The speed of sound - Technology Information

Emedia Professional, May, 2000 by Robert A. Starrett

How Safe is High-Speed CD-Audio Recording?

Many of us yearn for the days when the pace of life was slower, when there were no firm deadlines in most everyday affairs and one could complete certain tasks at one's leisure, spend the rest of the time relaxing, and perhaps carefully correspond by letters sure to arrive within several weeks once mailed. Today gives us little of that; everything seems to move at Internet packet speed, and all those packets pile up in an unfathomable number of messages, files, programs, and spam. Remember when a letter delivered by post was an exciting event? You hoped it was filled with good news of friends and family; sometimes, of course, it contained bad news. But regardless of how long it took to get there, it came as news to you, since that was how information traveled in those days.

In CD recording, there is news aplenty, and it's all good. With today's 12X recorders, you can record a full audio disc in about six minutes. Compare that to the 78 minutes that it takes to record the same disc at 1X, and you can see why recorder manufacturers are scrambling to keep up in the "X" race. But bad news may loom as well, because some people question whether advanced recording speeds might have an adverse effect on the underlying data, the longevity of the disc, and its playability across multiple brands of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives and consumer audio and DVD players. Today, our audio discs must play on more than an audio player. CD-ROM drives, CD recorders, DVD-ROM drives, CD-Audio players and changers, portable audio players, car audio players and changers, and DVD-ROM video devices all must be able to play back the data without a hitch, or else we consider the disc to be "bad."