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

The SE-W164C drive performed well in this test, with a total test result score of 76.8% out of 100. A very good score. The total error count was reasonable and the error muting sample count could have been lower but most importantly, there were no skipped samples.

- ABEX TCD-726

The ABEX TCD-726 test disc was not a problem for the Samsung SE-W164C.

- 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 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.

With this test disc, the drive reported average performance, achieving flawless reading with 3 out of 5 tracks.

- Summary

Overall, Samsung seems to have average to good CD Error correction capabilities.