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: 2785583
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 58499	Avg: -66.7 dB(A)	Max: -8.0 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 45382	Avg: 18.9 Samples	Max: 1491 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 4	Avg: 6.0 Samples	Max: 6 Samples
Total Test Result	64.8 points (out of 100.0 maximum)
C2 Accuracy	Not present or doesn't supported by EAC

Unfortunately, as it seems from the table and the graph above, the performance for this test was poor. The total error count is extremely high while the maximum value is much higher than the limit. There were many muted samples as well as even more skipped samples than usual. The total score of 62.3 out of 100 is fair indication.

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total	Num: 0
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 0	Avg: -174.0 dB(A)	Max: -174.0 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0.0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0.0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result	100.0 points (out of 100.0 maximum)
C2 Accuracy	Not present or doesn't supported by EAC

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is much easier for drives in general to read. The Pioneer DVR-109 drive succeeds in achieving the absolute score of 100.

- 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 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
Pioneer DVR-109	5/5	5/5	5/5	0/5	0/5

This is typical performance for several of the latest writers we have tested. Pioneer could improve the performance with a future firmware upgrade.