You probably won't like my answer.
I've always used "audiophile" as a pejorative term. It's mostly people that think themselves experts (but are not), and tend to hear things that don't exist. Having worked in the video industry, often in areas closely tied to music (ie, music videos especially), it was not uncommon for everybody from engineers to execs to not know WTF a self-described "audiophile" was blathering on about.
The truth is that a CD is a CD. The idea that you can hear 1's and 0's is ridiculous, especially those that insist certain brands of media or drives "makes a difference". (Even the idea of "vinyl is better/warmer than CD" is nonsense, it's al about mastering, but that's another conversation.) It's like a religion to those people -- nevermind facts, science be damned, they know "the truth". When I imagine an audiophile, I swear it's fat (or skinny) geek with a tinfoil hat and crazy eyes.
The best quality burners are simply burners that burn well to quality media.
That means Pioneer or LiteOn.
Maybe Plextor. Overrated, over expensive, but not bad.
Even LG is not too shabby, good readers..
Samsung is the main drive that's poo-poo'd, as the drives never least, reading sucks, though burning is often decent.
These days, no CD burner exists.
DVD is mostly Samsung or LG. Those, of course, burn CD.
Blur-ray is Plextor, LiteOn and Pioneer. And BD burns DVD and CD.
As with DVD recorders and capture cards, chipsets matter. And I believe the same chipset is present in Pioneer, NEC and LiteOn. I don't think they're straight rebadges, just very similar.
Avoid slim burners.
You won't go wrong with something like these:
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https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronic...042e83e22ee862
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https://www.amazon.com/Asus-Serial-A...f038d7847d7267
I have one of each of those.
The Asus is a good reader/ripper, decent burner.
The LG is a strong reader, nice burner.
Use Taiyo Yuden inkjet CD-R:
https://www.amazon.com/JVC-Thermal-P...3e16022c29869b