We are using special pressed Audio-CDs that have build-in defects/prints, that are supposed to give the drive's error mechanism a hard time to accurately read back the "correct" data. We are using the non-defect disc (TCD-714R) vs defective discs like TCD-721R and TCD-726. This comparison will give us some results about how capable the drive's error correction is.

Almedio TCD-714R Audio Test Disc (Eccentricity & Deviation Beyond Standard Limits)

The drive manages to read this disc with an 8X max at the end with the OptiDriveControl software.

With EAC, the drive at burst mode manages to product a perfect copy/rip with up to 7.9X and an average 6.0X speed.

At the EAC secure mode we got "ripping" speed down to 1.5X (average) with no reported issues

Using the NeroCDSpeed Advanced DAE Tests we got an image of the A-BEX TCD-714R to the HDD that later will be compared against TCD-721R and TCD-726.

Almedio TCD-721R Audio Test disc with defects (artificial scratches)

This is a very hard disc to accurate read since the entire disc has many artificial scratches with widths from 0.4mm up to 3.0mm.

The Nero CD-DVD Speed includes an Advanced DAE Error Correction test, which compared the already extracted image from the Abex 714R compared to what the drive reports with the Abex 721R and makes the comparison to give us some idea of how strong or not its error correction mechanism.

According to the test results, the Verbatim External Blu-Ray Recorder had a 56.75% C2 accuracy and got a 74.8 overall quality score, more or less on par with other Pioneer external Blu-ray recorders.

While the above information is nice to have, how this performs to actual results? Can the drive extract the contents of the Abex 721R disc without any problems?

Getting EAC Burst mode, we got full speed reading up to 20.5X,

with none of the ripped track reported as accurate.

Passing with the EAC Secure mode the software that only the first two tracks ripping OK, the rest gives many sync/read errors (as expected), due to the artificial disc defects and reading doesn't proceed so we had to abort the test.

Almedio TCD-726 Audio Test Disc (artificial scratches - defects)

This test disc includes almost the entire surface defects and prints to produce several problems for each drive that tries to read it. Below is a picture that illustrates each track and the artificial defect/problem.

The Nero CD-DVD Speed includes an Advanced DAE Error Correction test, which compared the already extracted image from the Abex 714R compared to what the drive reports with the Abex 726 and makes a comparison to give us some idea of how strong or not its error correction mechanism.

The pioneer while reported around 52.84% C2 accuracy with a final quality score of 99.6 points.

While the above information may indicate something, how about trying to extract all the data from this disc?

Getting EAC Burst mode, we got full speed reading, and from the test report,

we got many accurate tracks, however, 5 tracks weren't accurately ripped from the disc, due to the disc defects...

Using the EAC Software, in secure mode, the software tried its best to properly rip the disc contents, however again at the same tracks, it didn't manage to get 100% secure extraction.

CD-Check Pressed Audio Test Disc (artificial defects)

Running a transfer test with OptiDriveControl gave us a quick overview, the drive doesn't seem to slow down.

We got many C1 errors as expected due to the artificial defects, however, all errors are correctable.

At the EAC BURST mode we got a full reading speed up to 24.4X

, while EAC reports that the first three tracks were ripped accurately.

At the EAC SECURE mode, the drive slows down after 3rd track and it took around one hour to rip the contents of the disc.

As with the BURST mode, the first three tracks were ripped OK.