most desired is the one that works good..(not necesserilly the most expensive and top brand)
I am using a RICOH 16x10x32, and it works fine for me...but sometimes it doesn't like some blank CDs (usually cheap ones), so I stick to TDK discs...and it's ok so far...
good luck
I agree totally with ROKER. The best burner is the one with the specs you want that will work. To add... Also the one with a good long warrenty. A year goes by way too fast for a cd burner.
Sony, Plextor, & Yamaha are what I would recommend.
Yes, not all CD's will sound identical. Interesting really, and initially hard to believe for some because the "digital industry" uses language that while not incorrect, does mislead people into believing that digital playback is always perfect. The simple fact of the matter is that a digital audio CD is designed very much to work like its analog counterparts. Where copying data from a data CD is a guaranteed process (pass or fail), reading data from an audio CD is not. The higher the digital error rate, the worse things get. Sometimes this will translate into clicks and pops, in less extreme cases it will simply result in incorrect *sounding* playback. Your player is constantly detecting and correcting errors (or attempting to), and as long as it can stay on track it'll playback whatever it can, even if what it's reading is incorrect. Some players of course are better than others...and every single CD on the planet will contain errors. As long as the rate and severity of the errors is within specifications, a player can correct them and the CD is considered valid.
Here's a great link explaining some of this, if you're into details:
"CD players use parity and interleaving techniques to minimize the effects of an error on the disk. In theory, the combination of parity and interleaving in a CD player can detect and correct a burst error of up to 4000 bad bits -- or a physical defect 2.47 mm long. Interpolation can conceal errors up to 13,700 or physical defects up to 8.5 mm long."
Another thing to remember about disk transfers is if you go disk to disk any errors on the original will be transferred to the copy. If you first transfer to hard disk any errors will be corrected and you can burn a fresh disk.