Sony CRX210E1

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data Tests
3. Error Correction Tests
4. CloneCD Reading Tests
5. DAE Tests
6. CDR Tests
7. Writing Quality Tests
8. RW Writing Tests
9. Conclusion

Sony CRX 210E1 IDE CD-R/RW - Page 5

DAE Tests

- DAE features

- Pressed AudioCD

Sony supports 48X maximum DAE speed, with the "turbo mode" enabled. We measured the average DAE speed of the Sony drive, with the maximum reading speed set to both 48X and 40X. Cyberdrive was the fastest drive with 34.9X, and Sony follows with 34.8X. The Plextor drive supports 40X maximum ripping, and the average speed in the test was 30X.

- AudioCD-R media

With CD-R media, Cyberdrive keeps the first position with 31.4X. The Sony drive gave read errors and lowered the ripping speed during the process. As a result, the average speed was 29.6X in the 48X and 26.8X in the 40X test.

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the built-in detection function:

Tested Drives	Average DAE Speed (X)
Tested Drives	Pressed	CDR
Sony CRX210E1	10.4	10.3
PleXWriter PX-W4824A	10.6	10.5
Cyberdrive CW088D	13.7	13.4

- Advanced DAE test

All the drives got a "100" score. The DAE speed for the Sony drive is 34.11X under the turbo mode and 29.3X in the default speed. Cyberdrive is slightly faster with 34.98X.

- 48X enabled

- Default 40X

- Bad CDR Media results

We used CD DAE software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) to the hard disk.

	Average Speed (X)	Errors	Errors Of Total Disc (%)
Sony CRX210E1	Read error at 88% of total disc
Cyberdrive CW088D	19.3	65894059	8.71
PleXWriter PX-W4824A	22.3	27041048	35.74

The condition of the disc can be considered as very bad, so the purpose of this test is not to get the best results with no read errors, but to estimate the capabilities of the drive. Sony CRX-210E1 stopped reading in the end of the disc, where it was harder to rip. The Plextor drive gave a 35.74% error rate and 22.3X average ripping speed, and Cyberdrive was slower but more accurate.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

Tested drives	Ripping up to
Sony CRX210E1	Can read up to 98 minutes
Cyberdrive CW088D	Can read up to 99 minutes
PleXWriter PX-W4824A	The drive has problems reading 99min written discs.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 2 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with EAC) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony Key2Audio (Celine Dion - New Day Has Come)
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island)

	Key2Audio	CDS200
	EAC
Sony CRX210E1	Cannot recognize disc contents	Recognizes disc contents but cannot rip
Cyberdrive CW088D	Cannot recognize disc contents	Rips entire disc without problems
PleXWriter PX-W4824A	Rips entire disc without problems	With the Manual TOC option, it detects all tracks, but cannot rip above the 9th track. All tracks from 1st-9th contain errors when ripping with EAC's Burst mode. With PlexTools it can rip all tracks but again errors are reported...

PleXWriter PX-W4824A is the only drive in the test that can handle "Key2Audio" protected discs. The Sony and Cyberdrive drives are not able to recognize the disc contents. In addition, the Sony drive cannot even handle the "CDS200" discs, where the Cyberdrive seems to be the best solution.