Review: TEAC CD-W540E
Reviewer: G@M3FR3@K
Provided by: TEAC Deutschland GmbH
Firmware: version 1.0B
Production date: March 2002
TEAC is a Japanese company dating back from the early fifties. It was formed after a joint venture between the
Tokyo Television Acoustic Company and the Tokyo Electro Acoustic Company and since 1964 both companies have been
operating under the name TEAC.
As early as the mid-sixties, TEAC introduced the first professional tape storage drive for computers. In relatively
short succession this was followed by all of the storage media used in electronic data processing today. With the
first 5.25" disc drive in the world (1978) and one of the first 3.5" floppy drives (1983) standards were being set.
Today, the TEAC group employs more than 1.200 people on all continents.
So much for the history lesson straight from the TEAC
website. A lot has happened since TEAC was formed and now it presents its latest CD-RW drive, the CD-W540E. The
drive can write discs at 40x, re-write them at 12x and read them at 48x and it can/should thus compete with the fastest
drives available today.
In this review we'll test the drive at the claimed speeds and compare it to 'standard' 32x recorders. Is 40x really
a lot faster for instance? How about the drive's abilities to cope with the various copy-protections used nowadays? Read
on and find out!
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:
- Processor: AMD Athlon 700Mhz
- Motherboard: ASUS K7V
- RAM: 256MB (PC133)
- Harddisk: Maxtor 30GB 7200rpm (UDMA 66)
System set-up:
Software:
- OS: Windows ME
- VIA 4in1 Drivers: v3.37
As you can see the TEAC CD-W540E was set-up as MASTER on the Secondary IDE Channel and identifies itself as "TEAC
CD-W540E". DMA (Direct Memory Access) and Autorun were enabled for every device.
Used Software:
For the tests we'll be using the following software:
- Ahead InCD v3.24.3
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.8.0
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v0.85e beta
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.01
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.0.0.0 (unofficial beta!)
- Exact Audio Copy v0.9 beta 3
- G&M CDR Identifier v1.63
Now let's take a look at the package of the TEAC CD-W540E...
First things first as we check out the contents of the TEAC CD-W540E package. In the box TEAC send to us we find the
following things:
- The recorder
- Manual (including warranty card)
- IDE 40-pins flatcable
- Audio cables
- Mounting screws
- TEAC 'For Your Information' disc v5.0 containing:
- Information on TEAC products
- Various manuals
- TEAC product specifications
- Various drivers
- TEAC drive firmware's
- Applications;
- TEAC CD-player
- Virtual CD 4 demo (to emulate CD-drives)
- Speed utility for 32x and 40x TEAC CD-ROMs
- Feurio! v1.63 demo (English/Italian) / v1.64 demo (German)
- Vendotto Manager v1.2 (German and English)
- Pictures of TEAC products
- Screensavers
- Ahead's Nero Burning Rom;
- Nero Burning Rom v5.5
- NeroMediaPlayer
- InCD / Packet-Writing
- UDF reader
- One blank 40x 700MB Mitsui CD-R (manufactured by Mitsui)
- One blank 10x 650MB TEAC CD-RW (manufactured by Mitsubishi)
So as you can see a very complete package and, as we see it, a true example for other manufacturers of CD-RW drives.
The box even included a voucher with which you can order a free 12x CD-RW disc since the drive is currently shipped with
10x media because 12x CD-RW discs aren't widely available yet. And besides the very complete package you get a two year
warranty on your drive (only available in Europe)... Sounds great doesn't it?
