Ive been studying burners since the 2x days. Plextor and Sony seem to be the only truely reliable burners. Plextor now sells lower priced units sometimes with 3rd party firmware, but are still among the best of all hardware. Sony also seems to be a very reliable drive. All other name brands just arent as good. Also, use good discs such as Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden, avoid junk like Memorex. Get them on the web.
If you rip a WAV to MP3, then burn to disc (assuming CD audio format), then re-rip to MP3, you are (lossy) compressing the file with each rip. It wont be the same size. It degrades each time. Remember, MP3 is a lossy compress method. M4A is an ex of lossless compression.
Explain your errors . . . burner may not be the issue, its your method. Nero/Roxio are fine programs.