TDK CyClone 161040 CD-RW

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data Tests
3. RW reading tests
4. DAE Tests
5. CDR Tests
6. RW Writing Tests
7. Conclusion

TDK CyClone 16/10/40 IDE CDR-W - Page 7

Conclusion

Positive (+) :	Negative (-) :
- First retail real 16x writer on the market - Improved BURN-Proof technology - Best DATA reading performance around - Very good DAE ripping performance - Supports HS RW standard (10x re-write) - Supports DAO-RAW (theoretically) - Supports CD-Text - Supports Overburning (write up to 93mins) - Low noise when reading at max speed - Full retail package	- DAO-RAW writing is NOT working!!!! - Not so good CloneCD performance - Doesn't support reading of SubChannel data - Packet writing/reading performance could be better... - Weird HS-RW erase problems!

The TDK CyClone 161040 is among with the Sanyo CRD-BP4/1400P the first *real* 16x writers on the market. The drive's reading performance is the best you can get around and gives Yamaha something to consider improving. The DAE is also very good (32x max) but needs some fine-tuning to correct the Sync errors.

There are however some problems which will trouble users: a) DAO-RAW writing simply doesn't work , b) the drive doesn't read SubChannel data from data tracks and c) the drive seems to behave very strange when you try to erase HS-RW media. Those issues must be solved soon in order to let TDK CyClone 161040 users fully enjoy the drive. The drive's price would be around 225 Euro, which seems to be much lower than the announced for the PleXWriter PX-W1610A (around 280 Euro) that will ship later than the TDK CyClone 161040. The retail package is very good (contains Nero) and will give you all you need for a quick start.

We cannot still announce the winner of the 16x-writing race since one strong competitor has not yet arrived! The announced PleXWriter PX-W1610A will have a hard time against both Yamaha 2100x and TDK/Sanyo BP1400P drives. The final battle hasn't yet started... Stay tuned!