24 Kt GOLD CDs £££££££

[T22AGA]

Sorry if this has been asked before . I have noticed on E Bay MFSL and Mastersound Gold cds : They seem to cost a lot of money even 2nd hand ! Some sre £100+
My question is : Are they really any better sounding and does anyone have experience of these discs

[Troubleatmill]

This is a subject that is entirely measurable.

1's and 0's are being read by a laser. So.... the question really is "Are less data errors made from reading a Gold CD to a normal CD?"
The laser has no idea what material the data is on.
Once the laser has read the data - it can be compared to the original data - for accuracy.

I'd be looking to see what articles there are out there that measure data transference and accuracy/ error rates.

It sounds like this weeks version of snake oil or speaker cable.

I'm sure you will get responses here that "it provides a little more crispness in the top end"
or "the midrange is a lot more fuller" etc etc


For me - a fool and their money..... etc.....

[P700DEE]

MFSL discs can sound better but that's down to mastering. Standard discs are Aluminium so if exposed to air and or leaching from the inks can corrode and become unplayable. Gold discs won't corrode.

[telecat]

I have the Tears for Fears Album "Songs from the Big Chair". It's certainly very good but you would have to have a similarly mastered "silver" disc to tell. It does indicate that they have spent time getting the mastering right.

[JustinP1]

A CD is 30 year old digital tech designed to solve the issue that large amounts of digital information needs to be stored in a way that was previously impossible.

To make a CD work, there's actually a 2nd and 3rd 'track' in case the 1st stream of data is corrupted.

So, it was the best that was around 30 years ago, and the best way of transporting and distributing 600MB of data to a DAC then, but that is no longer the case.

A hard drive, or even USB stick will hold exactly the same information, and does not have the same inherent flaws the CD has.


A gold plated CD is like choosing to improve a horse and cart when really you'd be much better off with a lorry.