CD Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we check the drive's behavior when reading scratched / defective audio discs. The test discs used were the ABEX series from ALMEDIO.

- ABEX TCD-721R

Errors total	Num: 1367028
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 134807	Avg: -79.2 dB(A)	Max: -18.6 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 4939	Avg: 1.1 Samples	Max: 7 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 23	Avg: 6.0 Samples	Max: 6 Samples
Total Test Result	65.4 points (out of 100.0 maximum)
C2 Accuracy	99.0 %

The total error count was about average, and the maximum error loudness level was high at -18.6dB. There were 23 skipped samples which is a little high, while the drive achieved a total score of 65.4. In general, the drive showed average performance with this test disc.

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total	Num: 21991
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 7339	Avg: -83.2 dB(A)	Max: -14.5 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 133	Avg: 27.9 Samples	Max: 575 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 2	Avg: 6.0 Samples	Max: 6 Samples
Total Test Result	73.5 points (out of 100.0 maximum)
C2 Accuracy	81.9 %

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is much easier for drives in general to read. Most drives manage to compile a score in the 90s with the better drives managing 100. So it was somewhat surprising to see the drive managing only 73.5. A good reader should produce better results than these.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction / Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively more difficult tests. These tracks are referred to as Check Level-1 through Check Level-5.

The tracks are being reproduced through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested drive.

Error Level	1	2	3	4	5
TDK 1616N	5/5	5/5	3/5	0/5	0/5

The drive successfully passed only the first two out of the five check levels for this test. Here too, the drive turned in a poor performance. Almost all drives have difficulties reading the 5th level, and good quality drives can read 4th level. But most drives will pass at least the third level without any problem. The TDK 1616N reported similar performance as the 882N drive.

- Summary

Generally we can say that the CD error correction of the TDK 1616N is less than average, something that should be fixed in newer firmware releases.