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Conclusion

The PleXWriter PX-W1610A is possibly the best 16x writer you can buy nowadays. The competition from Yamaha/TDK/Sanyo is still there but all other 16x solutions have several problems (either in design or in performance), which lead us in the above claim. The current price of the drive according to the Pricewatch is from 248$-280$. Let see what the competition has to offer:

- Yamaha 2100E: This was the first 16x recorder (not even "real" 16x) which has dominated the market since November 2000. The drive's general reading/writing performance is very good but the drive has neither support of 10x re-writing, nor any anti-coaster technology. Its price however seems to be lower (from 195$-250$) than the announced price of the PX-W1610A (US$250) and already the SCSI model seems to be out (2100S).

- TDK / Sanyo 161040: This was the first real 16x recorder, which however has several problems, especially with DAO-RAW reading/writing. If these problems are corrected soon, the drive could become an alternative to the PX-W1610A. Again, the drive's price seems again lower (195$-230$ for Sanyo BP1400P and 260-290$ for the TDK VeloCD 161040) than the announced price of the Plextor drive.

If we wanted to make an summary of this review in one word that would be "Power" - for the users. The PX-W1610A gives the users the freedom to do almost anything they want with their recorder. From writing CDs at 16x, to backing-up their favourite protected CD or ripping Audio CDs at 40x (max) speed without any fear of Buffer Underruns! You must also hear how quiet this rocket works!!! The drive seems to be unbeatable by the competition, and the only thing that holds us back from awarding it the title of the "Best 16x CDR-W drive," is our yesterday post about Teac CDW-516EB, which should start selling very soon!

Do you think that Teac could make the pleasant surprise and lead the 16x-writing race? Stay tuned!