CD-ROM Roundup Vo1 - Page 4

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.3 and EAC v0.9 beta 1 software in order to check the DAE performance of both drives with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications. 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

All three CD-ROM drives does not "caching" data, support "accurate stream" and "C2 error info".

 

- Pressed AudioCD results

Cyberdrive gave the fastest average DAE speed with 15.1x, followed by Mitsumi with 13.5x. Samsung lowered the speed to 6.9x and also the 10% of the ripped data were fault.

- CDR AudioCD Results

The same scenario in the CDR DAE test, with Cyberdrive to lead, Mitsumi in the second position and Samsung to remain last with 6.5x.

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

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

Tested Drives	Average DAE Speed (X)
	Pressed	CDR
Cyberdrive 52x	14.1	13.9
Mitsumi FX5401W1A	6.5	6.0
Samsung SC-152L	14.3	13.5
Creative CD5233E	6.6	6.2

- Advanced DAE Quality

Cyberdrive 52x

Cyberdrive was fast enough but produced some errors in the advanced DAE test. The drive gets a 99.9 quality score.

Mitsumi FX5401W1A

Mitsumi finished the test with a 15.29x average speed and gets a 100 quality score.

Samsung SC-152L

Samsung was faster than Mitsumi but produced 62 data errors during the test.

The following chart shows the previous results for the CD-ROM drives. Among them, Creative CD5233E seems to be the slowest drive.

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches a 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 to 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:

	Average Speed (X)	Errors	Errors Of Total Disc (%)
Cyberdrive 52x	23	28531928	3.77
Mitsumi FX5401W1A	4.1	499754647	66
Samsung SC-152L	7.9	9189103	12.5
Creative CD5233E	7.7	52729380	6.97

Mitsumi gave a very low performance in this test. The drive produced too many errors (66%!) and lowered the ripping speed to 4.1x. Cyberdrive was the fastest and more accurate drive in this test.

- Ripping 90 and 99min CDs

Cyberdrive 52x does not support ripping of 90/99min CDs, and the drive will stop ripping at 80min. Mitsumi finished the 90min CD test successfully, but with the failed to rip the 99min CD. Samsung can handle 90min CDs and will stop ripping at 96min with 99min media.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 3 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with 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)

 

	Key2Audio	CDS200		CDS100
	EAC
Cyberdrive 52x	Rips entire disc without problems	Recognizes tracks, cannot rip		Reads all tracks as Data tracks - ripping impossible
Mitsumi FX5401W1A	Rips entire disc without problems	Rips entire disc without problems
Samsung SC-152L	Cannot recognize disc contents	Recognizes tracks, cannot rip

The "Cactus Data Shield 100" audio protection cannot be bypassed by any drive of this test. Mitsumi has no problem to rip the contents of "Key2Audio" or "Cactus data Shield 200" protected audio CDs. Cyberdrive can handle only "Key2Audio" protection and Samsung will disappoint since it cannot rip any audio protection.