of the cheapo-er brands, but this doesn't mean that Taiyo-Yuden's have something magical other discs lack.

There're times when this trope does apply, though. For example, during the early period of DVD-R manufacturing--when firmware, etc., was extraordinarily tempermental--Japanese made discs were the bees knees, offering generally consistent quality and few errors. Nowadays, though, DVDR making has hit the "been around so long" phase of its development, so it isn't quite as important to shop by country.

In my case, I still go after Japanese discs when possible, as there's the extra "security blanket" feeling. In the end, though, it probably matters very little (if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: super-cheapo K-Hypermedia CDRs I bought about seven years ago still work fine).
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David R. Modny
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Postby David R. Modny » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:14 pm

If you are interested in the Yudens, you can still buy the Maxell Pro discs. They carry them at Staples if you have one in your area. They're the same TY discs as the Japan Fujis, with an additional "protective layer" (whatever that means). I believe that they're usually around 15 bucks for a 25 pack. Maybe, a little pricier than some of the others.

Make sure they're the Pros though - the discs have a gold top with black lettering. The cheaper Maxells aren't the TY's.

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Jeff
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Postby Jeff » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:42 pm

It doesn't matter which CD-R's you use. All of them roll off all treble above 15 kHz. :cry:

Aftermath
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Re: CD-R's country of origin: Does it really make a differen

Postby Aftermath » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:11 pm

Bennett Cerf wrote:I've been buying the Japan-made Fujis for years, but I'm no longer finding them in local stores. The Fujis are all made in Taiwan or Malaysia. (Malaysia? I hadn't noticed those before.) I'm not seeing Japan-made CDRs for other brands either.


As per threads at "that other place", I've found "Made in Japan" Fuji's recently at Best Buy, but only for the 50 pack spindles. The 30 and 100 packs are Malaysia and Taiwans IIRC.

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Beatlesfan03
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Postby Beatlesfan03 » Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:58 pm

David R. Modny wrote:If you are interested in the Yudens, you can still buy the Maxell Pro discs. They carry them at Staples if you have one in your area. They're the same TY discs as the Japan Fujis, with an additional "protective layer" (whatever that means). I believe that they're usually around 15 bucks for a 25 pack. Maybe, a little pricier than some of the others.

Make sure they're the Pros though - the discs have a gold top with black lettering. The cheaper Maxells aren't the TY's.


I bought a ten pack of Maxell Pros once and 6 of them ended up in the garbage. They burned fine (at least according to Nero), but when I played there were all sorts of strange audio artifacts with one channel pretty much white noise by the end of the disc. Double checked the source material and that wasn't the issue and the material played fine when I burned it to another CD.

Could have been a fluke, but for that price (not to mention defect rate), it soured my view of the Pros.
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David R. Modny
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Postby David R. Modny » Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:38 am

Beatlesfan03 wrote:
I bought a ten pack of Maxell Pros once and 6 of them ended up in the garbage. They burned fine (at least according to Nero), but when I played there were all sorts of strange audio artifacts with one channel pretty much white noise by the end of the disc. Double checked the source material and that wasn't the issue and the material played fine when I burned it to another CD.

Could have been a fluke, but for that price (not to mention defect rate), it soured my view of the Pros.


FWIW - I've burned at least 250 of them already, from different lots and using three different burners, without issue. Maybe, I'm lucky though.

To be honest, I haven't had any problems in particular even with the "dreaded" Taiwan media brands. I might be singing a different tune though in 10 years if some of my early burns don't play!