TEAC CD-W524E IDE CDR-W - Page 4

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 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, but the CPU usage was only taken from CD DAE 99, since EAC occupies the system a lot more. As a last note, we used the "BURST" reading mode of EAC. We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE reported speed along with the CPU Usage is displayed in the test graphs.

- DAE features

We used EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 to examine the drive's features. As the program reported, the drive doesn't "Caching" data and supports "Accurate Stream"/"C2" error info. All 4 tested drives supports up to 40x (CAV) DAE speed.

- Pressed AudioCD results - (Click to see the Nero CD Speed graph)

The TEAC CD-W524E performed very good with pressed Audio CDs. Its average DAE ripping speed is 28.8X but gets the last place! Why? Cause competition is faster. The PleXWriter PX-W2410A still holds the first place with 30.1X. Both AOpen and LiteOn come second/third respectively:

- CDR AudioCD results - (Click to see the Nero CD Speed graph)

The TEAC CD-W524E showed a stable behavior with CDR media and improved its reading performance up to 29.3X. The drive now gets the third place behind AOpen CRW2440 which is slightly faster. The PleXWriter PX-W2410A is still the faster drive for DAE:

- 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

The TEAC CD-W524E got a 100 score (best) in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test. The drive's average reading speed was 29.13x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data and from the Lead-In area:

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that CD Speed 99 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 TEAC CD-W524E is the best reader for normal/bad AudioCDR media. The drive managed to produce only one (1) error while reading our test disc at full speed! Its average reading speed is 29.5x and the competition is either slower or produces a higher error rate. Top performance from the TEAC CD-W524E.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

The TEAC CD-W524E recognizes both 90/99 minute AudioCDs. However the drive cannot complete the test since it stops reading either at 88mins (90min) or 94mins (99min).

- Ripping Audio Protected CDs

For that test we used an Audio pressed CD ,Internation Artist: "Natasha Theodoridou - Yp Euthini Mou", with possible "Key2Aydio" protection (?). The drive will read the disc contents immediately: