I came across this article on the Cdfreaks website ( http://www.cdfreaks.com) a few moments ago. They review the new version of Plextor's PlexTools and have conducted a test comparing it's audio extraction capabilities with EAC. Read about it here:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=89&Page=4

I don't know how reliable the test is, since as far as I could understand, they used only one CD to compare.

Looks interesting...
I hope someone can do a better test... PIO?

Sorry, I don't have a Plextor drive.
These Plextools seem better than EAC for ripping, as they have more secure options (exept for the offset correction or detect gap Freaks).
I wonder if they can extract hidden tracks.

What I'd like to know are the secure reading speeds with a clean CD, compared to EAC, and if it can pass the test where EAC reports no error and there are some. One result is not enough, EAC too can report no errors and get clean rips.
As I said in the comment on the CD Freak page, errors are erratic. In the EAC log, the first time, track 1 had no errors and track 3 had, while the opposite occured the second time.
So Plextools could have got a perfect result by chance. More tests have to be done.

As always, I can send killer CDRs that always make EAC fail on my drives (Memorex, Teac, Sony), that is, no errors reported while there are some.

It seems that you can use plextools with other drives than plextor.
I can use it but I can't change the error correction method for some reason.
This seems an odd restriction to me.

CD-RW.org found different results with no error reports : http://www.cd-rw.org/news/archive/3273.cfm

So Plextools seems to behave the same as EAC : sometimes there can be unnoticed errors.
Further investigations must be done in the C2 field. http://www.digital-inn.de/showthread.php?t...?threadid=14600

To make that thread short, under thourough analysis by Andre (checking block by block, instead of 27 sectors (=2646 blocks) at once, like EAC), most drive don't report C2 properly. And anyway C2 is supposed to fail about every 1000 error under perfect conditions.

EAC could have the advantadge of having a secure mode not relying on C2, that, according to user reports, is a little more secure, though, on the other hand, slower.
Anyway, it have the test and copy advantage.

Hmmm.. interesting.

I do have an old 121032a Plextor to run.. but I'm a Lowly US person, apparently they didn't ship Plextools over here.. gave us some funky PlextorManager 2000 thing..

Now if I had a copy to use the upgrade on.. I wouldn't have to wait and see if Plex of BE will send me one..

Jon

I used Google and found a site that has the full version 1.03 for download. I also downloaded the 1.15 update from the Euro Plextor site. I haven't installed them yet, though, to see if they work with my 12/10/32a.

Rob

Edited by Roberto - removed the URL

Oops! Sorry about posting the link. I really didn't look to closely at the site. I used Google Advanced Search and used "plextools" for the search word. The site is about the 54th link in the list of results and is titled simply CD-R Software. Also, I have Google set to only search sites in English, if that makes a difference.

That site is packed with Warez!!! (it made me very happy, BTW)

Maybe you could post a guide on how to get there?
(Like, seach Google for "blah", go to 3rd link...)

Google, "Plextools 1.03, Full" search I downloaded from 2nd hit, peireas2001, no pop-ups one window download. Plextool is only for plex owners so it shoud be free.

I have a 24/10/40a & I'm getting speedsclose to 40x so I don't think it's disabling the cache???.

My copy of PlexTools was sent to me from Plextor Europe after mailing them. It's a Plextor-only free software, so I don't think there is nothing wrong in distributing it.

Westgroveg: Could you do some file comparisons to measure it's ripping performance vs. EAC?

PlexTools v1.03, why? There's happend quite a few things since 1.03 was released. PlexTools v1.15A seems to be the current version...

Because you have to have the FULL version to install the UPGRADE, comprende?

I have plextor drive (old 40x max SCSI-drive) but soon lost track of the CD with the original plextools, and let me tell you it was a PAIN to try and locate the full version again when I'd done a reinstall. Why they can't just post it on the site I have no idea.

Here are speed comparisons I can attempt error correction caparisons later.

