Poor Quality CD copies

"Dale" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1e9e01c4a6bc$58b49a70$a601280a@phx.gbl...

> Equip:Compaq 6000Z, 2.8 process, 512ram, Windows Media 9
> series, 4 month old system.
>
> When I burn a CD from an original commercial copy,
> everything goes well, except when I play it back on a
> quality stereo, the copy doesn't have the quality of the
> original. I tried slowing to 8X recording speed, and also
> tried high quality blanks...Memorex Black Label CD-R. Are
> copies never as good as the original? Is there a better
> program? Would the CD burner in the Compaq be to cheap?
> Thanks

A copy is exactly the same quality as the original. Are you doing an
on-the-fly copy or are you first ripping the music to your HDD? Ripping
to the hard drive first is generally considered to be the more reliable
method, but rip to WAV format, not to mp3. If you have ripped the tracks
to low-bitrate mp3 files before burning them to CD-R, it would explain why
you are hearing a difference in quality. Another possibility is that your
DC player doesn't handle CD-R media very well- try playing your burnt CDs
on a different player to see if you hear a difference.

Regards,
Ian.