Is it the maximum drive speed
there are 3 speeds on most newer drives, and it may depend what your burning, one of the speeds is for how fast it reads data from the drive, and in this case that would not be the burning speed.
The Speed for burning to CD May not be the same as burning to DVD
But
CD-Recordable drives are often sold with three different speed ratings, one speed for write-once operations, one for re-write operations, and one for read-only operations. The speeds are typically listed in that order; ie a 12x/10x/32x CD drive can, CPU and media permitting, write to CD-R disks at 12x speed (1.76 megabytes/s), write to CD-RW discs at 10x speed (1.46 megabytes/s), and read from CD discs at 32x speed (4.69 megabytes/s).
I have often found that what they say on the box may not be your typical government MPG testing, and it may also depend on the media it's self (some may be better than others), And if verify data options are used when burning may take longer.
See your manual for max
>> Any way to set the rip speed to say, 24?
Mine Has 16 speeds including 24x so it may depend on your drive and the company who made it
>> know that burning at high speeds (>40X) leads to clicks and crap on my CDs
It shouldn't
if it is the drive then you may want to look for a drive that does not add clicks and other garbage.
Here is some reading material, the test will be after PE (Physical Exercise)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-ROMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-Rhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD