on-the-fly copy of an audio cd using "on-board" programs?

"A lot of external programs (e.g. Nero
or CD-Burner) can directly copy an
audio-cd in CDROM drive D: to another
empty cd in CDROM drive E:

I am wondering if it is somehow
possible to create a direct 1:1 clone
of an audio CD using the Windows7
on-board programs.

No, that's not possible.

However, since you asking about Audio CDs, my favorite tool is Exact Audio Copy (aka EAC), there is no better software when it comes to ripping audio CDs ... and it's absolutely free.

For burning audio CDsIi recommend another freebie called Burrrn:

Burrrn is a little tool for creating
audio CDs with CD-Text from various
audio files. Supported formats are:
wav, mp3, mpc, ogg, aac, mp4, ape,
flac, ofr, wv, tta, m3u, pls and fpl
playlists and cue sheets.

Now, this may not be the fastest method, but i consider myself an audiophile and i'm only interested in quality. If you want just speed, sure most DVD writing programs can do the job faster by copying ""on the fly""."

"This is not available using the built-in programs of Windows 7 - however I would highly recommend CDBurnerXP. It is also available on Ninite (for very easy installation).

Simply click Audio CD on the first screen then click File > Copy Audio Disc; it should do a straight copy from one disk to another."