Review on 📀 Maxell 625335 High-Sensitivity Recording Layer Recordable CD: Optimal Audio Performance, 700mb/80 min by Chris Smotherman

While these discs are inexpensive and have little to no issues with the manufacturing process, compatibility with many CD burners is poor, and that's not just an issue we're concerned with Spinners like to use old equipment. Even if a disc is written correctly, some CD players may not be able to read it. Maxell is responsible for cluttering the label with their logo, but they are not directly responsible for how poorly these discs perform. They don't make them and their current suppliers appear to be limited to Taiwanese manufacturers Ritek and CMC Magnetics. Compatibility issues with CMC drives are not new; my Philips CDR 560 and CDR 870 didn't like them when they came out under the names Memorex and (yes) Philips 15 years ago. But in the past most Ritek drives worked on Philips machines and now even my JVC XL-R5000 beats both Ritek and CMC and beeps without even getting to the "OPC" procedure, despite the recorder with most older still works well drives from two vendors. Maxell typically buys drives from Ritek, although he has used CMC for a number of years. The manufacturer can be identified by the inscription on the reflective layer around the hub, best viewed from the "platter side" as shown in the attached images; CMC drives are labeled "CCLAT" and Ritek is a mirror image of "RTA80M" when viewed from the "Recording" side. While the performance of the photosensitive dye causes most of the blame and is likely to be a big issue, other factors play a part, including the proximity of the init region to the center of the disc. Defined by a "pregroove" etched into the plastic, Here the "OPC" test area, table of contents and information identifying the disc type have been moved inwards, taking up the space left over for production coverage. Variations when 80-minute discs first appeared earlier in the century to give a small fraction of the extra six-minute capacity. 80 minute discs are said to be compatible with older drives, but sometimes the laser assembly can't get to the beginning of the "groove" to read or write data. Other means can be used to gain additional time with less loss of compatibility, which the Japanese manufacturer Taiyo Yuden has done quite well. Too bad they stopped making CDs. While I don't really like these discs, I don't know of any good alternatives. Drives sold as Memorex, Verbatim, Imation, and several 'generic' brands are from the same sources, although Verbatim is now owned by CMC, so at least all of their drives are from the same manufacturer. SONY seems to have gotten out of the "music" CD-R business, and while a few retailers were still on the list, I've had poor results with a few batches I've tried over the past three years. The only real alternative seems to be the MAM-A, but while most of them normally work with Philips recorders, they had major processing problems, mainly gaps in color and drips of non-removable "material" stuck on the recording side stuck are difficult to remove. see and be large enough to cause a disk failure. UPDATE May 28, 2020: I just received a batch of MAM-A drives that came from CMC Magnetics with the same results as CMC/Maxell drives. I haven't had any major problems with the latest Maxell CD-Rs due to physical defects. They are not compatible with "classic" Philips recorders including the CDR 765, although I have found some discs in Ritek batches that work and from the limited testing I have done they most likely have one a little later poor performance CDR 778. But most of them work with other recorders, even some of the older ones like those from LG Electronics like the SONY RCD-W1, Harman Kardon CDR 20 and AIWA XC-RW700. I have found that they burn correctly onto the GPX CDRW3500 although some of the finished discs are not recognized by this machine's playback drive. And the discs shouldn't be a problem on newer recorders like the TEAC CD-RW890. But since they should work in all standalone recorders and players, I can't say they're ok, even though I've found recorders that work with them.