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Introduction On January 28th, StorageReview.com brought you a look at what turned out to be a real bang-for-the-buck CD-RW, Teac's CD-W512E. It impressed us with unheard of read speeds, adept overall performance, and no-frills pricing. Since then, Plextor's next-generation PX-W1610TA has surpassed the Teacin write performance. Only Ricoh's MP9120A, however, has kept pace with the CD-W512E in read performance. Let's examine Teac's follow-up effort, the CD-W516EB. Featuring 16X writes, 40X reads and BURN-Proof technology, the CD-W516EB attempts to provide the best read and write performance combined in a single CD-RW.
Specifications Specifications according to Teac:
Like the CD-W512E reviewed in January, the CD-W516EB uses a portion of its buffer for internal commands. According to Nero 5.5x and CDSpeed99, this leaves 1456 KB of usable buffer. For more information, click here to see Teac's online product page. The retail box contents:
Teac's generic faceplate returns along with two LEDs. The left LED activates during writes while the right LED is for reads. Both emit an easily visible green light. Quite functional, although it would have been better if the LEDs were labeled "write" and "Read" for easier identification. The back of the drive has what looks like a digital audio out, but the drive manual defines it as "reserved for factory use only." Tests with a Sound Blaster Live! confirm that it is non-functional. The drive arrived with firmware revision 1.0A. Teac Japan recently released revision 1.0B with the following fix: "Eliminated the hang-up condition that occurs in very low frequency during write operation with Easy CD Creator CD Copier." Since we no longer use Easy CD in our benchmarks, we did not retest the drive with the new firmware. The Teac sports impressive heat and noise levels. The full-RPM hum is one of the quietest we've heard in a 40X reader. Seek noise is even more impressive... completely inaudible, a remarkable engineering feat! The drive heats up slightly during extended stress tests- nothing that warrants concern. Current online pricing for the retail version of this drive places it as low as $160 plus shipping and tax. OEM versions come in as low as $130.
For an overview on methodology, click here. CD-ROM Performance ResultsLow-Level Measurements
The Teac upholds its 40X max specs with measured read speeds of 20X at the inner tracks and nearly 41X at the outer tracks. Only the Plextor is marginally faster. The Teac meets its specified 80 ms access time. This surpasses our previous CD-RW champion, Teac's CD-W512E. Let's see how these low-levels translate into application-level performance.
CD-ROM Winmark 99
As one may expect, the CD-W516EB turns in the best Winmark score yet seen for a burner: 1360 KB/sec. Only Ricoh's MP9120A and the CD-W512E come close. Thanks primarily to superior access times, the Teac is anywhere from 20% to 28% faster than the same-generation competition from Plextor and Yamaha.
File and Disc Copy
The CD-W516EB continues to shine in file and disc copy tests. The file copy test emphasizes sequential transfer rates; the Teac edges Yamaha's CRW2100E with a copy time of 2:47. Both drives remain well ahead of the rest of the competition. The disc copy test places more emphasis on random access times and as expected, the Teac excels here too. Its copy time of 3:08 is 9% quicker than the next fastest drive, Plextor's PX-W1610TA. It is clear that the CD-W516EB is the fastest CD reader among all burners we've yet tested.
Digital Audio Extraction
This allows the Teac, despite only 32X maximum DAE spec, to average over 28X across an entire CD. This is only 5% slower than Plextor's true 40X CAV DAE and ends up reducing drive RPMs (and thus noise levels) along the outer portion of a disc. For example, on our 65-minute audio CD, 32X is reached by the 35-minute mark at a steady 8500 RPM. By the end of the disc, RPMs have reduced to near 7000. CDSpeed detects no read errors and shows support for accurate streaming. CDDAE99 confirms the CDSpeed99 figures. The Teac was able to extract the entire audio test CD to .wav files on the hard drive in only 2:26, an average of 27X. The Plextor, in comparison, takes 2:20 to extract the same disc. In addition, individual tracks extract at expected speeds (first track at 19X, last track at 32X). Like CDSpeed99, CDDAE99 reports perfect extraction quality, with zero errors found when verifying extracted .wav files.
CD-R Media Compatibility and Performance
CD-RW Media Compatibility and Performance
Write/ReWrite Tests
CD-R Based Duplication
Because we just switched from Easy CD Creator to Ahead Software's Nero 5.5x for our writing tests, we only have write results for four drives at present. Fortunately, we can compare the CD-W516EB to our current Leaderboard champ, Plextor's PX-W1610TA. The Plextor maintains a small, but consistent advantage in write times that translates into swifter duplication speeds of both audio and data CDs. Specifically, the Teac burns our 65-minute audio CD in 5:12 compared to the Plextor's 4:57; the 619 MB data CD burns in 5:30 vs. the Plextor's 5:17. The Teac thus lags by about 5% in writes. What accounts for this small deficit? According to Teac, something called Optimum Power Calibration. Optimum Power Calibration, or OPC, is a drive's ability to adjust its writing laser's power to fit the needs of each individual disc. All media have an estimated value encoded in the lead-in area on the disc in a section called the ATIP (Absolute Time In Pregroove). Reading this value allows drives to roughly tune laser power. From there, the drive can test higher and lower settings in the Power Calibration Area (PCA) to further tune laser strength. Whereas most drives test once, the Teac tests three times during the OPC process in order to further fine-tune laser strength before writing begins. The end result, according to Teac, is a more accurate burn. It is important to note where this 5% difference occurs. The Teac does indeed write at a full 16X. The OPC, however, occurs during the lead-in procedure. Hence, any additional time taken to complete a burn on the Teac can be localized to the lead-in process. Reference: Running Optimum Power Control: Data Integrity in CD-Recording
CD-RW Based Duplication
Though the CD-W516EB triple tests during Optimum Power Calibration with CD-RW media as well, write times weren't significantly slower than the Plextor's. Even so, the Teac remains the slowest rewriter of the bunch with a time of 8:07 for 619 MB. Competition from Ricoh (7:46) and AOpen (7:58) outdo both the Plextor and Teac during the burn portion of this test. However, since the Teac and Plextor are 40X readers, they can image the test disc more rapidly and thus edge the AOpen and Ricoh in overall duplication times.
CD-R Based Stress Tests With our switch to Ahead Software's Nero 5.5x comes some changes to the SR CD-R based stress tests. Nero all but eliminates any chance of a buffer underrun with its intelligent use of hard drive caching and memory buffer. For our tests, we reduce both of these to their lowest possible value - 1 MB. Neither can be completely disabled, and for good reason. They help keep the burner's buffer full, thus preventing the dreaded buffer underrun. For drives with anti-coaster technology, Nero's buffers help keep BURN-Proof, JustLink, etc. inactive. Even when burning at 16X speeds, the Teac's 1456 KB of usable buffer never comes close to emptying with processor-intensive tasks running in the background. Because of Nero's own buffers, the only way we can activate the Teac's BURN-Proof is by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del to completely freeze the system. With no source data being fed to the Teac, the drive's buffer soon empties, kicking in BURN-Proof. After an extended length of time, we escape out of this scenario and watch as the bar graph of the Teac buffer fills back up to 95%. After the burn completes, that the data on our CD-R is fully readable. This confirms that the drive's BURN-Proof technology works as advertised. It should be noted that not all CD burning software packages have the built-in buffers that Nero features. When using the Teac with such software, BURN-Proof may enable on occasion, especially during heavy system loads. As our tests show, the quality of the write will not be affected, but the burn process may take longer, depending on the number of pauses during the burn.
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