32x CD-RW Roundup Vol 1 - Page 5

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 software in order to check the DAE performance of the drive with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications, but the CPU usage was only taken from CD DAE 99, since EAC occupies the system a lot more. As a last note, we used the "BURST" reading mode of EAC. We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE reported speed along with the CPU Usage is displayed in the test graphs.

- DAE features

We used EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 to examine the Freecom 32A DAE features. As the program reported, the drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports "Accurate Stream" and doesn't include "C2" error info. The LiteOn LTR-32123S does "Caching" data supports "Accurate Stream" and includes "C2" error info. All 4 tested drives support up to 40x (CAV) DAE speed.

- Pressed AudioCD results

The Yamaha and Freecom 32A hold the fist place with 29X average DAE speed. The LiteOn LTR-32123S has lower DAE speed since the drive delays to spin up (spins up fully when it reaches the 3rd track) to full reading speed (CAV). When the drive is rotating at full speed the numbers are higher (29.8X) but for fair comparison we chose the lowest numbers. The Mitsumi CR-480ATE performance wasn't good enough to compete the other drives and comes last with only 28.0X:

- CDR AudioCD results

The Yamaha CRW3200E holds the first place with 28.9X average DAE speed. The Freecom 32A gets the second place with 28.4X and Mitsumi the third place with 28.1X. The LiteOn LTR-32123S needs to reduce its spin-up time in order to compete to the rest of the drives. In this test gets the last place with 27.31X:

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

After many requests from numerous visitors we have added the EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the build-in detection function:

- Advanced DAE Quality

All tested drives got a 100 score (best) in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test. The Freecom 32A drive's average reading speed was 29.20x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data:

The LiteOn LTR-32123S didn't perform so well and finished the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test with only 26.09X average speed. No error was produced, while this drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data too:

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches drive's mechanism to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched disc. The disc was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order cause problems to most of the tested drives. We used CD DAE 99 software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:

The LiteOn LTR-32123S didn't perform well with our bad CDR test disc. The drive reported 17579697 errors (2.32% of total disc). The Freecom 32A stops reading at 65% (read error). The Mitsumi CR-480ATE complets the test with the lower error rate.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

ThThe Mitsumi CR-480ATE recognizes both 90/99min AudioCDs without any problems. The LiteOn/Freecom drives can recognize 90mins without any problems but failed to read 99min CDs.

- Reading Protected AudioCDs

Since many latest AudioCDs are protected we decided to add such tests in our reviews. For the test procedure we used 2 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony KeyAudio
* CDR AudioCD protected with Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) - made with Clone Audio Protector v1.1 (adding 30 secs lead-out)

As the test results showed, both AudioCD protections can prevent you from ripping the CD contents if you are using the false reader. The Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) disc couldn't be ripped from any drive since all tracks are showed as "Data" and not as "Audio". Sony's KeyAudio is also effective with LiteOn 32x (drive ejects the CD out!) while the Freecom 32A can rip its contents up to 94% (it then reports a reading error).