Review: Best burners for reading/burning audio CDs, Bonus: CD-R media test Options

[CiTay]

In their previous issue, the noted german c't magazine had an interesting article about different drives and their usefulness for ripping and burning of audio CDs. So good in fact that i want to post some of the results here. I encourage any german reader to buy c't magazine, it's by far the best around. I don't want to spoil anything with these excerpts. Please order the mag and read the full article. Germans can also order the article for 0.80 Euro here.

So anyway, they had several DVD and CD burners for the roundup. The read tests were done with EAC (in secure mode). For the write tests, they sent the media to Audiodev in Sweden for detailed CATS analysis.

Keep in mind that these results are for (audio) CDs only, not for DVD ripping/burning.

Scores, worst to best: -- / - / o / + / ++

BenQ DW-1640
- Burn quality: +
- Read speed: +
- Read quality: +
- Reading copy-protected CDs: o (no CDS100/CDS200B/DocData2/Key2AudioB)

LG GSA-H20L
- Burn quality: o
- Read speed: -
- Read quality: o
- Reading copy-protected CDs: + (no CDS100)

LiteOn SHM-165P6S
- Burn quality: -
- Read speed: --
- Read quality: ++
- Reading copy-protected CDs: + (no CDS100)

NEC ND-4551A
- Burn quality: +
- Read speed: ++
- Read quality: --
- Reading copy-protected CDs: o (no CDS100/DocData1/DocData2)

Pioneer DVR-111
- Burn quality: ++
- Read speed: o
- Read quality: o
- Reading copy-protected CDs: o (no CDS100/DocData2/Key2AudioB)

Plextor PX-760A
- Burn quality: +
- Read speed: + (note: with Plextools, was slow with EAC)
- Read quality: +
- Reading copy-protected CDs: ++

Samsung SH-W163C
- Burn quality: o
- Read speed: +
- Read quality: o
- Reading copy-protected CDs: o (no CDS100/DocData1/DocData2/Key2AudioB)

ASUS CRW-5232A3
- Burn quality: +
- Read speed: o
- Read quality: -
- Reading copy-protected CDs: o (no CDS100/DocData2/Key2AudioA/Key2AudioB)

Plextor Plexwriter Premium 2
- Burn quality: +
- Read speed: +
- Read quality: -
- Reading copy-protected CDs: ++

Plextor PX-230A
- Burn quality: +
- Read speed: +
- Read quality: ++
- Reading copy-protected CDs: ++

They also tested different CD-R media as to which can offer the best burn quality. They were burned with the NEC ND-4551A and the Plextor PX-760A, sent to Audiodev, and the results were averaged. They were also subjected to 100 hours of 80°C and 85% humidity to simulate aging, for 20 discs of each brand ("durability").

Plextor CD-R 48x (Taiyo Yuden / cyanine dye / silver)
Quality: +
Durability: ++
Compatibility: ++

Primeon Gold CD-R 48x (C.S.I. MAM-E / phthalocyanine dye / gold)
Quality: --
Durability: o
Compatibility: +

Sony CD-R 48x (Sony / phthalocyanine dye / silver)
Quality: +
Durability: +
Compatibility: +

TDK CD-R 52x (CMC / phthalocyanine dye / silver)
Quality: -
Durability: +
Compatibility: -

Verbatim CD-R DLP 52x (Mitsubishi / azo dye / silver)
Quality: +
Durability: --
Compatibility: ++

Verbatim CD-R Audio 16x (Mitsubishi / azo dye / silver)
Quality: --
Durability: --
Compatibility: --

And to top it off, excerpts of a test on how burn speed affects burn quality:

Plextor CD-R 48x (TY) burned with Plexwriter Premium 2:

4x speed - burn quality: +
4x speed AMQR - burn quality: ++
16x speed - burn quality: +
48x speed - burn quality: o

Some more results are here (older drives).

[spoon]

>EAX says yes to Cache

I am 99% sure this drive does not cache.

>so can you post some sort of review please? does it indeed not overread or handle htoa?

Have not tested those (as they are not important to me). If anyone can point to a commercial audio cd that has !=NULL audio samples right upto the last 768 samples, I want that CD.

[Anansi]

Have not tested those (as they are not important to me). If anyone can point to a commercial audio cd that has !=NULL audio samples right upto the last 768 samples, I want that CD.

I have to admit to being new to this level of high quality ripping but im on a budget constraint with bitperfect quality requirement (if all goes well by tomorrow my exam season is over and the odd hundreds of cds I own are going to be ripped flac and burned into dvd+r or a nas, and hopefully that will be the last I will see of them for the next 3 to 5 years of being away in college in some cramped rented room where every inch of space matters a whole lot (wich made me get the ideia of investing on a domestic low power nas, a laptop a replacement for my iriver-h140 (the original got mugged) some sort of network attached player hooked up to the nas and maybe a discount dell tft as a tv replacement or something to plug a video player to , a bed a blanket and a if there's enough money left an irex illiad or some other device (saving some space by discarding book cases ) and getting all the cultural benefits of home stuffed in a rented room a couble of meters wide or inside a backpack and a 1998 citroen saxo ;)or worst case cenario in a tent and showering at the local swiming pool ), so getting it done right the first time is very but very important
(translation expect a whole festival of new threads on the perfect linux ripping rig, (something wich can handle almost a thousand in two months), budget scalable silent nas solutions, budget networked multimedia player and speakers for closed spaces, tips on how to store the original cds in a couple of years (im guessing tupperware and mothballs are a stupid idea ), basicly the zen guide to digital audio setup , like i said everything is on a budget priority of function over form, well anyway that will be something for those other threads I just figured It would be civilized to explain my eagerness to get information wheter or not the px-230 fits in the specs ,and what other alternatives I should be looking for then )in looking for, my apologies for the ranting and thanks for all the help guys