Burning better CD-Rs from Mac/rec eternal burner


Before you jump on me about searching the archives, let me say that I have done so exhaustively and have not found what I need.

I want to burn a compilation CD for taking to audio shows and meetings, but I am always disappointed with the sound quality of CDs I burn from iTunes on my MacBook Pro. I rip with Apple Lossless, burn at slowest possible speeds, and have all the settings where they should be as far as I know, but the quality is still inferior. Good enough for the car, good enough to give to non-audiophiles, but sufficiently inferior to the original CD that I would not want to use them on a really good system. (Short story: a guy came to my house a few months ago to listen to some speakers I was selling. He brought a compilation CD he had made. The sound was really mediocre. Over his mild objection, I put on an original CD and he was stunned at the improvement.)

I know many of you do make compilation CDs and then there is the whole copies-sound-better-than-originals camp, so there must be a better way. Is the secret to get an external CD burner? If so, which? Plextor was a favorite, but they are out of that business.

Dan
Ag insider logo xs@2xdrubin
Drubin - I use xAct for decoding compressed formats (FLAC etc) and SimplyBurns for ripping/writing. Quality is excellent and you can make compilations (just select "Audio" icon). I was switching ripping format to wav (habit from the past) but gave up and allow Mac's default AFAIK. Both programs are free.
Drubin - it is also possible that you use poor CD-Rs. Try Taiyo Yuden (suprmediastore.com) considered the best and longest lasting (lowest number of errors). They inveneted CD-R and started production in 1988.