The only flaw I ever find in CDs is the occasional hole in the aluminium or whatever it is - simply hold the CD with the label side facing a light [you need to be fairly close to it] - this makes it really easy to spot flaws, & saves the annoyance of burning a CD only to find out it's knackered afterwards I tend to buy cheaper 1s in spindle packs of 50. Last pack I bought were unbranded & I had about 6-10 coasters, so this time I bought some Memorex. Only found 1 with a defect so far, & if I can think of a use for it, i.e. something less than a couple of hundred MB it should still be useable.
 
1 thing I would say about manufacturers - according to a big survey, which I think was done last year - the 1 manufacturer [not brand - numerous brands, much smaller number of actual manufacturers] the absolute worst you could buy is CDs made by Ritek. The only way to find out who makes a CD is to get a prog like CDR Media Code Identifier & stick the CD in a burner & check it [doesn't write any data to the CD or spoil it in anyway]. If you live in the US then you may not have so much to worry about where Ritek is concerned, as IIRC they tend to be distributed in Asia & Europe mostly.
 
<couple of miutes later>
 
Well, don't I feel silly. Just went looking for CDRMCI & tried it out on 1 of those Memorex CDs. Anyone care to guess who made 'em??? Yup - Ritek. Bugger! Well, won't be buying them again. I haven't had any fail to read after useage for a while as there hasn't been long enough time, but in all the tests that were done Ritek came out worst - if you'd read the same report I did you'd understand.
 
<few minutes more later>
 
Ok, found the article, so you can have a read for yourself. Makes for interesting reading.
http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml

I've been using Memorex since my 4x2x24 CDRW.
 
using them still today.
I also like PNY...

i use the cheapest damned media i can get, i only use CDR cd's and not CDRW cd's whereas if i make a mistake i just toss the messed up cdr and burn a new one.

Jungle 'Monkey Media'..
 
Packs of 100 on a spindle for £24.99
 
Good quality, and have had no coasters.

I'm like EddiE, I just use the cheapest I can find...

I usually use cheap unbranded media from local computer shop, £18.95 for 100 on a spindle. I usually have no problems with these.

I like Memorex I found them to be far better then other I have try

I use the black memorex cd-r's...

Bear in mind that it's not really about what brand it is, e.g. Memorex, TDK, etc - it's about who actually made it. Memorex don't make all the 1s that they sell (as I found out yesterday when I checked mine), so maybe SHS & any others are using different Memorex 1s, like a different sub-brand made by a different manufacturer. Though to be honest I haven't had any CDRs that I've written fail on me [as in refuse to read, or have the coating peel off] yet, but then I've only had my CDRW for about a year, give or take a few months.
 
In otherwords, if you find a batch that you don't like due to faults, quality, etc, check who it's really made by, then avoid them.

I have been using Imation CDR's for a long time and have had no complaints.