Ricoh MP9200A CD-RW

Review Pages

1. Ricoh ships the first 20x combo DVD/CDR-W recorder!
2. Data Tests
3. RW reading tests
4. DAE Tests
5. CDR Tests - Page 1
6. CDR Tests - Page 2
7. RW Writing Tests
8. DVD Tests
9. Conclusion

Ricoh MP9200A IDE DVD/CDR-W - Page 9

Conclusion

Positive (+)

Negative (-)

- Supports 20x (Z-CLV) writing speed
- Fastest combo (DVD/CDR-W) around!!
- "Just-Link" anti-coaster technology
- Improved "Just-Speed" quality protection system
- Very good data reading performance with CDs/HS-RW media
- Good DAE ripping performance (with CDR media)
- Very good reading/writing packet writing performance!
- Very Good access times
- Great DVD playback/reading performance!
- Supports HS-RW standard (10x re-write)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports reading of SubChannel data
- Supports CD-Text (only writing)
- Supports Overburning (up to 89mins only)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33

- DAE ripping speed needs improvement
- Very Bad DAE quality with dusted/scratched CDR media
- Doesn't read CD-TEXT enabled audio CDs
- Bad CloneCD overall reading performance
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
- Problems reading SubChannel data from CDR media(?)
- Doesn't support overburning up to 99minutes

Ricoh continues a long time tradition of shipping the fastest combo recorders. In the past the MP9060 and MP9120 models had become quite popular, but they had a few problems that puzzled some users, making them reluctant from investing in combo models. The MP9200 sets a very good example of how combo drives should be designed and manufactured... True support of both CD and DVD formats without any problems.

The drive supports 20x Z-CLV writing speed, 10x re-writing, 40x reading and 12x DVD reading speed. The drive's overall performance with CDR media is very good and it is actually a bit faster than the MP7200, due to improvements of the "JustSpeed" feature. Its DVD playback performance is superb, eliminating all worries we had from the previous MP9210A model. Also its DVD ripping speed is very good which will make DivX ;-) encoding users happy.

There are some problems concerning mostly the DAE and the reading performance with protected CDs. Also the drive doesn't seem to support 99min CDs, something that the MP7200A is able to do. As you might have expected the drive failed to produce SD2 working backups.

The drive should ship on the Japan market at 7th of July (this Saturday) at an estimated price of 280$. No information is yet announced about the shipping date in Europe/Rest of the world but we would say add at least one month :-)