Also the EAC forum has shown tests that my (24/10/40A) drive does not support C2 100%
Here are the logs,

[CODE]EAC extraction logfile from 5. September 2002, 7:00 for CD
Rodrigo / Rodrigo 2000

Used drive : PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W2410A Adapter: 2 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 98
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : Yes

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Installed external ASPI interface


Track 1
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 01 - Yerba Mala .wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC FB5FDDB8
Copy OK

Track 2
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 02 - Como le Digo .wav

Peak level 99.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC BD7D2BF3
Copy OK

Track 3
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 03 - Fuego y Pasion .wav

Peak level 99.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 9617F3BA
Copy OK

Track 4
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 04 - Soy Cordobes .wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 2C201FEA
Copy OK

Track 5
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 05 - Que Ironia .wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Copy CRC 78AFD24B
Copy OK

Track 6
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 06 - El Viaje .wav

Peak level 96.5 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC D48D8C4B
Copy OK

Track 7
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 07 - Aprendiz .wav

Peak level 97.3 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 54B24B83
Copy OK

Track 8
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 08 - Amor Clasificado .wav

Peak level 96.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 4638E042
Copy OK

Track 9
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 09 - Por Vivir Jugando .wav

Peak level 96.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 401E383C
Copy OK

Track 10
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 10 - Un Largo Camino al Cielo .wav

Peak level 96.5 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 73F348B6
Copy OK

Track 11
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 11 - Por lo que yo te Quiero .wav

Peak level 99.4 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 9E19F8E9
Copy OK

Track 12
Filename C:\Ripped CD's\wav\Rod\Track 12 - Himno del Cucumelo .wav

Peak level 99.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC C2E06020
Copy OK

No errors occured


End of status report[CODE]

EAC speed, 9.4X, TIME:6.47


[CODE][PlexTools V1.15A Digital Audio Extraction
Copyright © 1999-2002 Plextor SA/NV
04 September 2002
---------------------------------------------------------------

Software information
--------------------
Windows 2000 V5.00.2195 Service Pack 3
ASPI Manager: wnaspi32.dll version 4.60 (1021) ( not used by PlexTools )
Description : ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL (Adaptec)

Source
------

ID 0: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-W2410A V1.04 (S/N:474971)
Read speed: 17-40 X CAV, Jumper settings: 001
Audio CD, 1 session(s), 12 track(s), 64:18.52

Selected options
----------------

-Audio file format: WAVE (internal routines), 44100 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
-Advanced error detection enabled, read retry count set to : 10
-Maximum errors : unlimited
-Allow Speed Down : yes
Read Error Recovery Strategy : 5. Recover the best bytes (least errors) per sector.
Error log : C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\DAELog_2002_9_5_06h31m37s.txt

Digital Audio Extraction log
----------------------------

Start of extraction
Extracting track 1 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track01.wav - 06:16)
Elapsed time: 00:22
Extracting track 2 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track02.wav - 05:13)
Elapsed time: 00:14
Extracting track 3 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track03.wav - 04:21)
Elapsed time: 00:10
Extracting track 4 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track04.wav - 05:02)
Elapsed time: 00:11
Extracting track 5 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track05.wav - 04:11)
Elapsed time: 00:09
Extracting track 6 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track06.wav - 04:48)
Elapsed time: 00:09
Extracting track 7 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track07.wav - 06:04)
Elapsed time: 00:11
Extracting track 8 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track08.wav - 05:44)
Elapsed time: 00:10
Extracting track 9 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track09.wav - 06:38)
Elapsed time: 00:11
Extracting track 10 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track10.wav - 06:45)
Elapsed time: 00:11
Extracting track 11 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track11.wav - 05:05)
Elapsed time: 00:08
Extracting track 12 (C:\Documents and Settings\Martin Chiriano\Desktop\Track12.wav - 04:06)
Elapsed time: 00:06
12 track(s) successfully extracted
Total Elapsed Time : 02:19[CODE]

Plextools used no error correction & Track 5 showed no differences in EAC file compare.

