MAM-A (Mitsui) Silver vs Gold - Which is Best for Me?

What is the difference between gold and silver CD-R?

All CD media incorporates a reflective layer that allows the reader to see the data that is digitally stored on the disc. MAM's silver CD-R has a reflective layer manufactured from 99.1% pure silver the gold is 99.99% pure gold. -- the real stuff.

Is gold better for one purpose than another (and vice versa)? As far as I can gather, the urban legend is that gold lasts longer but silver is better quality. Is that accurate?

MAM Silver Gold CD-R are of the same quality, but there are some differences in performance. We estimate the lifetime of our silver CD-R to be about 100 years our gold CD-R, 300 years. Many people use the gold for archival applications to ensure the longest life possible. Some audio professionals prefer the gold because it sounds better.* About 20% of our total production is MAM Gold CD-R.

The silver media has a slightly higher reflectivity than gold (70% vs. 75%), but except in rare cases, there is no functional difference. (Some players/readers use older pickups don't deal with CD-R media very well, so the higher reflectivity helps). Our discs have the highest reflectivity of any in the industry--in fact our gold is higher than our competitors' silver!

What is meant by Silver/Gold?

Silver/Gold is a commonly used term which refers to silver media with the gold dye -- meaning Phthalocyanine dye.

*In blind sound tests where our gold media was compared to silver, some audio professionals consistently choose MAM Gold based on sound quality, (The MAM Challenge). These tests were performed with very high end equipment with all factors being equal from disc to disc. Of course these tests are subjective and we urge you to draw your own conclusions.