32x CD-RW Roundup Vol 3- Page 5

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.3 beta and EAC v0.9 beta 2 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. We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE reported speeds are displayed in the test graphs.

- DAE features

We used EAC v0.9 beta 2 to examine the drive(s) features:

- ASUS CRW-3212

The drive supports "Caching" of data, "Accurate Stream" and includes "C2" error info.

- TDK

The drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports "Accurate Stream" and doens't include"C2" error info.

- Pressed AudioCD results

The ASUS CRW3212A is the second faster reader below AOpen CRW3248. The ASUS drive manages to outperform all other drives with maximum 40x reading speed and keeps a 30.8X average DAE ripping speed. The TDK CyClone 321040 has also good performance with 29.0X but stays away from the top:

- CDR AudioCD results

All the drives behaved the same in the CDR DAE test, as in the previous pressed CD test.

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

For each drive we used the build-in detection function:

- Advanced DAE Quality

All tested drives got a 100 score (best), except from the ASUS, which stayed at 98.6 in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test. The ASUS CRW3212A also produced 44767 errors.

- ASUS CRW3212A

The drive's average reading speed was 29.51x and 44767 errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read SubChannel Data and CD-Text:

- TDK CyClone 321040

The drive's average reading speed was 29.88x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data:

- 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 best reader for this test is AOpen. The drive lowered its reading speed down to 8x and managed to produce the lower reading errors at this roundup. The TDK Cyclone 321040 comes third with 0% error rate but 23285 errors. The ASUS CRW3212A was really fast but produced too many errors (2.16% overall).

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

- TDK Cyclone drive can recognize 90mins without any problems but failed to read 99min CDs.
- ASUS CRW3212A recognizes 90/99 min CDs.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 3 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE v0.3b/EAC v0.9 beta2) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony Key2Audio
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island)
* CDR AudioCD protected with Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) - made with Clone Audio Protector v1.1 (adding 30 secs lead-out)

Both ASUS and TDK drives have problems with protected Audio CDs.. The ASUS CRW3212A cannot recognize the Key2Audio protected discs and cannot rip CDS200 titles. Lastly, TDK Cyclone can rip the Key2Audio audio tracks and cannot rip the entire disc contents of CDS200 discs.