Ricoh MP7320A

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data tests
3. CloneCD reading tests
4. DAE tests
5. CDR tests - Page 1
6. CDR tests - Page 2
7. CDR tests - Page 3
8. RW - Packet Writing tests
9. Writing quality tests
10. Conclusion

Ricoh MP7320A IDE CDR-W - Page 10

Conclusion

Positive (+)

Negative (-)

- Fastest 32x recorder
- "Just-Link" anti-coaster technology
- "Just-Speed" quality protection system
- Good ripping quality with dusted/scratched CDR media
- Fast PSX ripping
- Good writing quality with quality media
- Very Good access times
- Supports 90/99min media
- Supports HS-RW standard (10x re-write)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports reading of SubChannel data
- Supports CD-Text
- Supports Overburning (up to 99mins)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33

- Supports only 10x re-writing and 40x reading speeds
- Lower DAE and Data reading performance than competition
- Bad CloneCD reading performance
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
- Unable to handle audio protected CDs

Ricoh MP7320A showed a very good writing performance, especially at the maximum supported speed. The "JustSpeed" feature kept the drive's recording quality in high levels, even when the media we burned were not in the Ricoh recommended media list. As for the drive's mechanism, we could say that Ricoh enginners made a good job and managed to give the drive very accurate and fast access to the discs.

In the advantages of the drive are also included the 8MB of cache buffer and the "JustLink" anti-coaster technology. The drive supports overburning up to 99 minutes, CD-Text for audio CDs, and will work at Ultra-DMA 33 mode. The PSX ripping test gave Ricoh MP7320A the first position.

On the other hand, the drive failled to reach the 40x DAE speed and was really slow in the corresponded tests. Ricoh was also not very fast when reading CD-R and CD-RW discs, and the lack of 12x rewriting speed made the drive slower than the competitor drives in the test charts. The users of CloneCD will not be satisfied by the performance of Ricoh, since the drive is too slow with all the protected titles and cannot produce working backups of SD2 discs.