You can no longer be certain that media from Maxell and Sony is genuine Taiyo Yuden media (definitely an excelent manufacturer).
Very true, I discovered the same thing as you a couple of years ago. One had to look for the made in Japan on the outside wrapper, and the blue/green color burn side. The Taiwan CD-R music are junk in comparrison. One thing right off the bat is the rough jagged outer edge of the Taiwan disc. The Taiyo Yuden Outer edge is as smooth as a baby's butt.
I bought up a bunch of the Maxell made in Japan a couple of years ago. The last ones I could find was from Sams club a little over a year and a half ago.
Marco I was hoping you would address my comment on demagnetizing a CD-R audio disk after recording on it. Why would spinning it in my Bedini Clarifier degrade the sound? Any thoughts....