80 Minute 52x Gold Thermal Printable Unbranded CD-R Discs - 100 ct. Spindle

by MAM-A

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B00065DGNC
• Item model number: 00041501
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 4, 2004

Product Description

80 Minute 52x Gold Thermal Printable Unbranded CD-R Discs - 100 ct. Spindle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great but expensive since there are cheaper alternatives now, February 18, 2010

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 80 Minute 52x Gold Thermal Printable Unbranded CD-R Discs - 100 ct. Spindle (Electronics)

Mitsui dual gold/silver media are great disks, there's no doubt about that, the issue for me is whether they're worth paying several times what you'd pay for say, Taiyo Yuden. T-Y is a top brand, at about 36 cents a disk per 100 pack for the DVDs, the CDs being even cheaper. Gold media are still regarded by many as the standard for archival grade disks. However, in doing a lot of research online recently and reading various blogs and discussion forums about what is the best media for long term storage, I turned up some interesting facts.

One issue that came up was that Mitsui had recently split into two companies, Mitsui Advanced Media of America, and also Europe. Some people thought that the new companies just weren't as good as the original company and that the media wasn't up to the standards of the old company.

Also, people were pointing out that the necessity for gold has been over-hyped in recent years. That's because it just isn't necessary to pay the extra cost anymore. Gold was preferred some years back because it doesn't oxidize if there is a defect in the polycarbonate plastic layer covering the thin metal layer, and was thought to be superior because of that. However, it turns out that had more to do with defects back then in the manufacturing process of applying the plastic layer evenly to the disks. That problem was solved years ago and now there's no real reason to go to the extra expense of the gold, although many people still think it's the best archival grade media.

There's no doubt it's a good media, the problem is that they can't prove that it's worth spending 6 or 7 times as much for a disk that doesn't last any longer according to these accelerated aging tests that have been done. Nevertheless, you will often find websites advertising the gold types as the only true archival quality grade media.

One minor point, in reading through many posts on these disks, one technically oriented individual said that his disk analysis program showed a higher BER (block error rate) when testing gold disks. Once the block error rate gets to a certain level the disks become unreadable. However, that has more to do with the fact that gold, although superior for preventing oxidation, isn't as reflective as aluminum, so you get a spuriously high initial BER. However, most disk drives can read gold media just fine after they're burned since the original CD standard was actually based on gold. So this particular criticism is actually baseless.

One point in favor of the Mitsui disks is that they use a very stable phthalocyanine dye, said to be even better than Taiyo Yuden's super-cyanine dye. Also in their favor is that that Mitsui controls all stages of the manufacturing process from beginning to end. Finally, the metal layer is completely bonded to the plastic layer, compared to other brands which are just edge bonded. These factors still make Mitsui media a top contender in the archival grade category, but still, most informed people thought they were just too expensive compared to the Taiyo Yuden.

So the bottom line is that although excellent media, unless you really prefer it, there is probably no reason to go to the extra expense anymore when you can get Taiyo Yuden for 1/5 or even less the price. In the case of the DVDs the savings are even more per megabyte of storage capacity than the CDs.

I turned up some more very interesting facts on some of the other name brand media, so I thought I'd discuss that a bit.

Another top grade media has been Verbatim. I've used Verbatim disks a lot over the years too and overall they have performed very well. In fact, just recently I tested some DVDs that I burned 3-5 years ago that had some family photos and videos on it, and many of the Memorex and Ritek DVDs were unreadable, but the copies on Verbatims were fine. So I have no personal problem with the Verbatims. Fortunately I had a second backup copy of this material on other media that was still good.

One advantage to Verbatim DVDs is that they pioneered a more stable metal stabilized azo dye that is said to be even better than Taiyo-Yuden's super-cyanine dye, as I mentioned above.

However, in plouging through a lot of these online discussions, there was general agreement from many of the participants that Verbatim's once great quality had slipped in recent years. People were saying that Verbatim had licensed its technology to various offshore manufacturers who were producing the disks under their label and those disks were showing high failure rates. If you can find the ones that really are made in Japan, though, it was said those are probably still good.

In fact, I am about to purchase some Verbatim DVD+RW disks to make another copy of my personal files onto these RW type disks. That's because RW's don't use optical dyes, which can age and degrade over time; instead the data is stored by an exotic alloy--often GeSbTe (germanium-antimony-tellurium), but I have also seen InSbTe (indium-antimony-tellurium) mentioned-- which should be more stable. This is possible because the alloy has different reflectivity in the crystalline vs. the amorphous, non-crystalline state. The problem is that since these are rewritable disks there is the danger that you could accidently overwrite them, which is why many people prefer the optical dye media which are write-once. For me I don't think that is a problem so I'm willing to try some of these and just see how well they do over the long term. I'll check them again in 5 and 10 years (assuming I live that long :-)) and see how they do compred to the optical media.

