CD CAPABILITIES

The CD writing specifications of the Pioneer A04 are somewhat lower than what the 2nd generation "+" (plus) drives can achieve. The Pioneer A04 supports 8 speed CD writing, 4 speed CD-Rewriting and 24 speed CD-ROM reading (8x4x24).

First we examined the speed at which it can write to CDs using various media. The CD media we tried was identified as (by CDIdentifier):

• Moser Baer India Ltd
• Multi Media Masters Machinery SA
• TDK Corp.
• Ritek Co.

CD-R Media Writing Test

The drive only supports 8 speed and 4 speed writing of CD-Rs (a 40 speed disk was inserted):

The first of our CD-R test involved writing a full 80-min CD at the drive's maximum 8 x speed:

Above we can see (using Nero) it took 10mins and 41 seconds (this is excluding the verification times).

CD-RW Media Writing Test

Our next test timed how long it took to erase a CD-Rewritable in full erase mode. Nero showed the available speed only as 4x (unlike the Philips 228k which had 10 speed for this disk as an option as well).

Quick Erase

We next did a quick and full erase test. The drive took 1 min and 2 secs to erase a CD-RW in our quick erase mode test.

Full Erase

In the full erase test the drive took 21 mins and 20 seconds to erase an 80min CD at 4 speed! A slow time considering there are 24x speed re-writers on the market as of writing.

DATA CD-RW

Next we wanted to measure how long it would take to write a full 80-mins of data onto a CD-Rewriteable. The following illustrates this test:

Here we copied the exact same contents of the CD-R test disk and as you can see the Pioneer A04/104 took 21 mins and 10 seconds to write a full 80min data CD-RW.

Note: Although the Pioneer A04 took over 21mins to write to the High Speed (HS) re-writeable CD, this is more than what the Pioneer A03 could achieve as it didn't support HS disks.

PRESSED DATA CD READING

Reading a pressed CD should be an easy task for any drive due to the good reflectivity/quality of the disks - this was the first of our read tests:

As you can see it managed an average of 18.12 speed using CAV. Towards the end of the CD it actually exceeded its maximum stated read speed of 24. The dip in the graph you see is due to the CD being slightly scratched and dirty (minor scratches). Note: We did experience difficulties in creating the test disk as CD Speed kept refusing and so we used another cd writer to create it.

CD-R Media Data Reading

The speeds often achieved with pressed CD-ROM media are not always mirrored with CD-R media due to quality and reflectivity issues (here we tested a TDK branded data CD-R):

The drive had no problem reading the disk at the same speed as pressed CDs. Although right at the end of the CD it had problems, it was not enough to affect the test. The average CD-R data reading speed was 18.88.

CD Digital Audio Extraction

The drive was next tested for its ability to extract audio from CDs and its quality was reported below. This test was done using "CD Speed" by Ahead.

Here is one test the (older) Pioneer A04 wins. Its overall average DAE speed in this test is 17.28 speed using the Ritek test CD-R and the drive is good for feeding a burner at 10 speed on the fly - which is better than the Philips DVDRW228k. The quality score is perfect and not all drives can achieve this as its quite a demanding test. The drive is capable of reading CD-TEXT and reading subchannel data.

Pressed Audio CD

Again we tested the DAE, but instead of using the tester CDR disk we used a pressed audio CD. The overall average reading speed is lower than the Philips since it is a 24x reader, but it does exceed this rating towards the end of the disk.

C2 Error Information

Next we examined the ability of the drive to accurately extract audio information. This is aided by something called C2 error information which is on a CD. If your drive can report C2 information then it will be faster and more accurate at ripping audio.

We used Exact Audio Copy's "Detect Read Features" option to examine what the drive could do. The drive caches audio which is not ideal as it can affect audio ripping. It has an accurate stream, but unfortunately it can not report any C2 error information from CDs.

Page 3 - Last Updated: 10 August 2002