DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 in order to check the DAE performance of the various DVD-ROMs with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). 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 speeds are displayed in the test graphs.

- Pressed AudioCD results

LiteOn is the leader in the DAE ripping tests. The drive managed to reach around 31.9X of average DAE ripping speed, which is the fastest we have ever measured for a DVD-ROM drive. The AOpen 1648 comes second with 22.8X average and BTC 316B follows with 21.7X. Pioneer DVD106S was not so fast and gets the last position with 16.3X average speed.

- CDR AudioCD Results

LiteOn LTD163 continues to lead the race even with CDR media. The drive actually performed better and reached 33.4X. AOpen 1648 continues to come second and BTC 316B and Pioneer DVD106S follow with performances close to those they gave with the original CD DAE ripping test.

- Advanced DAE Quality

The Lite-On and AOpen drives completed the CD Speed 99 "Advanced DAE test" successfully, and got perfect score (100). As for the speed, LiteOn LTD163 is the faster drive, AOpen 1648 follows with an 23.35 average speed. BTC 316B gave the third best performance and Pioneer DVD106 was slower with 16.26X average speed.

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that CD Speed 99 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 are quite interesting:

Pioneer DVD106 ripped the bad medium image at 16.4X average speed, and produced no (%) errors. BTC 316B could not even recognize the disc. In the same test, LiteOn LTD163 is the fastest drive with 25.5X average speed.

- Ripping 90 and 99min CDs

Pioneer DVD106: The drive reads fully the 90 min CDs but stops reading around 90mins (with 99 min media):

>>

BTC 316B: The drive can read the 90 min CDs and gave a read error at 92 min when a 99 min CD was inserted.

>>

- 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 tested at both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony KeyAudio and

* CDR AudioCD protected with Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) - made with Clone Audio Protector v1.1 (Adding 30 secs leadout)

As the test results showed, both AudioCD protections can prevent you from ripping its contents. 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 3 drives and only AOpen 1648 can read the contents and rip the disc till 93% - after reports reading error.