Software:
We were glad to see that TEAC ships Nero Burning Rom with their drives since it's simply our personal favourite. Please
do note however, that 'Easy CD Creator' is shipped with the drive in America. Besides the OEM version of Nero Burning Rom
we find some other handy software on the TEAC 'For Your Information' disc:
- TEAC CD-player:
The TEAC CD-player supports all the functions of an audio player including displaying CD-text. - Virtual CD 4 demo:
With Virtual CD you can compress the complete contents of a disc to your hard drive. By doing this you will have faster
access to your data and you don't have swap your discs anymore. Besides that it will be handy for notebooks to spare
the batteries. Virtual CD can emulate up to 22 discs and supports Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP. - Speed utility for 32x and 40x TEAC CD-ROMs:
The speed utilities are an expansion utility exclusively for use with certain TEAC CD-ROM drives. This software has the
function to readout the drive speed, set the spin-down time and to open and close the tray. Besides that it can help
improve the audio extraction speed. - Feurio! demo:
Feurio! is an integrated program for creating audio-CDs (especially samplers). Feurio! contains an "audio grabbing"
(digital extraction of audio-data from an audio CD) program, a CD-database (including CDDB-support), a CD- and
wave-player, a sample wave-editor and (of course) a CD-burning program. For more information check
www.feurio.com. - Vendotto Manager:
This utility allows access to the TEAC 'Vendotto' microserver from a Windows computer in the same network. Windows XP
is also supported in this version.
The Drive:
The drive itself looks a little boring just like the Mitsumi CR-480ATE. On the front of the drive we only find a 'High Speed CD ReWritable' logo indicating
the high re-write speeds of the drive. There's no TEAC logo printed on the drive and we suspect this was done to lower
the price of the drive. On the front of the drive we do find the usual components like a headphone jack, a volume control,
busy/write LED's and of course an eject-button.
One the back of the drive we find the usual IDE and power connectors, the MASTER/SLAVE jumpers and the SPDIF
(analog/digital) output connectors.
Now let's take a look at the features of the TEAC CD-W540E...
"..The new TEAC CD-RW drive CD-W540E (40x/12x/48x ATAPI/IDE) offers, apart from the speed advantage, numerous useful
innovations, such as Fine Focus Control and Intelligent Speed Control, Mount-Rainier, Write Proof technology, zoned CAV
recording and an excellent 40x digital audio extraction (DAE) performance.."
This is what can be read on the TEAC
website, together with the drive's specifications as you can see below:
Drive Specifications:
| Write/Rewrite Data Transfer: | max. 6.0 MB/s Write (40x) max. 1,8 MB/s Rewrite (12x) max. 7,2 MB/s Read (48x) |
| Buffer Size: | 8 MB |
| Interface: | ATAPI/IDE |
| Access Time: | 72 ms typical (Random stroke) |
| Compatibility: | CD-ROM Mode-1, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA MODE-2 (Form-1, Form-2), Photo-CD (Multisession); CD-I, Video CD, Enhanced CD, CD PLUS, CD-RW |
| Recording Mode: | Disk-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Multisession, Incremental, Packet writing |
| System Requirements: | Pentium II 300 MHz or higher / 64 MB RAM / Hard Disc of 1 GB available capacity or more / 1.2 MB/s data transfer rate or higher / 12 ms average access time or lower / Windows 98 SE / ME / 2000 / XP |
| Disc Loading: | Auto eject or Auto inject |
| MTBF: | 100,000 POH (duty 10%) |
| Safety Standards: | FCC, UL, CSA, TéœV and CE |
| Dimensions WxHxD: | 146 x 42 x 192 mm |
| Weight: | 1,200g |
So in short we have all major functions in one drive. The page even claims (and so does the TEAC package box) a DAE
speed of max 40x... We will check later if we can indeed achieve these speeds. Let's have a closer look at some of the
features the TEAC CD-W540E supports:
Buffer (Underrun Protection):
The claimed buffer size of the TEAC CD-W540E is 8MB. Let's check this with Nero Burning Rom (v5.5.8.0):
We suspected this was again done to reduce costs of the drive since buffer memory is expensive. One of our viewers let us know that the TEAC actually only reports what amount of memory can be used since the drive itself uses some of the available memory. Besides the buffer size
Nero reports that the TEAC CD-W540E uses the BURN-Proof technique to prevent buffer underruns.