To make it short, EAC runs 9x, and Plextools 27x for the same kind of secure mode !

The problem with that CD is that it sometimes rips a little off-track...

(bad taste joke for argentines only)

I've posted a reaction to the CD Freaks website too...



I've been close to the development of this new PlexTools version. The extraction engine was rewritten almost entirely from scratch. We all know old PlexTools versions were no match for Exact Audio Copy. In the past Plextor was known as the best cd-r drive manufacturer. During the past few years however many brands have realized that manufacturing good drives is the key to success (you wonder how they didn't realize that a lot earlier). So came Lite-On and other brands also on top and Plextor just became "a good drive". Plextor once set the standards for audio extraction with the UltraPlex series cd-roms, and to claim the title of king of quality again they needed to beat the only thing that made a Plextor rip even better: Exact Audio Copy. And that's exactly what Plextor Europe has been doing the past year.

Extensive tests and theoretic studies learned what reading methods are most successful for certain errors. This resulted into PlexTools 1.15...



PlexTools does correct the offsets of Plextor drives! Non Plextor drives however will read with offset 0. But then again, Plextor would be stupid if they made the software work equally well with non Plextor drives
Also it can tackle a few copy-protections, but I didn't test that to the extend...



PlexTools 1.15 reads in burst extraction mode. The same mode used by bad extraction software like AudioGrabber or CD Speed. This mode provides no native error detection, but is very fast. Thus on a clean undamaged cd, PlexTools' extraction speeds will be up to or very near to the maximum speed.

So what's the 'secret'? The extensive usage of C2 information. Way beyond the manner EAC uses the C2 information. This is PlexTools strong point but also the weak: unlike EAC PlexTools requires absolute correct C2 information. If the drive's C2 information is unreliable, so will the extraction...

Newer Plextor drives (models starting from the 12/10/32) have a near perfect CIRC-decoder and C2 output. In my tests I couldn't get the 24/10/40 and 40/12/40 miss an error (the other way around is more difficult to test and less important - better report an error where none is than reporting none where one is ). The older drives tend to be rather unreliable so they better stick to EAC. That is also why the test made by ljpp from cd-rw.org turned out so bad.

I've done extensive tests of which I cannot publish the results. But when I have more time to get a new site online, I'll redo the tests. Anyway, the conclusion over the whole line was: PlexTools 1.15 is superior to EAC.

This thanks to the use of burst extraction mode to read the audio data at high speeds and C2 information to accurately detect errors. When an error occurs PlexTools can choose from 5 different error detection & correction schemes, ranked from normal to extreme secure. Let's say for example that scheme 5 is selected. Because of the C2 information PlexTools knows exactly which samples are correct and which not. EAC only knows which sectors are correct. After rereading a sector containing errors a few times, PlexTools will return all correct samples whereas EAC needs at least a certain amount of matching sectors to flag a sector as correct.



It wasn't PlexTools that came ith your Plextor UltraPlex 40. These drives were bundled with Plextor America's PlexManager. In those days excellent software, but the newer versions are worthless. At a certain point in history Plextor Europe no longer had the right to distribute the American software so they decided to make PlexTools. And unlike Plextor America they listened to what the Plextor owners wanted. That made PlexTools a very easy to use and handy application that every Plextor owner should have...



I'd first ask Plextor Europe... I had to remove PlexTools full setup from my site

Having a 12/10/32TA this is the awesome news.

I had to endure 4x (read twice) or 6x (C2) extraction speed with EAC with this drive which was less than brilliant. Very nice news, SatCP.

One question: I have been quite happy with EAC gap detection - do you know how this a handled by PlexTools? Does it skip those gaps or put in the infamous two second blank gap?

Regards, stoff

Thanks SatCP for your extensive answer.

Now i am going to uninstall EAC and go out and buy a new CDR drive

At this moment there's no support for gaps in PlexTools. That's an EAC unique. PlexTools is not yet a complete replacement for EAC. For now at least...



