MAM Technical Papers

	Why MAM CD-R?

MAM holds a patent on Phthalocyanine (thay-lo-cy-a-neen) dye, which is where your data or music is stored. All CD-R discs incorporate a thin dye layer that stores your information when you create a CD, so the dye is one of the most critical components.

Compatibility

MAM CD-R is the most compatible in the industry. Not all CD drives are created equal. Although drive manufacturers need to conform to a basic set of standards for manufacturing, there are subtle differences in how well the "pickups" are able to handle the reflected signals from CDs. MAM CD-R has the highest reflectivity in the industry, which improves the accuracy of the player read-back.

Because our dye formulation has remained unchanged for over 9 years, the drive manufacturers know what to expect when designing CD drives. That's why our media works in any type of drive or player. (Our competitors need to change their dye formulations to accommodate different writing speeds. Other additives are used to improve resistance to UV light and heat.)

MAM CD-R exhibits extremely consistent signal performance across the entire CD. Because of MAM's attention to detail, our molding process results in discs that are flatter than the competition.
While all discs are slightly warped, if they are warped beyond a certain tolerance, drives can have problems during playback. Temperature variations in your car can cause discs to warp more than usual, so it helps to start out with the flattest disc possible.

The chart below shows seek times for different CD-R media compared to MAM on a car stereo player. The chart on the left shows seek times after the Table of Contents (TOC) has been found until the first track is played. As expected, they are nearly the same. The chart on the right shows seek times for random selections. Note that MAM CD-R even beats the prerecorded (pressed) CD.

More sensitive to the writing laser

When you "burn" a CD-R, your writer creates "pits" in the dye layer that make up the 0's and 1's for digital recording. MAM’s Phthalocyanine dye reacts more quickly to the writing laser than other dyes. Because our dye reacts in a "burst" mode instead of a "melt" mode as with other dyes, sharper pit edges are created (see diagram below). These sharper edges are easier for CD players to read, so more faithful sound reproduction is possible.

Burst Mode (Phthalocyanide dye)
Melt Mode (Cyanine dye)
	Because the pit edges are more clearly defined in burst mode, CD players read back the signal more accurately, resulting in a faithful, warmer-sounding audio reproduction.

Naturally resistant to damage from UV light

Music CDs go with you wherever you want to hear your favorite tunes. That often includes environments such as your car or outdoor activities that are not very friendly to ordinary CD-Rs. MAM’s patented Phthalocyanine dye is more resistant to UV light than dyes used by our competitors. While other dyes are very reactive to UV light unless "stabilizers" are added, MAM dye is naturally stable, so no additives are needed. This means that once your music is saved to MAM CD-R, you can be sure to hear it for along time to come.

Heat Resistance

The advantages of a naturally stable dye don’t end with UV resistance. MAM CD-R discs are also more resistant to damage from heat sources, whether natural or man-made. Of course, it gets very hot in you car. Add to that the heat that is generated in the player itself, and you come up with a combination that can be deadly to CD-R media produced with other dyes. Even the darker color of our competitors dyes contributes to the amount of heat absorbed by the disc.

MAM CD-R media is well known to music professionals. People who rely on faithful reproduction of recorded music consistently report a fullness and warmth of sound not found on other CD-R media. Why trust your data or favorite music to anyone else?

Also see:

CD-R dyes: How to tell what's what

Why MAM CD-R?  (MS PowerPoint) 

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