Mount Rainier:
As Nero already reports the TEAC CD-W540E supports the Mount Rainier industry standard:
"...Mount Rainier enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use
and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the
drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout.
The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders:
OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers.
The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and
interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW
discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy..."
Running OPC:
Another feature of the TEAC CD-W540E is 'Running OPC' (Running Optimum Power Control). By following an analysis of
the surface of the blank CD, this function automatically regulates the writing speed, and consequently avoids faulty
burning processes with writing speeds that are too high. Together with the drive's buffer underrun technique, BURN-Proof,
this provides a double protection against the interruption of the data stream when burning.
Fine Focus Control:
Besides the 'standard' buffer underrun technique and mount rainier support the TEAC CD-W540E offers some more advances
features like 'Fine Focus Control'. The required strength of the laser varies greatly with writing and reading processes.
With the movement of the write head with conventional CD-R(W) drives, faults often occur when writing and reading. TEAC
has made a breakthrough with the new 'Fine Focus Control' technology, in that the laser always remains constant and never
enters a 'jitter mode'. The laser remains precisely in the same position on the track, regardless of the speed. This key
CD writing technology from TEAC enables the high recording quality with very high speeds and results in a more precise
recording, and a higher-quality disc that provides an improved level of interchangeability when read.
Intelligent Speed Control:
A further qualitative improvement is the 'Intelligent Speed Control' technology, which tests the status of the CD before
the writing process using various parameters in order to determine the highest writing speed with the best possible
quality. For example, the number of tracks, the disk balance, the strength of the laser, the type of disk, and any
possible vibrations with higher rotation speeds are all tested before increasing the (read/write) speed. We'll get back to
the write method the TEAC CD-W540E uses later on.
Metal Chassis:
TEAC has invested a good deal of effort into realizing outstanding burning results, and that means in both mechanical
and electronic components. The chassis of the TEAC drive (in contrast that of much of the competition) is made of 1.2 mm
solid metal. This reduces anti-buckling vibrations to a minimum, one of the mechanical prerequisites for optimal writing
results.
Write Method:
Next we will take a look at which writing methods the TEAC uses to write CD-R's. We used
Nero CD Speed to do a test write. Below you can see the produced graph:
The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) of the CD-R.
In the graph you can clearly see that the TEAC CD-W540E uses four zones to write the disc:
- Zone 1: 20x, then at 4 minute mark the write speed shifts to
- Zone 2: 24x, then at 22 minute mark the write speed shifts to
- Zone 3: 32x, then finally at 46 minute mark the write speed shifts to
- Zone 4: 40x and remains at this speed until the end of the disc is reached.
Wring in zones is known as Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity). Z-CLV is used to reduce
the rotation speed of the CD-R inside the recorder and thus reducing noise and stress on the drive mechanism. During
switching writing speeds, the drive's buffer underrun technique (BURN-Proof in this case) takes over preventing buffer
underruns.
Because the drive switches between writing speeds and doesn't start writing at 40x the average speed is lower than 40x.
In this case the average writing speed with a 74min/650MB CD-R is 31.21x (see the picture on the left).
An increase of about 5.0x (750kb/s) compared to 32x recorders we have previously reviewed, the Mitsumi CR-480ATE (26.26x)
and the Lite-On LTR-32123S (26.22x). Compared to 24x recorders we have previously reviewed, the Waitec MEGALUS (22.70x),
the Lite-On 24102B (22.75x) and the Plextor PX-W2410A (22.76x), the increase is about 8.5x (1275kb/s).
Please note that when doing the same tests with a 80min/700MB CD-R these speeds will be more apart.
Now we'll start testing the reading of normal/unprotected data discs. Let's see how fast the TEAC drive can read data
and if it can really reach the claimed 48x. For the tests we once again used Nero CD Speed and repeated the tests several times to make sure the results were accurate.
The data read tests are divided into four sections:
Transfer Rate Test - Original/Pressed Discs:
For the transfer rate tests we used a pressed CD-ROM containing PlexTools v1.05 which was exactly 74 minutes (333.000
sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
In the left screenshot you see that the TEAC CD-W540E performs well getting an average reading speed of 36.71x. The
drive can reach the claimed 48x without problems.
