52X IDE CD-RW Recorder Roundup Vol 2 - Page 6

Error Correction Tests page 1

- EAC CD-R Test Disc

- Aopen CRW5224

As we have mentioned in previous reviews, the EAC test disc is very hard to be read accurately since it is heavily scratched / defected in specific areas. The most of the drives do not manage to give high quality scores in this test, but hard tasks could make the best performer easily defined.

The AOpen CRW5224 gave back many errors and the peaks reached the -7.2dB(A). Many errors were muted and some other were even skipped. The total test result is only 52.8 points out of 100.

- Mitsumi CR-487ETE

The Mitsumi CR-487ETE showed almost the same behavior as the AOpen drive. The amount of the reported errors and the Muted/Skipped samples were enough to give the Mitsumi drive 52.8 points out of 100.

- Teac CD-W552E

Not much to add for the Teac drive, since it did not make any difference over the previous drives. The performance is low and the 52.6 points total score is considered as low.

- Waitec STORM 52/2

The performance of Waitec STORM 52/2 stayed in the same level set by the competitive drives. The total score is 52.6 points.

- ABEX TCD-721R

- Aopen CRW5224

The ABEX 721R test disc is also a hard test disc to read accurately. The AOpen drive managed to get an overall score of 62.7 out of 100, which is less than medium.

- Mitsumi CR-487ETE

The Mitsumi CR-487ETE gave less Loudness errors than the AOpen drive and also less and smaller Mute/ Skip samples. The score for the drive is better this time and reaches the 66.1 points.

- Teac CD-W552E

The Teac drive seems to be more accurate than the previous drives since it skipped less samples. The score climbs up to 69.9, which is average.

- Waitec STORM 52/2

Waitec STORM 52/2 performed similarly to the AOpen drive, considering all the errors reported and the Muted/Skipped samples. The score is 62.6 points out of 100.

- ABEX TCD-726

- Aopen CRW5224

The ABEX TCD 726 test disc was easier to read and the errors were reported only in the toughest area of the disc. The AOpen drive gave a good score of 89.3 points out of 100.

- Mitsumi CR-487ETE

The Mitsumi drive gave only 164 Loudness errors and gets a very good score of 90.5 points.

- Teac CD-W552E

The Teac CD-W552E gave a surprisingly low performance in this test. Although the result in the previous TCD-721R was promising, the drive did not gave a high result with the TCD-726 disc. The score is average. (68.9 points).

- Waitec STORM 52/2

Waitec STORM 52/2 could not hide its similarities with the AOpen drive. The score is good and reaches the 89.2 points.

- Conclusion

Looking at the average scores we could say that all the drives perform almost the same when it comes to error correction. The numbers say that the Mitsumi CR-487ETE gave the best performance with 69.8 points out of 100. The AOpen CRW5224 and Waitec STORM 52/2 follow closely and the Teac CD-W552E take the last place. However, the Teac drive seems to had some unexpected reading problems with the TCD-726 disc, which is considered to be the easiest test to pass among the other discs. If you take a look at the results with the TCD-721R disc, you can see that the Teac CD-W552E is the best reader in the specific test.

The above tests are only an indication of the behavior of the drives with defected/scratched discs. The scores are reported only for comparison reasons and do not always characterize the absolute performance of each drive. For this reason, we run some additional tests with the Nero CDSpeed software, as you can see in the following page.