Hehe, not so fast
While PlexTools beats EAC in quality and performance, EAC is still master of features. PlexTools' audio extraction part wasn't priority for a long time. PlexTools was just the replacement for PlexManager. A bunch of handy tools for Plextor owners under 1 icon in the tray. But Plextor Europe has big plans for PlexTools which can be described as: beat the rest
The audio extraction part is the first thing that gets renewed. Of course many features still need to be implemented. Rome wasn't built in just one day too.

If you have specific requests for PlexTools you may wish to e-mail Plextor Europe. There's of course no guarantee that your ideas ever make it to PlexTools, but Plextor Europe usually listens to the users.

@SatCP
Where is your web site?.

Did you never notice the "WWW" buttons below some messages?

http://www.ping.be/satcp/

But it's not updated for over a year... I'm planning a comeback, but when? I just don't have the time anymore like I used to...

I though that good quality was the key of the success

Certainly, but developping software for free that gives other companies the same advantages as you is seen from a commercial point of view just plain stupid
And Plextor's main goal is still selling Plextor drives. Not watching how a Lite-On performs with their software.

That is sensible I would say
How would Plextor benefit from giving away their software for free?

Well,

nice to know this software offers good extraction, according to SatCP anyways who i trust as his site used to be very reliable and informative.

I personally had to use the warez download and upgrade even though i own a 12/10/32A (phew glad it's one of the recommended one's!!) but now im using it i have a few questions; as follows:

Firstly i can retrieve the CD information from freedb and select the correct entery, i have also set up a naming scheme for the saved files but the list of tracks in the Digital extraction screen NEVER set themselves to the information i just downloaded from freedb, they remain as simply;
Unknown Artist -- Unknown Disc -- 06 -- Unknown Title -- USIR19601113.wav

for example! am i completly missing somthing or have i simply not got somthing configured right.


Also i see a greyed out tab for lame compression, is it a simple case to have lame.exe in the path before it is selectable? or is it not fully implemented yet? I would kill for FLAC compression t be an option!!!!


Apart for that, if the extraction engine is up to the job as i suspect it is, all i can say is Woo Hoo, i was looking at a new plextor 40x for faster EAC extraction but now theres no need, its so fast!!!!


Cheers Plextor and SatCP for clearing things up,

Kristian Tippins

/EDIT

Also plextools reports:
-396 bytes read offset
-120 bytes write offset

EAC user report:
+99 read samples offset
-31 write samles offset

How many bytes in a sample? this doesn't look write (excuse the pun) though?!

I have the same problem. I thought it might have to do something with the fact that I'm behind a proxy (although I've set the options correctly). Probably a bug



Just place the LAME dll (lame_enc.dll) in the PlexTools installation directory. At this moment it is not yet possible to use the executable LAME, nor another compression. Mail Plextor if you'd like to see command-line encoder support like in EAC. Maybe they'll put it on top of the to do list.



There's something wrong with the offset reported by EAC. Your drive has a -30 samples write offset and a +99 samples read offset correction (for the IDE, the SCSI has +98). All PlexWriters starting from the good old 4/12 have -30 samples offset. Never -31 (write offset is always a multiple of 6 according to Andre Wiethoff from the EAC project).

How come EAC reports a positive offset and PlexTools a negative offset? Simple, due to a misunderstanding Andre used the Read Offset Correction in EAC which is the opposite of the read offset. The Write Offset in EAC is the real write offset. Pretty confusing sometimes
For more information read The Truth About Offsets.

How many bytes is a sample?
A byte is 8 bits. A sample on a cd is 16 bits stereo, thus 32 bit. Or 4 times 1 byte.

396 bytes / 4 = 99 samples
120 bytes / 4 = 30 samples

I like Andre's way of using offsets : I know that if the offset is positive (write or read correction), there will be silence at the beginning of my waves.
I find much more difficult to figure out the effect of real offsets (+ / - / read / write / (-) re-read (+) written from (-) offsetted )

I must correct myself here
PlexTools does support gaps. Actually it already did before this new version. On the 'Digital Audio Extraction' tab of the 'Preferences' window, check 'Pauze'. That will make PlexTools leave out the gaps.

