I have the non-Bose stereo in my 2K2 SE, and the audio CD-R's I've burned from MP3's skip horribly as soon as the disc gets heated up. Discs I make from other prerecorded CD's on my Philips home-stereo burner work fine, but discs I make from MP3's on my computer don't.

These same discs worked much better in our 2K GXE, only occasionally cutting out, and they still work fine in my Altima's deck so it's not necessarily the discs. But on this unit they barely get through the second song on the disc before starting to skip so bad that the player just goes into error. I record on Memorex 80-minute CD-R's.

Any ideas? I'm going to try some other brands of CD-R, but why would players be getting less tolerant of CD-R's rather than getting better?

 

it says in the manual u shouldn't use CD-R's

 

Use different blanks or burn them slower, or some combination of both. I have some blanks that I can burn at 12x and still play fine in my Sony ES headunit and some other brands only work if I burn them at 2x.

Stereodude

 

A salesman at Best Buy told me the best CD-R's to use is Imation CD-R's. So far they've worked fine for me. But then again I have the Bose system in my Max. So maybe give them a try.

 

non-bose 2k2 here. i've never experienced any problems on my cd-r's. i use 3M Imation btw.

these are the same cd's i've burned nearly a year ago and used on my stock Civic HU (OEM Alpine), the Kenwood eXcelon i had shortly thereafter and now the stock HU on my 2k2 SE.

 

Try Imation or Memorex. Those seem to work the best....

 

That's pretty funny. The only blanks I ever had a problem with were Imation. Of course Imation doesn't make their own blanks. They have someone else make 'em for them. Ritek, CMC Magnetics, or someone else. Some of the real makers seem to have better quality discs, but there's not way to tell what you're getting when you buy Kodak, or Imation, or Maxell. Typically I burn a test disc from each new spindle I get and see what setting I need to use to make 'em playable.

Stereodude

 

Haha, funny you say this, cause a salesman at Best Buy told me to use TDK, which at the time I was already using, but Best Buy does not carry TDK. I have found TDk the best though.

 

I think it's the combination of things. Some players are pickier than others, and I've found the burner can actually make a huge difference with some players. I had an Acer burner that wouldn't even read on my CD changer my 2k Max. Then I got a Philips burner that worked much better. Some brands of CD-R worked better than others, but I still had some skipping. Now on my i35, I have no skipping whatsoever, and the CD changer looks like the same model as my 2k.

Try using a friend's burner with a few different brands of CD-Rs and see if that helps.

 

TDK and Plextor have the best media as well as the best CD-R drives.
If you still have problems try Black media like you would use to burn PS games, less reflective hold up to scratches better.

 

first try to burn less then 74 mins. if that fails, try to find some 74 min disks. My Bose plays 80s ok, but the changer chokes on them and I have to use 74 mins or I get what you describe.

 

i use memorex 80min CDRWs and they work fine on my non-bose player... i've also used imation 74min CDRs without a problem either

 

Tim has a really good point. 74 Minute discs are better for in car use than 80's. I have an 80 minute torture disc that was burnt at 12x and has 82:36 on it. Needless to say that disc sorts the good players fromt he bad ones. Lately I've been burning Samsung 12x 74 minute blanks at 8x in a 8x4x32 Plextor. When I find blanks that work good for audio in my picky players I put them aside as the "audio discs" and only use them for audio CDs. Once the Samsung's are gone I've got about 100 74 Minute Maxell blanks waiting to go. I use cheap 80 minute junk for data on the PC.

Good luck finding 74 minute CDs. They're very hard to find in stores.

The burner you use also make a difference. I have a Plextor 8x4x32, a Ricoh 12x10x32x8 (DVD/CD-RW), and a brand-X 16x10x40. The Plextor and the Ricoh are pretty similar in quality. The brand-X doesn't seem to do as well as the Plextor and the Ricoh on audio discs.

Stereodude

 

wish i had the information off hand, i'll go and look it up,, but there's definitely something with the different colors of cd-r's that you use for a particular player.. something with laser sensitivity or light reflections?. anyway i'd suggest just going and buying those little 5 packs of just the cd-r's (no cases), which are like $3.99 at Walmart, and trying them all out, all the colors. and of course burning slower will always make the quality better anyway, so i'd suggest that as well. leave it at 2x, and go watch tv or play in your car for an hour. ** also, if you are using a cd recorder on a computer, you really should close down everything else, even internet if you arent using it. most of your system resources go to your cd-writer application, and if your system has to do something else, it can definitely cause a skip or glitch on the track.

- brett

 

That has nothing to do with it. As long as you don't get a buffer underun while burning (which ruins the disc) and your justlink/underun protection doesn't kick on there is no way using your PC while burning will effect the resultant quality of the disc. I used to play Quake2 online burning CDs.

Stereodude

 

what type of cd-r's are you using? the ones for computers or the audio cd ones? my 2k1 gxe does not have a problem using computer cd-r's, try using audio cd-r's. and also do what other members have told you, burn the cd slower(2x or so), and try using 74min cd-r. btw, does the non-bose come with the 6disc in dash player? if not, then it should be the same as the 2k and 2k1 model cd player, i dont get why it dont work

 

but if you don't find a combination of CD-R brands, sizes or burn speed within a couple of combinations, you may be SOL with that burner. I tried countless combinations and would actually find some that would play OK intermittently. I tried black media, blue dye with silver reflective, gold reflective with clear dye, any new combo I could find (for me silver with blue/green dye was the best out of all of them--although not nearly good enough). Finally I just gave up on being able to play CD-Rs reliably in my changer. Once I replaced my burner though, I tried again to find I could use just about any brand CD-R or size without any major problems (although I haven't tried black or gold reflective again yet since i got good results from the cheapo blue/silver).

It's really a combination of things. Brand X might work best for some people because of their combination of hardware, but you might find Brand X is the worst performer for you. I know it's frustrating, but there's no one right answer on this other than trying all the combinations until you find one that works (and one combo would work better in my car but horribly in a friend's car).

And even more frustrating, once you find one that kinda works, the brand changes the dye or something -- or where they get their CDs from (there are actually only a few manufacturers of CD-R media with a lot of brand labels).

But try a friend's burner.. seriously.. you may find it's worth the $200 for a new burner to get the use of CD-Rs back in your car! I've been through this s--t already! It sucks!!!

 

Thanks for the ideas guys. The Maxell CD-DA (digital audio) discs for my Philips home stereo burner work fine in the car. They're the same color dye as the Memorex CD-R's I've been using, but the CD-DA discs are only 74 minutes so there maybe something in that. It just might not be able to track the more condensed 80min discs correctly, or maybe the discs expand too much when they get hot and the player fails to track them properly then. I've got a stack of Imation discs to try out, so I'll do that too. If I figure anything out I'll post it here, but it sounds like everyone's personal experiences are all over the board, so what works for me may not be of any use to anyone else.