Nero CD-DVD Speed: Advanced DAE Quality Test

Using the Advanced DAE Quality Test we will determine hardware characteristics of the drives pertaining to the process of getting accurate audio copies from CD-DA media. Two CD-R discs prepared by Nero CD-DVD Speed are used in this test. One audio disc is normal; the other has defects of the surface, imitating your trying to make a copy from a long-used, bad-quality audio compact-disc.

ASUS DVD-E616P3

Plextor PX-130A

Sony DDU1615

Sony DDU1622

Toshiba SD-M2012

The first group of screenshots shows the results of the drives with the high-quality disc. The ASUS DVD-E616P3 passed the test but it had a big offset and could not read the lead-out zone. The latter factors may make it hard to get an accurate copy of the audio CD. The Plextor PX-130A also got a 100% quality score at a high average speed, but its offset is big, too, and it cannot read the lead-out zone and CD Text. Having no problems with quality, the Sony DDU1615 worked at a high average speed and had a small offset, but found it difficult to perform “on-the-fly” copying; it can only read data from the sub-channel, too. The Sony DDU1622 is overall similar to the other Sony drive in this test, but it can read CD Text, has a slightly higher offset and performs “on-the-fly” copying even worse than the DDU1615. The Toshiba SD-M2012 got a 100% quality score, even though its speed was not very high. Its offset is small, but it cannot read data from the lead-in and lead-out zones.