So do I, as I found the info myself

Anyway, straight from the Plextool manual:

• Pause: If the 'Check pause' box is NOT checked, the pause after every song will be included in the *.wav file. If the box is checked, PlexTools® will locate this pause and it will not be included in the file. If the 'Include pause' is activated as well, the pause will be indicated in the audio extraction logfile and also in the *.wav file.

I just extracted and burned a live album (without gaps!) succesful WITHOUT the 'Check pause' box checked. The wording is a bit confusing, but it works so what the hell...

Regards, stoff

That's not the point of supporting gaps...
EAC reads the subchannel info and sends the index 0 commands to the new cuesheet accordingly.
When pause is not checked, does Plextool copy indexes 0 ?
And when pause is checked, does it read the subchannel indexes, or does it simply "kill zero samples", like Nero, EasyCD, etc can do ?
Killing zero samples is not supporting gaps.

@satCP

yeah, im sorry, i was going from memory on those EAC offsets, it was actually -30, my mistake, cheers for the clarification.

As with the bug? and the additional features i'd like, i'll mail plextor tommorrow!

Cheers anyways,

Kristian

Thanks for the suggestion on finding it out there.. the euro support folks said "Sorry, no EU, no Plextools" so I had to resort to this.

I agree with the comments on "why isn't it just available?" It's free, I can give them my Plex drive's serial number.. Oh well.

A note on Google searches.. it's kind of a crapshoot. Try doing the same one several times.. you'll get a different ordered list. The one in question came up first for me, for example.. (though maybe that's due to recent high activity due to sudden popularity?) ;-)

Thanks..

Jon

I've done some quick tests... PlexTools definitely doesn't just detect zero samples. I made a test CD with a few songs on. The music starts almost immediatly on INDEX 00, but I've set an INDEX 01 8 seconds later in the track. PlexTools started ripping exactly at those 8 seconds. So it seems to have implemented a feature to detect gaps. And it's working a lot faster than EAC's gap detection. Now, if they would only implement CUE sheet support...

I went out and want to buy a new drive a few days ago.... but i just can't find one that comes with this software..... do i have to buy a Plextor Drive and then mail them for the software??

Sorry, but you were confused : every ripper, CD player, etc, will always start reading/ripping at those 8 seconds : it's the regular track start !

The question is, did it stop the previous at index 0 ?
If it really supports subchannel gaps, it will stop at the index 0, at the end of the music. Otherwise, as other rippers, it will just go on and append the extra 8 seconds to the end of the wav.

I was maybe a bit unclear (I need some sleep )... PlexTools does omit the 8 seconds gap. It doesn't get appended to the previous track. It's just left-out.

Only drives shipped in Europe, Middle-East and Africa come with PlexTools. American drives ship with (the in my opinion shitty) Plextor Manager (once great software though). If you didn't get PlexTools with your drive you can look for it on the Internet. There are a few sites which have the full version online. Once you installed it, upgrade to PlexTools 1.15a which can be found on Plextor Europe's site.

does the new version of plextools support extracting the entire cd as one large wave file and cuesheet like eac's "copy image and create cuesheet" funtion?

brett

You can extract a cd as one .wav, but there is no option to create a cue sheet.

Rob

Why have you disturbed that thread's sleep ? Awakened it from its ancient (well, >1 year anyway) slumber ?

</Evil Dead mode>

(post count)=(post count)+1

Whether Plextools are superior over EAC strongly depends on the test CD's condition ... I performed a few tests for myself, using 4 different drives with EAC 0.9B4 (Secure with C2 & Burst) & Plextools 1.21 (Level 5, 99, Unlimited) at different speeds ... each copy of the defective track was ripped twice and compared afterwards.

