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Up until its recent withdrawal, I have used the TDK Studio CD-R media to record audio. These discs are optimised for use at low speeds (X1, X2, X4) producing best results for audio. TDK appear to have replaced them with a new "consumer" type media. I refuse to pay 2.50 a shot for the TDK AUDIO Pro discs so I have two questions:

(1) Am I right in thinking that the replacement "consumer" discs won't work on my pc based burner?

(2) Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement for the TDK Studio that are optimised for low speed use AND will work on a pc based burner?

Any suggestions appreciated.

The "audio" discs should work fine in your PC -- the discs are basically the same, the only difference is those sold for audio have a special bit set indicating a royalty was paid to the RIAA (or the local recording industry association for whatever country) and allows the disc to be played.

You do not need "audio" discs to burn "audio" CDs in a personal computer (you may know that, I see people all the time at Best Buy and the like buying the "audio" discs specifically), and most "audio" discs aren't really optimized for anything-- they just have that bit pre-burned, and due to lower demand for that sort of disc, they cost more. (although it sounds like, from the nature of your question, you know all that and have specific requirements)

Not sure of what to recommend for ya for #2. Look around online for some store that has a quantity of old TDK disks-- the old 1-4/6/8X TDK discs were incredibly good (and again, I'll bet the "Ceritifed Plus" 8X discs TDK made were the same as the "audio" ones, just without that bit)

Cheers for the info Just. I'll give the replacement "consumer" discs a try and see if my ears notice any difference in the audio quality. If not, then I'll probably just stick with them.

Thanks again.