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RW reading tests

For the RW tests, we used Ricoh HS RW media written at 10x speed (except for Yamaha 2100E, which supports only 8x writing). The Yamaha 2100E is the fastest in this test since the drive is capable of reaching up to 40x (with RW media). The TDK CyClone/Sanyo drives come second/third and the PleXWriter PX-W1610A last:

CloneCD Tests

Procedure:
We used the latest CloneCD (v2.8.4.3) and 3 original CDs (Rally Masters, Euro2000 and V-Rally 2) in order to test the RAW reading time for the PleXWriter PX-W1610A (firmware v1.00). We also tested the reading performance with backups of the original CDs since the reading speed varies among original and backup media. For comparison reasons we added the results from the Yamaha 2100x, TDK CyClone 161040/Sanyo CRD-BP1400P. The drive is fully supported in CloneCD:

Results:
a) SafeDisc Results:Euro 2000 (Total: 257982 sectors - 10141 bad sectors) - Reading Speed: Max

The PleXWriter PX-W1610A is the fastest CDR-W drive you can find when reading SafeDisc 1/2 protected CDs. The Yamaha 2100E comes second and the TDK CyClone/Sanyo last.

b) LaserLock Results: Rally Masters (Total: 321528 sectors - 6317 bad sectors) - Reading Speed: Max

The PleXWriter PX-W1610A had a hard time reading LaserLock protected CDs. The drive took nearly 45mins to make the image of the protected CD. This however doesn't apply for the backup CD...

c) SecuROM Results: Vrally2 Expert - 343767 sectors

The PlexWriter PX-W1610A can read both SubChannel data from audio/data tracks but hell slow... The drive took the same time for the original/backup CD (around 9.5mins) when the Yamaha 2100E drive needed only 3.5mins to end the task.. Note that the so called "jumper hack" didn't affected the SubChannel reading capability of the drive.