The seek times with original/pressed media were very good as you can see in the screenshot on the right. In the table
below we compare the achieved times with other drives we've previously reviewed.
Please note that the other drives are all 40x readers and so it's no surprise the TEAC is the fastest reader. It's the
only drive capable of reaching 48x:
| Original Discs |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| Plextor PX-W2410A |
32,01 | 19,01 | 42,17 | 160ms | 154ms | 472ms |
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
30,94 | 18,37 | 40,78 | 86ms | 99ms | 171ms |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
31,75 | 19,02 | 41,65 | 94ms | 103ms | 168ms |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
30,79 | 17,98 | 40,71 | 152ms | 157ms | 275ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
30,42 | 18,00 | 40,11 | 93ms | 97ms | 132ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
36,71 | 21,64 | 48,47 | 82ms | 80ms | 129ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
Transfer Rate Test - CD-Recordable Media:
For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we again used the PlexTools v1.05 disc only this time we read from
a back-up disc. The disc used was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. Here's
the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:
- ATIP: 97m 28s 12f
- Disc Manufacturer: Gigastorage Corp.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
The TEAC CD-W540E is slightly faster with CD-R media than with original/pressed discs. It can reach 48x, but not without
some problems (see the note below). The top reading speed was 48.43x.
The seek times aren't very good. A lot slower than with original/pressed discs.
We do have to make a note here since the TEAC CD-W540E didn't perform well with some CD-R media. We got some various
results with our back-up of the PlexTools disc and tried several times with different media but every time the achieved
results were different. The full seek times for example would vary from 129ms up to 500ms.
In the table below we compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The TEAC is (of course)
the fastest reader since it's the only drive that can reach 48x:
| CD-R Discs |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
30,49 | 18,27 | 40,07 | 121ms | 133ms | 252ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
29,99 | 17,98 | 39,44 | 91ms | 96ms | 127ms |
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
30,80 | 17,95 | 40,77 | 141ms | 148ms | 258ms |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
32,21 | 19,05 | 42,07 | 92ms | 105ms | 243ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
36,85 | 22,08 | 48,43 | 88ms | 102ms | 229ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
Transfer Rate Test - CD-ReWriteable Media:
To test the transfer rate with CD-RW discs we again used the "PlexTools v1.05" disc only this time we read from a
CD-ReWritable disc. The disc used was a 'Verbatim' CD-RW certified up to 10x writing and manufactured by Mitsubishi. Here's
the ATIP information from CDR Identifier:
- ATIP: 97m 34s 23f
- Disc Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp.
- Reflective layer: Phase change
- Media type: CD-ReWritable
- Recording Speeds: min. 4X - max. 8X
- Nominal Capacity: 656.40MB (74m 43s 00f / LBA: 336075)
The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below the produced graph with Nero CD Speed:
The TEAC CD-W540E really produces an excellent result here and can read CD-RW discs at full speed (49.54x!). It's
even faster with CD-RW discs than with original/pressed discs and CD-R discs!
The seek times however, are a bit disappointing. They are very slow as you can see on the right.
In the table below we compare the achieved results to some of the reviews we've done previously. The TEAC is again
(of course) the fastest reader since it's the only drive that can reach 48x and in this case, even 49x:
| CD-RW Discs |
Average Reading Speed |
Start Reading Speed |
End Reading Speed |
Seek Times Random |
Seek Times 1/3 |
Seek Times Full |
| Waitec MEGALUS |
25,19 | 14,84 | 33,26 | 123ms | 138ms | 261ms |
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
16,04 | 16,05 | 16,07 | 141ms | 148ms | 258ms |
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
25,99 | 15,31 | 34,38 | 91ms | 101ms | 361ms |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
30,98 | 18,27 | 40,84 | 96ms | 102ms | 137ms |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
37,53 | 22,12 | 49,54 | 225ms | 174ms | 405ms |
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
Transfer Rate Test - Conclusion:
Overall we can say the TEAC CD-W540E is the fastest data reader we have reviewed. But of course that's no surprise since
it's the only drive that can reach 48x. The TEAC did have some problems reading CD-R media since we got some various results,
varying from very fast to very slow (e.g. only 4x reading!). The drive does achieve great speeds with CD-RW media but again
we didn't always achieve these results. The seek times of the TEAC CD-W540E could have been better with CD-R and, especially,
CD-RW media.
