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

- ABEX TCD-721R

An average score here. There were no skipped samples, but the Error Loudness level is high at -18.1 dB(A). The total error count is also quite high and there were also quite a few muted samples. The ASUS drive seems to have pretty good error handling capabilities.

- ABEX TCD-726R

This is also an average performance. Some errors were reported but no skipped samples.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is another 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 (e.g. 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.

The drive managed to correctly play the first three tracks. Problems occurred with the fourth and fifth tracks. Average behavior here as well.

Overall, the drive exhibited satisfactory performance with our defective test CDs.