Exact Audio Copy

EAC is among the best programs to check out the optical drive’s ability to extract audio tracks. It uses all the hardware features of the drive to create best-quality audio files.

On the first step we checked out the availability of three important functions in the tested drives. I mean data caching, “accurate stream” and C2 errors. The first function hinders making precise audio copies, while the other two facilitate this process. We also proved the drives’ ability to process C2 errors by means of a special “scratched” Audio CD created in Nero CD-DVD Speed.

On the second step we used EAC to measure the time it took the drive to extract eighteen audio tracks and convert them into WAV-files. This procedure was carried out in the Secure mode using the hardware capabilities of the devices. This approach provides the best quality compared to other modes, but it takes more time.

The test produced rather strange results, especially for the models originally manufactured by Pioneer. The program didn’t find these drives capable of working with C2 errors, giving the appropriate message immediately, while it took the program some time to recognize this function in other devices. This situation left more questions than answers as all the drives reported their ability to correct C2 errors to Nero Info Tool. It’s hard to tell where the truth is. All the drives we test should support C2 errors and the problem may be with the testing program itself, or this function doesn’t work properly in the drives. Anyway, all the settings in the Secure Mode were chosen according to the diagnostics report and the Pioneer DVR-107D and the Sony DW-U14A were the fastest at extracting audio tracks and transforming them into WAV files. This fact can only be explained by their not spending time for correcting C2 errors, while the Sony DW-U14A, which should have been slower than them, worked without caching audio data, thus not spending time for clearing the cache up on each read of the data.

CloneCD

We run this popular CD-copying program to copy a licensed copy-protected CD with the “Cossacks” game into an image file on the hard disk and then write it on a CD-RW. We used a Verbatim DataLifePlus 16-24x CD-RW disc with all the drives, save for the ASUS DRW-0402P/D for which we used a Digitex 4-12x CD-RW.

The ASUS DRW-0804P and the Pioneer DVR-107D were the fastest at creating the image file. The Sony DW-U14A took the third place, outperforming the two nominally-faster devices, Sony DW-U18A and TEAC DV-W58G. The TEAC won the test of creating a copy of the game CD on a CD-RW disc. It is followed by a pair of “duplicates”, the ASUS DRW-0804P and Pioneer DVR-107D. The ASUS DRW-0402P/D turns to be the worst device in both the test modes.