Ah, I see your point Jack. I truly have not been able to see any difference between the slowest speed, and goinng 1 or 2 steps faster.

It seems the lesson here is to get the best burner you can, the best media you can, and burn at about half the max speed. If the max is 16X, then the middle point would be 8X. I think I will still burn at around 4 just to be safe like others here have mentioned. It also makes sense to not completely fill the disc. If there are going to be bad areas on a disc, it would be more commom in the outer edge.

I typically burn at whatever speed is listed when the burn box pops up. That's typically the fastest it has determined it can go. There is anecdotal evidence that slower is better. There's actually anecdotal evidence that faster is better! So I don't think there's any hard and fast evidence one way or the other. Bottom line, do what you feel works for you and what you are comfortable with.