http://www.genesisloudspeakers.com/Go to "downloads", then scroll to "In search of Absolute Fidelity. . ."
I e-mailed Mr. Koh several times about this while building my burner rig and he actually invited me to the Genesis factory in Seattle. A friend and I were treated to great hospitality and incredible sound in what would be considered abysmal acoustic surroundings.
We both were able to easily hear differences between different blank discs. We didn't do any comparatives between originals vs. blanks but in my listening since then, I find original CD's generally to be characterized by tizzy treble and muddy bass. I think this is the "digital sound" often complained about, mostly by audiophiles groomed on analog.
Why are hard-drive-based transports gaining popularity? No jitter. Why does my Red Wine Audio Monica-2 DAC sound so natural versus my other fantastic player? (which sounds much better with burned blacks) - My typical nonscientific and unsupported declaration is that jitter is a real problem, ROM drives are unaffected by this, and a burned disc, while containing the same "data" as the original disc, provides a more positive and organized reading surface for your poor CDP which has tremendous responsibilities in "real time" translation.
Now, I haven't been able to reproduce the obvious differences between different blanks that Mr. Koh was in his factory. Bear in mind, we were listening to $45,000 speakers with excellent equipment. But, the difference between my blanks and my neighbor's originals was obvious.
I don't know whether a standard computer arrangement would give the same results. My rig is pretty similar to the one described in the article, though I haven't ponied up for a linear power supply for the burner yet. I do have a PS Audio power regenerator running the whole operation. Mr. Koh says this is a critical part of the equation but I haven't done comparisons with and without.
I would guess that a well-burned CDR will provide a lot of the same benefits that hard-drive players will. In the next couple months, I'll have a Squeezebox 2 to start playing to confirm this hypothesis.
Once my new speakers come, I'll start some A/B comparisons. I might even endeavor to do some blind though I've found subjecting myself to a testing environment strips the differences that reappear when I quit thinking so hard.
If people are generally interested in this and have some particular comparisons they'd like to see done I'd be happy to consider and report. And, anybody wanting to give it a whirl at my place in Seattle is always welcome to drop by and check it out.
