Is GOLD a superior to ALUMINIUM on CDs?

[adamCalifornia]

According to the claim by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
(from the booklet included with the Dark Side of the Moon,
on the GOLD cd, Harvest) GOLD is superior to ALUMINUM.
However I've heard something to the contrary! I am confused.

See you on the Golden Side of the Moon

Adam

[Floodedstatue]

Originally Posted by adamCalifornia

According to the claim by the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
(from the booklet included with the Dark Side of the Moon,
on the GOLD cd, Harvest) GOLD is superior to ALUMINUM.
However I've heard something to the contrary! I am confused.

See you on the Golden Side of the Moon

Adam

Apparently gold is a more stable surface for the lasers in cd players to read, therefore enhancing playback. They are also less prone deteriorate over time. Most SACDs I've seen tend to have a gold surface. Whether it makes any significant improvement to the sound is one for the real audiophiles to tell us?

I would imagine if you did a straight blindfold test of 2 discs from the same recording (one on gold one on aluminium) it would be almost impossible to tell any difference. MFSL discs were reputed to be recorded from the original master tapes which is where any improvement in sound is likely to come from - not from the gold surface!?

[KillerOfThreads]

I read some years ago that the only real difference 'might be the life span factor'.

Looking at how a few of my CD's have 'rotted' and they are all aluminium, I think they were probably right.

For the same reason that 24K gold audio sockets and plugs don't need anywhere near as much cleaning as their cheaper counterparts.

[per-Sony-fied]

Originally Posted by Floodedstatue

[U] MFSL discs were reputed to be recorded from the original master tapes which is where any improvement in sound is likely to come from - not from the gold surface!?

Yes I agree the most major part of MFSL sound quality comes from the use of OMT and the extra fussiness in the way it is recorded and the recording chain. Since MFSL did the same for vinyl some years ago. Of course being the perfectionist they are, the recording was all finished of and layed onto disc using 180g virgin vinyl to ensure nothing went to waste.

So I'm sure this is the only reason why they use gold plating on CD's. It'll ooze out all the hard work that was put into the recording and hopefully stay that way longer.

[phillfyspoon]

Gold is the most reflective for better laser pickup then silver.

the least affective? Black, remember the old playstation games would skip like hell on movies.