Audio Capturing

The first thing remarkable is the zero write offset. This is a clear advantage at processing audio data. The combined offset is not zero, though, but the ability of the drive to read 141 sectors from the Lead-In area helps to correct the relatively high read offset. Thus, the GSA-4163 suits well for processing audio.

As for the real audio grabbing, the results of the two models are almost identical. The difference is negligible really.

The drive read the damaged Audio CD rather well. As for returning C2 errors, the result is perfect – 100% accuracy. Not a single skip found at that, by the way. So, the GSA-4163 performs quite well in this test – it manages to improve on the results of the GSA-4160 which were already good enough.

Sheep Test

You can read the description of this test here. In brief, its point is simple: the ability of the drive to copy discs protected with various versions of Safe Disc is tested. The developers of the popular CloneCD program have the following classification of optical drives, according to this test:

1. No sheep at all. The device cannot make copies of Safe Disc version 2.0 and higher without certain software tricks.
2. One sheep. The drive can copy versions 2.0-2.4.
3. Two sheep – the drive can copy discs protected with Safe Disc version 2.5.
4. Three sheep – the drive can copy all the possible weak sectors.

The LG GSA-4163 is a two sheep drive in this classification.