52x Roundup Vol. 1- Page 6

DAE Tests

- DAE features

AOpen CRW5224

SONY CRX220E1

- Pressed AudioCD

The AOpen drive got the first place with 35.5X. The DAE reading speeds reached 52X, while the SONY CRX220E1 got the last place with 34.2X. The CRX210E1 was faster by 0.6X.

- Audio CD-R media

With CD-R media, the AOpen 5224 had the same performance (35.5X), while the SONY CRX220E1 stayed in the second place with 32.9X.

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the built-in detection function:

- Advanced DAE test

All the drives got a "100" score. The DAE speed for the SONY CRX220E1 is 34.2X , while the AOpen CRW5224 gets the first place with 35.5X.

- AOpen CRW5224

- SONY CRX220E1

- Bad CDR Media results

We used CD DAE software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) to the hard disk.

The condition of the disc can be considered as very bad, so the purpose of this test is not to get the best results with any read errors, but to estimate the capabilities of the drive. The SONY CRX-220E1 stops reading few seconds after start reading (0.2%)! The AOpen CRW5224 locked its reading speed at 8.3X and ends the test with a high error rate (23.43%), but it managed to end the process, unlike the SONY drive.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 2 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with EAC BURST mode) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony Key2Audio (Celine Dion - New Day Has Come)
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island)

The AOpen CRW5224 was able to rip CDS200 protected Audio discs, while none of the tested drive could even recognize Key2Audio protected discs...