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

Looking at the above graph and table, the error correction of the Q30A with the specific test disc was average. The total error count is very high with quite a few muted samples. There are also quite a few high level spikes with the maximum reaching -10.0 dB(A). Fortunately, no samples were skipped. The total test result is about average while the C2 accuracy score is low.

- ABEX TCD-726

The 726 test media dose not usually present many problems with the majority of the tested drives. The Sony drive's performance with this disc was not perfect but it was good nonetheless.

- 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

The SONY drive is an average drive when it comes to CD error correction.