Before we start our tests we have to explain our testing methodology for us to understand what you will read at the upcoming pages.

Test System

- Shuttle SZ270R8 with Intel i7-4770 and 16GB memory
- Windows 10 x64 with all the latest updates & Antivirus disabled
- OptiDriveControl 1.80
- Nero CDSpeed v4.7.7.6
- EAC v1.60

CD Reading Performance

For this test we used both pressed CD-ROM and CD-DA (AudioCDs) to test the reading abilities for each drive among with CD-R media. If a disc is in perfect condition the drive should perform at its best. However since most discs are not properly handled there will be scratches that affect also performance. We have in our labs industry official test discs with artifacts/scratches that simulate real performance handling of CD media.

We perform the following tests

1. Reading with 700mb Pressed CD-ROM
2. Reading with 700mb CD-R media (burned with OptiDriveControl)
3. Reading/Writing with 700mb CD-RW media (burned with OptiDriveControl)
4. Reading with 74min Pressed AudioCD (with OptiDriveControl)
5. Reading with 74min CD-R AudioCD (Nero CDSpeed Advanced DAE Test)
6. Reading with 74min Pressed AudioCD (with EAC Secure Mode - all tracks should be 100% quality)
7. Reading with Abex TCD-726 Pressed AudioCD (with EAC Secure Mode - all tracks should be 100% quality)
8. Reading with Abex TCD-721R Pressed AudioCD (Nero CDSpeed Advanced Error Correction Test)

While the above tests may sound complicated...they are not. We try to test all drive to what a user will use them, either reading CD-ROM or CD-DA discs, or simply rip AudioCDs to their HDD for backup purposes. EAC is the best software to get accurate and quality rips of your precious AudioCDs. As with previous the highest performance will get 9points and the worst 1 point. In case a drive doesn't produce 100% quality rips of Audio CDs will get 0 score since we want both stellar performance and quality.

Lets start with the test results.

The fastest drive for reading pressed CD-ROM was the Popup drive with 18.19X average reading speeds. We found strange that at least three drives didn't managed to get full speed with a pressed CD-ROM and even they advertise reading speed up to 24x set their internal speed to 10X max...not a good score for those three drives.

Passing to the CD-R discs, again we noticed the same behavior the first 6 drives reached 24X, while two drives set their max speed to 16X and resulted 11.68X reading speed, while the Rioddas BT-638 (PLDS DA8A5SH) set its max reading speed to 20X. Not a good performance since their specs mention 24X CAV reading speed...

Reading an already burned 80min CD-RW discs supposed to be an easy task for all drives. However three drives didn't managed to recognize at all the used disc, while the other 6 did read it without any issues. Again two drive set their max speed down to 16x, that will translate lower overall score for them at our comparison.

Writing the Philips 80min CD-RW media gave almost similar performance, as we expected from the drive's specs, 10X CLV with some minor differences. Again the three drives didn't managed to read/burn the disc so they got 0 points at this test.

More-over we found a Verbatim 800mb 32X CD-RW certified discs that was used to see if the drives support HighSpeed CD-RW writing.

Four drives didn't recognized the media or simply denied writing and the first place comes from the the HLDS PortableDVD with 13.86X and ZoneCLV performance. Since this media is rather hard to find we will not score any device at this test.

There is only 4 second distance between the first two drives...

Passing to more "Advanced" tests, we used Nero's CDSpeed Advanced DAE tests and we burned for each drive a media that afterwards used to test several aspects of the drive. From that test we gathered the maximum reading speed with 74min CD-R Audio CD.

The highest score came from the Pop-up drive with 17.68X, while the other drives performed lower.

The next test has to do with AudioCD Ripping.

We used the EAC with a 74min AudioCD and we wanted to check the best ripping speed among with the best quality score. The drives gave various reading speeds. The Rioddas BT-638 (HLDS GU10N) while has an average of 7.20X ripping speed, it produced continues error at track 3, so its final score was zero at this test.

Next we made the same test with different test disc. The Abex TCD-726 disc has artificial defects/scratches that has cause issues to the drives when trying to read it.

All drive managed to finish this test, however two drives will get zero final score.... Why? The Rioddas BT-638 (HLDS GU10N) and Rodzone A11-SU3 (HLDS GT50N) both reported unreadable errors at Track 9, so while ripped the entire disc, the final result wasn't 100% equal with the CD contents....

The next test is also kind different. There are three Abex discs that have the same content. The Abex 714R and Abex 721R and the Abex 726. The Abex 714R has no errors so you can get a clean copy of its contents... Which later can be used later to compare with the extracted data you receive from the Abex 721R and Abex 726.

The Nero CDSpeed Advanced DAE Error Correction Test does this comparison for us and give us report about the error rates and C2 missed errors.

As we can almost all drives seems to correctly report C2 errors, reaching even 100% accuracy. The Rioddas BT-638 (HLDS GU10N) didn't performed very good and produced only 81.09%.

Apart from the C2 Accuracy %, the software also reports the Quality score of the C2 reported errors.

Again low score for the Rioddas BT-638 (HLDS GU10N), which should be used to rip CD-DA (if you have a better tested drive of course).

Summarize the above tests, we can get a good look at this category, for which drive performed the best at all tests.

The Winner of the CD Reading Tests is the Pop-up (Optiarc AD-7560A) with very good reading CD/CD-R and CD-DA ripping speeds. The second HLDS PortableDVD (HLDS GP96Y) could get the first place if it had better ripping speeds with EAC but since it "caches" audio it slows down during the ripping process.

Again the above total score shows a quick look of the total drives performance, its better advised to see each test and decide which drive better fits your needs.