Yamaha CRW2100ix FireWire CDR-W- Page 5

DAE Tests

Test Method:
We used CD DAE 99 v0.2 with AudioCDs in order to check DAE performance of the Yamaha CRW2100ix and we compared it with the rest Yamaha drives.

- Pressed AudioCD results: (click here to see the CD-Speed 99 chart)
Yamaha advertises that the new CRW2100x series drives are capable of doing DAE with a speed up to 40x (max). Our tests confirmed that claim and with pressed CDs Yamaha CRW2100ix is one of the new leaders when it comes to the DAE race. It managed to deliver 29.38x average ripping speed and bypass it's two brothers.

- Princo 74min AudioCD:
The CRW2100ix continues to lead the DAE race of the 'fastest among equal' drive around and climbs up to 30.1x when it comes to the CDR media test :

- Advanced DAE Quality:

Yamaha CRW2100ix is proved slower than the other two Yamahas in this test. All drives are getting a 100 (perfect) score in the Advanced DAE quality CD Speed tests. Yamaha CRW2100ix is be able to read 90min CDs without any problem and stops reading at around 92:28" mins when we use 99min CDs (exactly the same as with the other two drives).

Verdict of DAE Results:
The Yamaha CRW2100ix has a pretty fast DAE performance for a CDR-W drive since it delivers more than 29x average ripping speed. Its max speed is 40x (which is never achieved during our tests). In most cases you will see a max of 38x (we got a 39.4x once). Also the drive's DAE quality is perfect. The significant point here is that the FireWire protocol manages to deliver a minimal CPU usage during DAE (about 10%).