CD-rw drives such as the Yamaha F1, now discontinued, claim to have an enhanced media recording mode that is supposed to give you better quality audio cd's close to professional quality.
As for software, it is possible for different programs to use different software decoders which could effect the quality of the music. However there is no program that can reliably add quality to a sound file that is not already there. Some programs use different effects to make the music sound different and subjectively better. Or it might be that it just suits your current set up properly.
In short there is nothing that can really replace a good quality sound source when it comes to burning audio cd's.
Not used many apps for burning I hear that
Feurio is one of the best apps for recording audio cd's however it is not perhaps the most intuative or user friendly.
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