But after extensive research on the best optical media I settled on Taiyo Yuden. Their name came up again and again in the forums, and no one complained of any serious problems. Their reliability and consistency was especially held in high regard.

Be sure that you have real Taiyo Yuden though, as they are often faked. True T-Y media has a noticeable little ring in the dye area near the hub, which stands out and is easily seen. It's said this is more expensive to do and is harder to fake. Also make sure that on the package it really does say made in Japan. T-Y is only made in Japan. They have not diluted their quality by outsourcing to anyone else as has been said in the case of Verbatim. Also, avoid any disks from China and United Arab Emirates. Those consistently came up in the forums as among the worst. Those from India could sometimes be good and Taiwan was usually okay.

Verbatim does have a point in their favor, though, in that their dye technology can be shown to be more resistant to ultraviolet light damage. However, unless you're in the habit of leaving your DVDs on the dashboard of your car or something this isn't as big a deal as has been claimed. And since many people bought the Verbatims in the past for archival purposes they're going to be stored in a dark place anyway so it's not really a factor for most people.

The same thing goes for the previously very well thought of gold/silver (actually aluminum) DVD-R disks from Mitsui. These DVD's disks are expensive (over $2 per DVD) compared to Taiyo Yuden's which you can get for about 36 cents apiece. And as I mentioned, the problem is that Mitsui has since broken up into two subdivisions, Mitsui Advanced Media of America and of Europe, and people were saying the quality just wasn't as good as in the old days.

I did come up with one very interesting find on a gold/silver disk that might be worth it for very critical information. Mitsubishi and Kodak recently teamed up and have produced a dual layer gold/silver disk similar the earlier Mitsui disks. They're also over $2 per disk but there's a very interesting difference. It turns out that DVDs are typically stamped from a glass master with runs of usually around 500,000 before they replace the master. After the fist couple of hundred thousand, the master isn't that accurate anymore and that can cause problems. Manufacturers typically mix disks from different parts of the runs together when you buy them. It's thought that this is why you can buy a cake box of 50 or 100 disks, have no problems and then run into several failed burns for apparently no reason. Very likely those disks were from the last 100,000 or 200,000 of the run.

However, these Mitsubishi-Kodak disks are guaranteed to be from runs of less than 25,000 disks, which should be well within the tolerances of the glass master. You pay for it though, and a cake box of 25 disks is around $65. You can find them on the web by looking up "Century disk." The dye is a metal stabilized azo dye which is said to be possibly the best dye, too. I bought a small number of these disks for some very critical data as well as the Taiyo-Yuden and have been very happy with the results. No "coasters" at all.

By the way, there are several reasons to prefer the DVD+R media to the -R. Unfortunately, although Taiyo Yuden makes +R's, Century disks only come in -R format. There are several reasons for this superiority. One is that +R's have better bit error checking and correction algorithms than -R's, which could prevent lost data. The second is better wobble detection (all disks have this and it has to be corrected for during recording and playback). The third is that +R's have more than one burn profile for the laser power, whereas -Rs only have one. This makes it more likely to get a better burn since the dye is sensitive to the laser power.

Whichever way you decide to go, good luck with your archiving and optical storage!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compatibility issue, April 30, 2006

By 

T. Dimock (Ventura, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 80 Minute 52x Gold Thermal Printable Unbranded CD-R Discs - 100 ct. Spindle (Electronics)

Five stars for quality because of its reputation, but a quick note here to say that these are not compatible with the Pioneer PDR-609 CD Recorder - a somewhat picky model. I used TDK instead with that older machine. Before buying a 100 pack of anything, buy a single disc or small pack with the rest of your Amazon order to check compatibility first.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT, reliable data storage--great for audio, too!, August 9, 2006

By 

Matthew G. Sherwin (last seen screaming at Amazon customer service) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: 80 Minute 52x Gold Thermal Printable Unbranded CD-R Discs - 100 ct. Spindle (Electronics)

These CD-Rs are golden--both literally and figuratively! The quality of the sound I record onto them is a perfect copy of the sound from the source CD-R. Moreover, how can you beat a 300 year life expectancy? They'll survive longer than I will!

On the very bright side, these are manufactured with what Amazon notes is "phthalocyanine, the best organic dye currently available." Awesome! It is scratch and fingerprint resistant, too--I tested it!

On the down side, once in a while these CD-Rs can be fussy about which recording equipment they'll work with. However, they will work with the average PC and CD player. The packaging could be better, too: they arrive merely in the clear plastic wrap surrounded by bubble wrap so they don't get bumped around in transit. For the price you pay they ought to come in a protective cylinder shaped plastic shell!

All in all, however, these CD-Rs are excellent for data and audio storage. I highly recommend them as very attractive alternatives to standard, run of the mill store brand CD-R blank media. They are especially resilient against fingerprints and scratches; and their life expectancy just can't be beat! Awesome! SMILES