Recently I have been asking questions in preparation for archiving my audio CDs, and the nice folks here have graciously answered many of them. However, I have a few left that I have condensed into this (longer than anticipated) post:

1. I plan on using my PX-708A. It might not be the best drive on the market, but I've seen good reviews and test scores. Any reason I shouldn't use it? (Incidentally, what is the best drive for DAE these days?)

2. I like PlexTools because it's much faster than EAC. But is extraction accuracy compromised by extracting at high speed (up to 17-40X CAV for the 708A)? Will I get more accurate extractions at lower speeds? Of course I will let the drive slow down when re-reading trouble spots, but should I intentionally extract slower?

3. Unlike EAC, PlexTools doesn't support a Test+Copy mode that compares the CRCs of two consecutive extractions. Is there any real benefit to performing a manual T+C by extracting twice and comparing files? I recall getting very infrequent CRC mismatches with EAC, and only on extremely mangled CDs. I would prefer to perform multiple extractions only when PlexTools reports errors and they are audible. Is this reasonable?

4. I am planning to extract tracks without gaps. If I'm not interested in making exact copies of my CDs, is there any benefit to extracting image + CUE sheet instead?

5. I have a few CDs that produce audible clicks in trouble spots after completely "error-free" extractions (as reported by PlexTools and EAC). This means some errors can go undetected. Can I do anything to detect these errors? If I knew they existed, I could at least make a note to find a cleaner version of the CD.

6. Currently my 708A is a slave on the secondary IDE channel (a hard drive is the master). I've had no problems with this setup, but should I take any precautions to help ensure accurate extraction -- perhaps by making the 708A a master or giving it the channel to itself? Are IDE problems a source of subtle, hard to detect errors, or obvious problems like the drive just not working?

7. Any other tips or tricks for high-quality DAE?

Thanks for your thoughts.

No, it won't necessarily be better.

Yes

In this case, there is 95 % of chances that the clicks are in the music. Don't you hear them when you play the CDs in a CD Player ? If not, they might be protected CDs. Record them with th line in of your soundcard, from an external player. Or better, from the SPDIF output if you can

The only problems I experienced were the drive not working, or some little change in speed (I get up to 36 x in test, and up to 33x in copy). I assume that it is because the drive is busy writing.

You are right. I had my doubts, but I had a second copy of one of my "error free" discs that produced a WAV with an audible pop. I played both copies on my normal audio-only CD player and, sure enough, the click is actually on the disc. To make sure I wasn't crazy I borrowed a neighbor's copy, which also had a glitch in the same place. I guess audio CDs sometimes aren't as perfect as I thought.