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

Unfortunately, the performance with this disc is not all that good. The total error count was high, as was the reported maximum loudness level at -26dB. High error rates are reported because the drive cannot automatically reduce its ripping speed to correct these errors.

- ABEX TCD-726

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is much easier for drives in general to read. However, again the LG GSA-4160B didn't perform as well as we would have expected. High error counts were reported, and the total test result score is low at 80.7. However, C2 accuracy returned a perfect 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 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.

The drive successfully passed only the first two out of the five check levels for this test. This is a rather poor performance. Usually, all drives have difficulties reading the 5th level, and a good drive can read 4th level. But most drives will pass the third level without any problem.

- Summary

The CD error correction capabilities of the drive are just below average and should be improved by LG.