[Arny Krueger]

"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message
.com
On 10/1/2010 5:56 AM Arny Krueger spake thus:

"~misfit~" wrote in
message ...

My first post here, please be gentle....

I just saw one of my old favourite CDs (and an
excellent yardstick for judging stereos or speakers) in
a 'specials' bin. It's Rickie Lee Jones' eponymous
album from 1979. I'm in New Zealand and my copy, which I bought in about
1980 and gets listened to at least weekly, was
manufactured by Warner Music Australia. This copy that
I just bought (even though my original is still in
perfect condition I like it enough to buy a second
copy) is made in Germany by Record Services GmbH,
Alsdorf. I was just wondering, is there likely to be any
difference in quality / sound between them? (My main
system is limping while the main speaker's mids are
getting re-coned and my back-up speakers are fine for
HT but not for critical audio reviewing.)

The answer to your question is something that you can
determine for yourself with just an ordinary computer.

Just download EAC or CDEX (freeware), and convert the
CDs to digital files. Both products include digital file
comparison utilities that will tell you whether or not
they are identically the same.

Well, maybe.

While the two discs should be *virtually* identical, it's
likely they won't be *absolutely* identical--in other
words, a byte-by-byte comparison of the two files will
probably fail.

I've done this sort of thing many times.

Please read the post by Jens Rodrigo.

When CDs differ significantly, they are either vastly different, which is
usually due to remastering. This fact bears on the OP's basic question.

CDs often differ in the amount of zero padding at the beginning or end,
which the EAC and CDEX file comparison utilities handle very nicely.

If a CD reads with permanent errors, then data is either added (usually
zeros), interpolated or lost. The EAC and CDEX file comparison utilities
handle these situations very nicely, as well.