Mitsui, Kodak Gold Respected Among Music Traders (Score 3, Informative)

Among the etree membership (a group devoted to trading freely taped music like Radiohead, Phish, and the Dead - these people really know CD-R archiving), Mitsui and Kodak Gold are the most well respected CD-Rs. Taiyo Yuden, non-Ritek TDK Certified Plus, Sony, imation, and some others are also considered pretty good choices. The vast majority of CD-Rs are made by Ritek in Taiwan and its considered bad form to give someone one in a trade. For more information, try Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ (very comprehensive) or the etree CD-R FAQ (mentions a few brands).

You typically can't find good quality CD-Rs at the major computer stores and you definitely won't get good prices on them. They don't have the lowest prices out there, but I've been pretty happy ordering 100 lots of 80 min Mitsui unbranded silvers from american digital and haven't burned a coaster or had a CD-R go bad yet. Hunt around and I'm sure you can find some better deals online.

... rjs