I have a variety of drives at my disposal, one of which is a quite modern PlexWriter 161040a. Now the problem with it is towards the end of the disc: it gets up to a high rip speed x30 in dBpowerAMP, it is just now the ability to determine if the rip is 100% accurate is in dBpowerAMP I can clearly see that the drive fails to give out good results for track 20 onwards, slowing the rip speed down corrects the problem.

My reference drive is no longer the PlexWriter...

hm i noticed that too with my plextor 40ts drive
at the beginning of the rip process i've got something like 12-16x speed and at the end of the cd i have something like 30-40x

do you know what 17 CAV speed means ?
will the drive then rip always in 17x mode without getting faster and faster ?

Check infos at CD Freaks.

Maybe Plextor was the best, now it's they are mostly hype.

My Plexwriter totally died this morning for no reason after a 4x burn (and it's capable of 16x). I have one month of my year warranty left so I get a replacement, but that was the shortest-lived CD drive I ever heard of. My next drive will not be Plextor.

I had a PlexWriter 161040a too, the drive just stopped reading CDs one, it wouldn't even recognize the CDs, I used mostly for ripping my music. Anyhow, it still could burn so what the hell, one week later I wouldn't even be recognized by the BIOS.

So I exchanged it for an LG 241040x and I tell ya, it's an excellent drive and I don't think I'll be upgrading any time soon, my next upgrade will probably be a DVD/CD burner.

My .02

Regards,

cd burners are so cheap that going with plextor is sorta ridiculous. buy a lg or lite-on, and if it breaks, you are only out $75, if the warranty is expired.

I really don't know if the new models follow the qualitative tradition of Plextor, but I need to say that, at least I, have never encountered any problem with my Plextor 12/10/32 atapi one. Always functions as it should, giving me excellent rips and burned discs.