Quality CD blanks in this day and age?

TheShadowRunner · October 28, 2014

Hey all,

I've been going nuts trying to find quality CD-Rs.

It sounds crazy I know, but Verbatim has completely switched to CMC it seems, Sony has stopped producing CD-Rs altogether and the other brands I've never had much experience with.

Where do you guys buy quality CD-Rs in this day and age? Is there any serious manufacturer left?

Are there any MKM CD-Rs under any brand anywhere?

Thanks for any info,

TSR

**dbminter** · October 28, 2014

As far as a my experience goes, there are no MKM CD-R's, but there could have been. My experience with Verbatim CD-R's were that CMC made the last ones I bought and returned. And I had some of those so called Vinyl CD-R's, but they had no MID on them so I eventually replaced them.

Unfortunately, in a brick and mortar store, you'll probably only find Verbatim and Memorex CMC cheap ass media. :angry: I use Taiyo Yuden CD-R's. They make good quality DVD-R's so I tried their CD-R's out. I've had no problem with them so far. I have to get them from Amazon.com.

Anyway, that's what I use.

TheShadowRunner · October 28, 2014

Thanks for your input dbminter, do you mind linking the Taiyos you're getting on amazon?

**dbminter** · October 28, 2014

Well, you may not want the kind I got. I got the silver shiny kind because they're easy to write with a CD marker.

I haven't bought any in over a year but they're still available from resellers. I bought them from mediaxpro.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001O790UE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

TheShadowRunner · October 28, 2014

Thanks for the tip, at this point anything is better than CMC xD

**dbminter** · October 28, 2014

You know? Memorex is kind of an odd beast. Their CD-R's are CMC but their 24x CD-RW are Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, aka MKM. Their DVD's are CMC but their BD are Ritek. Of course, there was a time when Memorex didn't use CMC at all!

Both Verbatim and Memorex tarnish their reputations by getting into bed with CMC. Memorex's CD-RW were high quality, back when they made them. When Verbatim actually makes their media, it's high quality, as long as you don't buy their cheaper tier products. Then, Verbatim started farming out their CD-R's to CMC. Now, they farm out their BD-RE's to CMC! I call :horse:

texasjackson · October 29, 2014

I still buy and burn CD-R's. I use Taiyo Yuden. I get them from Rima.com

http://www.rima.com/CTGY/TY.html

TheShadowRunner · October 29, 2014

Figured the Verbatim stuff out.

In a nutshell, all Verbatim CD-R packs branded "CD-R Extra Protection" are CMC / China crap.

And all Verbatim CD-R packs branded "AZO Crystal" are MKM / India manufacture.

So I just went in and ordered a 50x Spindle Verbatim 43343.

Here is the full 2014 Verbatim catalog.

Edited October 29, 2014 by TheShadowRunner

**dbminter** · October 30, 2014

Let me know how those Verbatim AZO CD-R's go. Forward their MID. I'm curious to see if they're actually Verbatim or CMC. AZO is supposedly a proprietary formula developed by Verbatim. But, who's to say they don't just farm it out to CMC to do the actual manufacture.

If they're good, I will try some AZO inkjet Verbatim CD-R's I found on Amazon.com after you posted this.

**dbminter** · October 30, 2014

These are the ones I tried in 2010: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XK0E7E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

No longer available after all this time, but that's not surprising. Anyway, those were CMC's.

**dbminter** · October 30, 2014

I scanned over that PDF of Verbatim products. It lists their 20 pack of BD-RE's. These are made by CMC. I know from experience as I got them off of Amazon.com and posted here in Chat not to get them.

TheShadowRunner · November 3, 2014

Let me know how those Verbatim AZO CD-R's go. Forward their MID. I'm curious to see if they're actually Verbatim or CMC. AZO is supposedly a proprietary formula developed by Verbatim. But, who's to say they don't just farm it out to CMC to do the actual manufacture.

If they're good, I will try some AZO inkjet Verbatim CD-R's I found on Amazon.com after you posted this.

dbminter, got them today.

They're high quality Mitsubishi's alright

Here's the data:

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ATIP Information:

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Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.

Start Time of LeadIn: 97m34s23f

Last Possible Start Time of LeadOut: 79m59s73f

Performance (Write Speed):

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