MUST READ for older ALPINE head owners!!!

Finally my search is over. If you have a Alpine head unit at least a year old then you know that playing CDR's is awefull. It sits there searching for seconds up to minutes depending on brand of CDR. I have an Alpine CDA-7949 which was their flagship cd reciever a few years ago, digital X-over etc. and IMO much better sounding than what Alpine is producing now a days. Wel, it should all the signal lines are via fiber optic. But its been irritating me that all my friends w/ swapmeet head units can play pretty much any burned cd while mine struggles. I noticed that some brands struggle less than others. Back in 98' my friend burned cd's for me with Mitsui gold/gold which are UNAVAILABLE now and those worked awesome. Since I finally have a CD burner I thought I do some recearch to find the best CD's for us old Alpine owners.
What I discovered is Alpine struggles with pretty much all blue and green back cd's. I bought some Diamond Mitsui's, which are supposed to be the best on the market and those take about a minute to lock on to a track. Silvers and black memorex work so-so but I know I can do better like the old Mitsuis of old. I bought pretty much all the CDR-Audio cd's too and those still had a bit of delay until...I picked up a standard Maxell CD-R 700mb 16Xcertified and they work just like the Mitsui's. I'd even go to the length of saying they work better than some original CD's when recorded on these. DON"T BUY the Maxell CDR-Audio CD's these ones work better. I put a picture of them below to show exactly how they look. They also have them in a 24X certified but I only have a 4X burner so it doesn't matter. I avoided Maxell, because back in the day Maxell CDRs would have the highest error rates and just made a bunch of drink coasters. The old Maxells price droped to almost nothing so I guess the company did their homework to make something much better.

I think the trick for old Alpines to successfully play CDRs is this. Buy Branded gold surface CDR's with the recording film closest to the laser. Some hide the recording film way back on the other side of the cd behind the writable surface to protect it. Dang, this was long post but if you have this problem you're probally happy to read all this. This is what they look like. Enjoy...
http://www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg

okay lemme try this again. I'm a vB rookie so bear w/ me.
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http://www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg

okay lemme try this one mo time. Anybody know how to drop images on the post.
www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg)
www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg (http://www.geocities.com/celblok3/maxell.jpg)
okay lets see what this does..

i wish i knew that before i sold my 7949 a while back on ebay=), it wouldnt play burnt discs for shit, well some it would, most it wouldnt.. and like you said.. they were all MAXELL discs too, word.. so what are the good gold ones again?

They look like this in a green box but be carefull it must read on the front "Branded Gold Surface". They make the same boxes that read "Branded Surface" and THOSE DON'T WORK. What also sucks is they don't make the branded gold surfaces in large spindles only in freaking 10packs w/ slim cases. The 10 packs can be found at any pc store I bought mine a Tower Records for 7.99 a pack. The certified 24x cdrs just came out so if they drop the price on these old 16x's I plan to empty those shelves. Was that the only reason you got rid of your 7949?? The new Alpines fixed the problem but look way to crazy with the lights like cruising through vegas or something.

yea pretty much that, this was a while back though, about a year now i think, it was when i had an accord, well now im using an eclipse cd8061, and well its pretty nice, it wont play maxell audio discs that are burnt though. i went to the store to reup on cd-r's and i found some maxell mastering cd-rs, are these what you were talking about, i couldnt see if they were actually made with the gold color, but they were quit expensive, only had 10 cds and had cases, so i dunno.. maybe these are the ones, i should read the package this time.. oh well..

ez


babir

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