Ricoh MP7320A IDE CDR-W - Page 4

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.3 beta and EAC v0.9 beta 2 software in order to check the DAE performance of the drive with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications. 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.

- DAE features

As EAC v0.9 beta 2 reported, the drive doesn't do data "Caching" and supports "Accurate Stream" and "C2 Error info". The specifications state that the drive can reach up to 40x DAE (max) with both pressed and CDR media.

- Pressed AudioCD results

The DAE ripping speed of MP7320A is not so good as the specifications declare. The maximum DAE ripping speed is not high and is kept far away from 40x. That gives a rather low average ripping DAE speed, compared to the competition:

- CDR AudioCD Results

Ricoh MP7320A continues to perform average with CDR Audio CDs. The drive does slowdown in the outer tracks of the test disc and gives an only 23.1X average ripping speed:

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

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

- Advanced DAE Quality

Ricoh MP7320A completed the Nero CD Speed "Advanced DAE test" successfully, and the speed results were low as expected.

The average reading speed was 23.88X and Nero CD Speed reports that it can read "CD-Text" enabled AudioCDs, among with "SubChannel Data". Lastly, the drive got 100 quality score (max) , since it produced zero sync/data errors.

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches 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 in order 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:

The best reader for this test comes from AOpen. The drive lowered its reading speed down to 8x and managed to produce the lower reading errors at this roundup. The CyberDrive CW058D comes second with much higher errors but low overall error rate. Ricoh MP7320A comes third with a high average speed and with an 0.01% error rate and 50892 errors.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

The drive recognizes both 90/99min AudioCDs without any problems.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 3 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE v0.3b/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)

The best reader for audio protected discs comes from CyberDrive, which can rip contents of Key2Audio/CDS200 discs without any problems only when using the EAC software. The AOpen CRW3248 can also rip CDS200 discs (even with CDDAE) but fails entirely to recognize Key2Audio discs. Ricoh MP7320A cannot recognize the contents of any CDs, except from the CDS100 disc, which are recognized as data tracks.