My drives:

Plex PX-40TS
Plex PX-W2410TA
Litey LTR-52246S
Toshi SD-M1612

Good news is ... EAC could rip the the defective track to the same result (in terms of CRC) on every drive (except the 2410TA which reported a sync error) at every speed and every read mode tested.

Plextools always produced non-matching results with the 2410TA, but matching results with the PX40TS (which is believed to show a low C2 accuracy) ...

My personal conclusion is that Plextool's approach to "perfect" (within the boundaries of CIRC itself, of course) DAE by extensive usage of C2 information can be as questionable as EAC's statistical "voting system" ...

BTW: I was not able to retrieve matching CRC values by SP/DIF recording either ...

I don't quite get this, I have PlexTools ver 2.07. Which I "upgraded" from
the Plextor site. Whats with v1.15a?

Dex

Edit: Upgraded to 2.07 in the last few minutes!

Edit 2: Never mind! Just noticed the original post date!

Hi all. I have a problem with Plextools (I'm using PlexTools Pro 2.07). I have a PlexWriter 24/10/40A and a UltraPlex 40 SCSI. I tryed to copy a CD with EAC and it reported sync errors (I don't use C2 error correction). Then, I tryed with Plextools there were no errors :/ (Maybe because is uses C2 correction). Plextools is configured with the best security options. Today, I was listening a CD (Ripped with Plextools perfectly) when I heard some pops... It's incredible. Right now I don't know wich SW and drive should I use...

Ps. Anyone can tell me a good drive for ripping (or the best one). I'm thinking about buying a new one.

Thx

First of all: don't buy a new drive for ripping, the two drives you have right now are excellent for DAE.

About your problem: did you enable error correction in Plextools ? What kind of error correction (there are 5 possible options in dropdown box) ?

Edit:

I use "5. Recover the best bytes (least errors) per sector". Don't forget to enable "Allow Speed Down" as well.

EAC is still my preferred DAE utility (because of the support of cue sheets), but when I'm unable to rip a CD with EAC (e.g. some copy protections), I first copy it with Plextools, and then rip the copy.

Yes, of course, I use that options and I also put retries to 99 and Maximum Errors to Unlimited but I'm wondering if Plextools uses C2 information. I think yes so the next question is if C2 error correction is always correct or not. If it is not all the time ok, it means that the correct rip depends on the accuracy of the C2 error information reported by the drive. Don't you think so??

Maybe the best way to get good rips is using EAC without C2 error information.

Ps. I also have a Toshiba DVD SD-M1410 SCSI but it seems that the best one is The Plextor PX-40TS with C2 disabled.

PlexTools v2.xx (Professional) was bundled with PX-W5232, older drives
were bundled with PlexTools v1.xx.
v1.15 is the latest update of the 1.xx series. v2.xx has some extra options
which can only be used by the PX-W5232, thus it is pretty much pointless
to upgrade to v2.xx, if u own an older drive...

What also helps is letting the drive do the error correction instead of the software.

What you do is lower the read speed to 4X (the lowest) and put error recovery on the first option (1. Reporting only). This way it corrects pop & clicks that come from either scratches or copy-protection schemes. It works flawlessly with my PX-W4824TA. E.g. the CD from the Groove Coverage contained 570 errors on average but at 4X Plextools ripped it perfectly. Another CD (Music Of The Millenium) had Suspicious Positions and one Sync Error according to EAC and sent error correction berserk but would rip flawlessly and without pops at 4X in Plextools.

I would experiment a bit with settings if I was you. The more modern your Plextor drive, the better the built-in hardware correction it appears.

Note: Plextor & Lite-on owners can get a lot of hints & help on these forums at CD-Freaks: the Plextor forum and the Lite-On forum.

Look this...



Track11 sounds really goods. Maybe one or two pops&clicks but it's easy to remove them with CoolEdit. Good advice to put Plextools with this options. It is not a perfect copy, I know, but it's better than nothing.

I'll keep on trying more possibilities.

Thanx