Nero 6 decompresses on the fly, but decompression happens a HELL of alot faster than the burn does. Additionaly, for audio, It's been determines that it's best to burn CD media at 16X speed, and that for the most accurate data burns, it is best to not exceed 32X.
As for media, Taiyo Yuden is absolutely the best media available anywhere on the planet, and is a de facto standard against which all others are compared. In the USA, the only truely certified distributor of TY media is
www.rima.com, but
www.supermediastore.com and
www.shop4tech.com are sometimes slightly less money, and also carry TY seconds, refered to as, "Value Line," media that is STILL better than anyone elses stuff. A little tip. You can always identify TY CD-R media easily because thery're the only disks that have frosted center hub areas. All others have crystal clear hubs. This tip does NOT hold true of DVD R media.
For less expensive "working copies" ritek CD-R is pretty good quality media, and it pains me to say that because I've boycotted Ritek for selling substandard DVD media to unsuspecting buyers as something it's not. (IE selling media codes that were previously, by Ritek's own admition, sutible for burning at 4X as 8X media, and other crappy business practices.
Prodisk media is among the least consistant and least dependable media's available.
CMC CD-R media is also of fairly decent quality, on par with Ritek's stuff. Fine for working copies. If it's a backup copy you're closeting for long term archiving and need it to last a long long time, DEFINATELY ONLY depend on TY.
There are only a dozen or so actual CD manufacturing plants. Most brand names are actualy NOT manufactured by that company. (IE Fuji, some Sony is made BY Sony, much is not, Memorex uses lots of different manufacturers and produces none of it's own stuyff, ect.) So you can't just go by the name on the outside of the cake-box or jewel cases.
CD Freaks is one of the best places to learn about CD-R and DVD±R media, as well as hardware (CD DVD writers) of every manufacturer, and the quality of the disks they write. For specific information about different CD-R media types and who's names they're marketed under, follow
THIS link.
I'm not a professional or anything, but have done ALOT of research on this topic over the course of the past several years, and am happy to help out in any way I can. If I can't answer your question, I can and WILL find someone who can, so don't hesitate to PM me, as I don't always follow threads closely.
JT
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