Due to lack of time last week (CeBIT) we missed a couple of news items, including CDRLabs' latest review of the external TDK veloCD 48/16/48 USB 2.0 CD-writer. Here's part of what CDRLabs had to say about this cool looking TDK drive:
TDK's new veloCD performed pretty well in our CD read tests. The drive was able to read pressed and CD-R data CD's at 50x without breaking a sweat, but its CD-RW read speeds were limited to only 32x. This is pretty slow when you consider that most of the 48x writers we've tested have been able to read CD-RW discs at 40x or higher. On the other hand, the veloCD's DAE speeds were very good. While the drive's DAE speeds are rated at only 48x, it had no problems ripping audio CD's at 50x in our tests. |
When it comes to rewriting, the veloCD had no problems holding its own thanks to its 16x rewriting speeds. TDK's new external writer also turned in some very good times in our Mt. Rainier tests. The veloCD's writing performance was another story though. While the drive had one of the fastest average writing speeds we've seen on a 48x writer, it wasn't much faster than some of the other external writers we've looked at lately. The veloCD 48/16/48 didn't deliver the media compatibility and writing quality we've come to expect from TDK's writers either. Hopefully TDK can improve these things in a future firmware update.
The TDK veloCD drive gets an overall score of 8. If you're interested in reading the complete review then please check it out here.
Source: CDRLabs.com
