32x CD-RW Roundup Vol 2 - Page 6

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.3 beta and EAC v0.9 beta 2 software in order to check the DAE performance of the drive with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications. We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE reported speeds are displayed in the test graphs.

- DAE features

We used EAC v0.9 beta 2 to examine the drive(s) features:

- AOpen CRW3248

The drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports "Accurate Stream" and includes "C2" error info.

- CyberDrive CW-058D/Philips PCRW-3210

The drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports "Accurate Stream" and doens't includes "C2" error info.

- Pressed AudioCD results

The AOpen CRW3248 supports up to 48x DAE ripping. The drive's average DAE speed was 35.3X outperforming the competition. The drive produces a lot of noise in such a high speed. The CyberDrive CW058D follows with 29.5X and LiteOn LTR-32123S is very close 29.3X. The Philips PCRW3210 comes third with 29X and Mitsumi CR-480ATE last with 27.5X. The newer firmware of LiteOn drive improved the spin-up time and the results are now better than our first test:

- CDR AudioCD results

The AOpen CRW3248 doesn't have any problems ripping with the very good 35.4X from CDR media. The LiteOn LTR-32123S improves its reading speed and now reaches almost 30X (29.7X). The CyberDrive comes third with 29.4X and Mitsumi/Philips have the same performance (28.4X):

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

After many requests from numerous visitors we have added the EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the build-in detection function:

- Advanced DAE Quality

All tested drives got a 100 score (best) in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test. None of the five drives produced any errors during the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test.

- AOpen CRW3248

The drive's average reading speed was 35.32x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read SubChannel Data but not CD-Text:

- CyberDrive CW-058D

The drive's average reading speed was 29.88x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data:

- Philips PCRW3210A

The drive's average reading speed was 28.92x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data:

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches drive's mechanism to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched disc. The disc was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order cause problems to most of the tested drives. We used CD DAE 99 software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:

The best reader for this test comes from AOpen. The drive lowered its reading speed down to 8x and managed to produce the lower reading errors at this roundup. The CyberDrive CW058D comes second with much higher errors but low overall error rate. The Philips PCRW3210 comes third with 0% error rate but 23302 errors. The Mitsumi CR-480ATE comes forth with 0.05% and LiteOn LTR-32123S last with 0.12%.error rate.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

- The Mitsumi CR-480ATE recognizes both 90/99min AudioCDs without any problems.
- The LiteOn/Philips drives can recognize 90mins without any problems but failed to read 99min CDs.
- The AOpen CRW3248 recognizes both 90/99min AudioCDs without any problems.
- The CyberDrive CW-058D stops reading at 96mins.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 3 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE v0.3b/EAC v0.9 beta2) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony KeyAudio
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island)
* CDR AudioCD protected with Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) - made with Clone Audio Protector v1.1 (adding 30 secs lead-out)

As the test results showed, not all the recorders are prepared to "handle" protected AudioCDs. The best reader for such discs comes from CyberDrive, which can rip contents of Key2Audio/CDS200 discs without any problems only when using the EAC software. The AOpen CRW3248 can also rip CDS200 discs (even with CDDAE) but fails entirely to recognize Key2Audio discs. The Philips PCRW3210 can handle Key2Audio discs and can rip CDS200 titles, except from the first track. Lastly, both LiteOn/Mitsumi drives need further improvement to handle AudioCD protected discs.