Looking at putting brakes on my 2001 Subaru Outback.

What's the scoop on the different materials they are made of?

Is one actually better then the other?

Ceramic tends to be the best, quieter, less dust and brake fade

With brake pads there is a difference.  Usually the more they cost, the better quality they are.



Like the other poster said, ceramic have better qualities but they will cost more.



For something as critical as brakes, spend the money.

+1

The racer/track crowd may prefer metallic containing compounds for initial bite, but in my experience, for street cars - even super high performance daily drivers - I prefer quality (read Akebono and the like) ceramic, hands down for heat, longevity, and (not really a performance concern, but hey it matters) brake dust.

On your car, I would recommend some quality ceramic pads.  Ceramics are excellent for low noise, no to low dust, long life, smooth braking, and being easy on brake rotors.

The only time I use semi-metallics anymore is for hard use applications (like tow vehicles and cop cars).  I'm my experience, performance or "severe duty" semi-metallics have less brake fade and longer life than ceramics under severe use.  Please note that I'm not saying all semi-metallics are better for high heat, because standard grades will quite easily fade out from heat.

Semi metallics are great for heavy duty applications like work and towing trucks.  More noise, more dust, and more rotor wear.  But the right shocks and a set of semi-metallics are great for towing on light trucks.    
Ceramics actually embed some of itself into the rotor and works against itself for braking.  Longer rotor life, less noise, less dust, great pedal feel.  For all around driving, they work great.
Performance driving usually lends itself to carbon ceramics.  A lot like ceramics but they have one bad flaw.  They work like shit until they're hot.  But in those applications they sure do work well.  Not something you'll find at most auto parts stores.





Organics are old tech.  They wear like crap.  They're the low flow toilet of brake pads since asbestos was phased out.  



 

It depends. A good sign is that the pad & rotor are not made in China but finding non-Chinese brake parts may be harder than you thought.

The majority of your brake pad is actually the same shit Tums & Rolaids is made from; calcium carbonate. It's a cheap filler. Add in some glass fiber, steel chip, carbon, some other misc. materials depending on what sort of harmonics, heat range, and density you want, phenolic resins and you have a brake pad ready for the oven. The thing is that a specific formula developed for a light car will have fade issues with a heavier car. A more aggressive compound will chew thru rotors, have unacceptable noise, or will wear too quickly. It's all a balancing act but not very difficult to formulate. The hard part is what OTC pad to buy? If I can recommend anything, it would be whatever isn't Chinese sourced. That way you better your odds for getting a pad material that was tested for an application similar to yours and not developed for some random communistic shitbox or dump truck. That's why some ChiCom brakes just plain old suck; while they fit, sorta, the pad material was designed for a different application or they fucked up the manufacturing process (which is pretty easy to do if you're the type to cut corners).

Brands? Akebono aftermarket stuff is pretty good as they bought the Bosch's aftermarket division 5 years ago or so. Performance Friction, Carbotech, Hawk, certain Raybestos products, and European brands like Pagid, Jurid, and ATE make good stuff as well. If you're looking for the best cheap brake pads; the Napa stuff is pretty good as well. New Bosch & Bendix stuff is Chinese.

I used to work in the industry as a consultant. It's been a while but not much has changed aside from who bought who and what is being made where.