Gee, so what you're saying is that choice of any media is totally
a crapshoot. Just what I felt from the get-go.
You pays your money and takes your chances goes the old saw.
Jim
That may be your reading, but I doubt that it's close to a consensus.
There are recognizably bad media on the market, a wide range of
reasonably good media, and a few excellent ones. In any category, how
one ranks and, indeed, whether it slips into an adjacent class depends
on how you write it: what writer and what speed. In short, to know how
well you are writing, you must at least occasionally measure it.
For archival puposes, it makes sense to invest in the sort of analysis
offered by Media Sciences. For routine applications, checking with a
tool on your system makes sense. But running blindly based on brand name
and price is gambling and, IMHO, suitable only for recordings you expect
to lose - or would not mind losing - in the immediate future.
Because I do not archive in the sense used here, I measure samples from
each batch I order, then use them accordingly. My most recent order of
T-Y was slightly disappointing so is used for routine work, reserving
some excellent regular Mitsui for more critical material.