I boot leg a ton of shows (Dead, String Cheese Incident, Keller Williams....lots of jam bands) and Mitsui and Klone are the best discs I have ever used, and the best place to get them from what research I have done is American Digital ( www.am-dig.com ) . Below is the techy info on the difference in the discs in regards to heat and light.

Organic Dyes Used on CD-Rs

MAM's Patented Phthalocyanine

All CD-R discs incorporate a photosensitive dye layer where your data is stored--it's what gets "burned" when you write to the disc. This layer is where your data or music is stored in the form

of "pits" which are oblong areas that are discolored by the writer. These pits are read by the player and ultimately transformed into the "1s" and "0s" that make up your digital information (music and data look the same to the reader). The accuracy of the stored information is directly affected by how this dye reacts. That's why the dye is so important.




Sample of CD "Pits"

MAM's Patented Phthalocyanine (tha-lo-cy-a-neen) dye has several advantages over others:

1. More responsive to the writing laser so cleaner, better defined pits are created
2. Longest lifetime of any photosensitive dye
3. More transparent, contributing to MAM's high reflectivity

What does this mean for you? Cleaner pits means fewer errors. Higher reflectivity means better compatibility among readers. Longer life......300 years is, for all intents and purposes, forever. (estimated lifetime is 300 years for our gold CD-R and 100 years for our silver)

The Phthalocyanine Molecule

Contrary to the two other types of dye with linear molecular structure, Phthalocyanine has an annular structure, thus offering the benefit of solidity by forming a strong and extremely stable chemical bond.

MAM invented Phthalocyanine and has a world patent on the substance.


How does MAM dye compare?



This chart shows the number of errors that develop after exposure to high humidity and high heat.

(The discs are put into an environmental chamber at 80 C° degrees and 85% relative humidity. Industry standard analysis techniques can relate these tests to real life).




Other Organic Dyes


Cyanine

Those CD-Rs are green, and include an organic dye based on Cyanine. Their quality is variable, and they have a shorter lifespan than CD-Rs using Phthalocyanine-based dye. Light reflection is lower, given the color of the dye, and the burning is less accurate.


Metal Azo


The CD-Rs made with metal azo are blue, and use a silver reflective layer, which gives good reflectivity despite the color of the organic dye. Like Cyanine, the dye is less stable than the Phthalocyanine, has a higher BLER rate when recording, and consequently a shorter lifespan.