Tried searching for this on the forum but to no avail. Anyway, glad to say that I'm awaiting delivery of the empeg, and I've been boning up on the ripping and encoding stuff.

Very annoyed with the ripping capabilities of my CD-RW unit which is averaging x8 speed (Mitsumi 4804, which is faster than my DVD Toshiba unit, go figure). What's annoying is that it was advertised to do at least double that. What I would like to get is a IDE CD-Rom unit which is going to be exceptional at the ripping process. Any recommendations and proven specs?

It may seem like overkill, but initially I've got a lot of albums to rip, and it will be recycled for use into another computer in the near future.

Plextor. Nothing less.

Presumably you are talking about the 24/10/40a (£124 from Dabs). What speeds can you expect from the Digital Audio Extraction using AudioCatalyst/Grabber and EAC? Is there just a plain CD-Rom which can do a similar job, or do Cd-Writers have the edge in Digital Audio Extraction?

Last time I ripped a album it took about 6-7 minutes in paranioa mode. It takes less in 'normal' mode. I always use the paranoia mode, even with the plextors, to prevent the possibility of having to rip twice. Others don't. If you don't, then the plextors are almost a requirement, due to their awesome DAE capabilities. You are much more likely to get a good rip with the Plextor drives.

RE: cdwriters... I THOUGHT that Plextor made a couple of cdrom readers still.... But it seems they are a bit harder to find. The key is the company. It appears that a significant portion of the CD spec is 'optional' for implementation. Well, the functions have to be implemented, but apparently the reader is allowed to just return 0 instead of valid data. Most cdrom readers do crap like this. They implement just enough to make it work, and not much else. Plextor has a very good history of implementing the spec, including the 'optional' parts. It's those optional parts that make them better at the DAE than just about anyone else, as most of the options are in the DAE and error correction functions. Remember, until recently, Ripping wasn't that big of thing, and it certainly wasn't "primetime".

Plextor do a current cd-rom but it is SCSI only

Plextor does not make any IDE CDROM's.. They make some FLY scsi readers.. mmm..

Anyway, A friend was looking for a good DAE drive a few months ago, and he came up with this.

Liteon LTD 163 DVD player - ~$55USD
one of the highest rated DAE drives out there

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/go.php3?link=top10.php3

I have a SCSI Plextor 12x CDRW (got it before the 16x or 24x came out) and an IDE Panasonic 50x CDROM. They do DAE at almost identical speeds, oddly enough. The Plextor is much less prone to errors in DAE if I'm multitasking. But for some reason when doing DAE with CDex, it sounds like a chainsaw, and the panasonic is pretty quiet. Very odd.

Plextor drives are about the best out there, though, highly recommended if you have serious DAE/CDR/CDRW requirements. It's worth it to get the SCSI card installed.

Good luck!

I appreciate the comments, but I'm definitely not going down the SCSI route on my home PC. For the record I've had no problems with the Mitsumi 4804 I've got, it's just that at x8 speed, ripping takes a while. I don't think I'm ready to buy a whole new CD-RW unit either, as I don't do that much burning anymore to warrant it.

Trawling through the CD Speed database the new plextor is not listed yet, but the mind boggles when you see listings for £35 Asus CD-Rom which can boast x30 DAE speeds with a quality rating of 10 out of 10. However I guess this is only half the story so that's why I'm seeking anecdotal evidence of current high speed DAE units. After all why spend £130 on a CD-RW when a £35 will do on a CD-ROM?

I too am looking into getting a new CD-RW. I just gave my old one to my Dad. It was an HP 8100. Great burner for it's time, but had issues, particularly with burning 80 minute CDs.

Working here at MusicMatch, I figured I'd take advantage of the knowledge on CD-Rs and ripping and find out opinions on all the equipment around. I think we have just about every major CD-R/CD-RW drive around for testing. We even have a few DVD-R drives (Mmmmmm, 4.7GB).

So, I asked our chief engineer who develops the burning drivers what he thought for CD-RW recommendations. Of course he said Plextor. What's interesting though, is the model he recommended. He told me that there are three different versions of the 24x10x40A drive out, and two of them have serious problems with them. He also said the 16x10x32A was just bad. He highly recommended getting the 12x10x32A, which he said works great. Since I think 12x is still plenty fast for me, I'm getting that model.

Thanks svferris. The 1210 as you say is good (DAE rip speed is x25). However the 1210 is going to be extremely difficult to find as it's been superseded twice. So I'm back at square one.

Is there a reason why it seems that people are recommending CD-RW over just plain CD-ROMS?

However the 1210 is going to be extremely difficult to find as it's been superseded twice.

Actually, it's quite readily available. Amazon.com and Buy.com have it. Just do a search on one of the many price search engines. You'll get tons of links. Also, if you buy before the end of the year, there's a $30 rebate on all Plextor drives.

I haven't seen the database of which you speak.. Where is it?

Sorry forgot to mention that I live in the UK.

The database thing is http://www.cdspeed2000.com

Plextor does not make any IDE CDROM's.

How about this one?

tanstaafl.

>Plextor drives are about the best out there, though, highly recommended if you
>have serious DAE/CDR/CDRW requirements. It's worth it to get the SCSI card installed.

Second the Plextor recommendation, although my older slower drives are much more toleratnt of scratches and stuff than the 16x10x40 Plextor drive is.

No point in spending a lot extra on SCSI these days, unless you already have the adaptor and get a good price on the drive. The latest units (IDE or SCSI) from Plextor and most others now include the ability to stop/restart writing mid-stream, eliminating buffer underrun issues.

-ml

Seems like this thread is going a little off-topic. What I'm after is a top-notch IDE CD-ROM unit (NOT CD-RW) with excellent DAE speeds/quality available in the UK.

I would only consider getting a new IDE CD-RW unit if it's technology was intrinsically better suited to DAE.

Plextor does not make any IDE CDROM's.
How about this one?

That's a writer, not a cd-rom. the original poster was correct : plextor does not make any IDE cd-ROM's

Why don't you get the ultraplex 40Max with a cheap adaptec SCSI card? (like the AHA-2904CD) The Adaptec card will cost you no more than $60 and it's specifically made for connecting CDroms and/or writers. And there's still no drive out there that can beat that Plex!

I haven't got any more PCI slots in my PC, hence my dependency on IDE

As IDE CD-ROM's go, you can't go wrong with the Acer CD-S520. A quick search turned up £40.20 at http://www.amblestreet.co.uk/foris/pricelist_cdrom.asp

Very highly rated, one of the fastest DAE drives out there, and from what I've read, pretty quiet too. I'd buy one if I needed faster DAE, but as we've already established, I am fortunate enough to not need one right now.

Good luck!

Thanks ClownBurner, I think though the unit is an Asus unit and it's this I looked at originally on dabs website which is selling it for less than £35. (http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&tid=460&mid=626&ob=manufacturer&obd=asc&stab=ref)

I've been using Teac drives for a while with very few problems. The Plextor is still the one to aim for though.

My Plextor died 3 months after the warranty ended. It died horribly, lots of noise, and even to the point of crashing the OS. I pulled the drive and it ended up costing $115 to repair.

Calvin

CDROM..

CD-RW != CDROM

I believe they may (or i could be wrong) have made one in the past, but currently they do not..