Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Audio The right CD-R for the stock HU

For those of us who can't play burned CR-R on their stock HU, here is what I found after several months of trial and error procedures. The HU works perfectly with SONY CD-R (700MB/80min, 1x-32x compatible). The 10 pack box is yellow and blue and the recordable face of the CD-R is blue. I burned the CDs with the MusicMatch Jukebox burner at 1x speed.

Until now I burned a dozen CDs and play them several times on the stock HU. No errors, no skips, even on bumps. Work great.

I'll use the CD creator burner to see if the SONY CD-R work as well and will report soon.

You know, I have read several posts related to this topic, and it makes me wonder. I have the stock HU and I play burned CDs all the time. My discs are of at least ten different brands (I carry over 100 in the car) and all of them work perfectly. Some of them are even 99 minute CDs. I burn them at almost any speed, some of them even at 32X, with no problems. Now I do have problems getting the disc to load or come out, but that has nothing to do with the CDs as it does this to the original CDs too. I wonder if Ford used different suppliers for their CD players or something. Anyone have any information?

My Ford CD deck didn't like Maxell (green) CD-Rs that you get at Costco. (Would play occasionally but not more than 25% of the time). Also tried Kodak (gold) ones, that it hates these ones, 0% success. Fuji CD-Rs are blue and these were maybe 60% success. I found the Sony ones (blueish) worked about as good as the Maxell ones...not very.

Then I got some Mitsu brand (silver) 24x ones and burned at any speed they are 100% good. (As good as pre-recorded music CDs).

More recent (12x) Maxell (green) media seems to work better though. I'd say 80% success.

It seems to depend also on the burner. On my PC I have an HP 4x burner that produces much worse results in the car than my newer Firewire 24x (Sanyo mechanism) burner I have on the Mac.

So far I have the best luck with silver CD-Rs, followed by blue, then green, then gold.

Kerry

Any frosted covered or even black CD-rs worked for me, but had to burn at 4x. This was back when 12x was the fastest available, what was that three weeks ago :rolleyes:

I don't believe that the color makes the difference. I think its the quality of the cd-rs. Because lasers cannot distinguish color...

shotwell, where r u getting 99 minute cdr's. i've never heard of that. just 80 minutes

it's a thousand times easier to just replace the stock (crap) HU! Even if you only spend $150, the HU you buy will be far superior. Think of how much time you wasted on CDR's and money as well...Not flaming, I used to be the same way. Stock HU is garbage though.

Weird, I play any old CDR in both my tour ( when I had the stock headunit ) and in the wifes Escort. Never had a problem. I mostly use the green Maxells from Costco too.

The color on the bottom of the disc is the dye base, which can often determine the quality of the disc. To make a long story short, the laser cannot distingusih between the colors but if it's a finicky HU and there are variables with both the burners and the discs there is a lot to take into consideration.

I agree with the great one about just getting a new HU, even a used one would work better than the ford unit

-Pete

Money is no object! I spent a lot more time searching for a replacement to the stock HU that does not have that patched and multicolor aftermarket look (which I hate), than to find the right CD-R.

Furthermore, when I drive my SVT, the only sound I would really like to listen to is that emanating from the dual exhaust tips! I don't care about the minuscule differences in quality of the HUs that nobody would notice anyway with those BFG g-Force tires, unless you like to listen to music at max levels or consider your car as a travelling jukebox. I don't...

BTW in searching for the right CD-R for the stock HU, you should also consider the burner and the recording speed. In my case, SONY CD-Rs with MusicMatch Plus burner at 1x speed produced perfect results with 0 failures.