CD duplicate...

Thanks Nutella and Pbowne for sharing with us the make up of your systems. It adds a lot of weight to your a/b comparison findings and opinions. Only fair to give you mine.
Arcam Alpha 9 CDP /with Audioquest pc
Sonic Frontiers SFL-1 preamp
Audio Research LS3 preamp
Audio Research VT50 power amp
ProAc Studio 200 speakers
Audioquest Diamond X2 ics
Audioquest Sterling 3 speaker cable.
Megasam I read the article in your last post. Is was very interesting, thanks for the info. I just spent about three hours in my audio room. At the present time I am using the SFL-1 for the preamp. I picked out three cds to copy for an a/b comparison, Eric Clapton "Slowhand", Jackson Browne "For Everyman", and Don Henley`s "Greatest Hits". Not really bad sounding cds, so so. I should mention here if I have a cd That is kinda dead, bassy sounding I spin both sides in the "Bedini ultra Clarifier". I did not do It on these three cds at this time, but I know I have in the past. Also let me say I never a/b ed avg sounding cds, only good sounding cds. I wanted to see how close the copy was to the original.
The a/b comparison,,, I was just amazed, there is defintely a noticeable difference. Clapton`n "Slowhand" track #3 ,Lay Down Sally, the copy is more detailed, cleaner, more stronger toe tapping bass. I a/b ed these two songs back and forth probably 20 times. Copy, more detailed, cleaner, tighter bass! The electric guitar, and bass guitar really sounded good. I Just couldn`t get over that bass. Then I moved my focus from the better detail and tighter bass to Clapton`s voice. I listened to the original cd track "Lay Down Sally" over and over at least 5 times. His voice full,smooth,sounding. Then I loaded the copy, Something was different, Clapton`s voice was a little thin, not quite as smooth. Not bad sounding but different. Some thing else was different also, that great bass was back but seemed to be a little over powering Clapton`s voice.
I moved on to Jackson Browne`s "For everyman". Again I noticed more detail it sounded pretty good. I zeroed in on track #4 "I Thought I Was A child" I played it several times This time concentrating on Browne`s voice And the piano. Then I loaded the original, Again I heard a difference in the vocal and definitely in the piano. The piano had more authority, Just sounded more natural.In regards to Browne`s voice, I think the biggest difference was in the nasal sound of his voice.
By the time I got to Don Henly`s cds I was getting a little tired of the whole thing. Basically I found about the same thing. The copy sounded pretty good. I went back and forth between the two cds. "The Boys Of Summer" and "The End Of The Innocence" Henley`s voice was different. In the original the nasal sound of his voice seemed to be a little fuller and smoother than the copy.
Which is the correct sound of the vocals of these three male singers? And those pianos, I think the original cds sound more natural.
If any of you get the chance will you do an a/b comparison of some cds with vocals and pianos, and just focus in on the vocals and the piano. Share your findings with the rest of us.
I have these albums on vinyl I`ll pull them out and play them and listen...
One other note, when ever I have done an a/b comparison of a really good sounding cd to a cd-r copy Like Diana Krall or Norah Jones, I can always pick up the differences in the vocal and the piano. Maybe I need a new cdr recorder.

As long as you duplicate within the digital domain
the copy will be 100% identical. Of course that requires you to use the digital ins/outs AND you'd have to use a masterclock. If you haven got clock inputs and outputs
I wouldn't bother making digital copies.

sorry to hijack the thread - golix, can this copy be done with a computer? Also, how to you account for the CD-R burning process. Would you suggest a professional CD stamper with glass masters (or pro equivlanet) instead?

no matter what I do nor how carefully I do it, all of my CD-R copies sound different (some better, but most are worse).

Aroc...I do all of the recording on my PC, an AMD 1700 with 512Mg RAM and a simple CD-burner, using an older Aureal Vortex soudncard. I've heard it should only get better if you can use equipment that is external from the PC, but I have been quite happy with my equipment already. The most important parts are using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to make the copy on the hard drive, and to do the burning at the slowest speed possible (preferrably 1-2x).

I have had very good success running two CD-R decks for direct duplication between decks.
Requires purchase of $90 external CD-R deck and quality USB 2 cable. Use computers CD-R to read data and outboard CD-R to record (write) at speed slow enough that allows direct steam from buffer without strain. My Pentium 2.4 ghz will easily write at 8x with 100% buffer in reserve. If you want to use slower speed to write by all means experiment.

I have external drive on brass cones and bag of sand on top to dampen vibration. Also prefer black CD-R (memorex works fine and easy to find) be sure and clean blank CD-R with Shine Ola or similar cleaner "before" you record for best results.

All my CDs that have bright/grainy sound get black CD-R duplication. Not only is overall sound cleaned up nicely but bass seems like a full octave lower has been added, very noticeable impact here.