So far for the data reading part. Now let's check the audio reading (DAE) speeds...
We've already mentioned that the TEAC CD-W540E claims to have a DAE speed of 40x and in this step we'll test if it can
indeed reach these speeds. Besides that we'll do some more advanced tests using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and Nero CD Speed.
Features:
First we checked the features the TEAC CD-W540E supports with EAC:
The supported 'Caching' feature isn't really a 'good' thing while the supported 'C2 Error Info' feature is a 'good'
thing. Below some more information on these terms:
- 'Caching':
If your drive caches the audio that was just read, it would be a problem to read this data again in order to compare both
extractions to find out if they match. - 'Accurate Stream':
This means the drive won't jitter, thus no jitter correction has to be done anymore. - 'C2 Error Info':
Some newer drives are able to return C2 error information beside the actual audio data. In that case EAC doesn't need
to read all data twice anymore, which will result in a big speedup.
Digital Audio Extraction:
For the Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) tests we started Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and simply extracted the files in
uncompressed WAV format to our harddisk. The disc had 16 tracks and a total playing time of 77 minutes and 3 seconds. We
used both the 'Burst' mode and the 'Secure' mode:
- 'Burst Mode':
Burst mode is the fastest mode available. The audio sectors are just read without any error-detection and
error-correction. - 'Secure Mode':
The extracted audio is checked for correctness and if errors occur, EAC will try to recover them.
Below the screenshots of the speeds the TEAC reached in both modes:
TEAC CD-W540E DAE speed - Burst Mode
TEAC CD-W540E DAE speed - Secure Mode
drives we've previously reviewed we see that the TEAC has the fastest average speed in burst mode but is closely followed
by the Mitsumi CR-480ATE. The Mitsumi is, however, faster in secure mode:
| EAC DAE Speeds |
Burst Mode  Average |
Burst Mode  Maximum |
Secure Mode  Average |
Secure Mode  Maximum |
||
| Waitec MEGALUS |
27,8x | 38,8x | 6,7x | 8,0x | ||
| Lite-On LTR-24102B |
25,7x | - | 5,7x | - | ||
| Lite-On LTR-32123S |
28,7x | 42,5x | 2,7x | 2,7x | ||
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
29,1x | 40,1x | 10,3x | 13,5x | ||
| TEAC CD-W540E |
29,3x | 40,8x | 10,1x | 13,0x | ||
| The grey area's indicate the highest speed / best time | ||||||
So overall a pretty good result but when you consider that the TEAC CD-W540E is the only 48x drive we think it should
have been a little bit faster. Let's continue with our 'Advanced DAE Quality Tests':
Advanced DAE Quality Test:
To conclude our DAE test we did the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with
Nero CD Speed. This test is a very hard and intense test for any reader. Here are the results:
previously tested. Only one problem though: the TEAC drive failed to read CD-Text from the disc while all other drives
could read it. We tried several times but got the same result every time:
Burning Rom containing CD-text. We played back the disc with the TEAC and a CD-Text capable player (delivered with the
TEAC 'For Your Information' disc):
Advanced DAE Quality Test' reported otherwise...
In the next step we'll see how well the TEAC CD-W540E can read a (heavily) scratched disc.
It happens to all of us sooner or later: a disc is scratched and cannot be read properly anymore... In this test we
took a CD-Recordable and scratched it with some fine sandpaper. We then did a surface scan with
Nero CD Speed and you can see the results below. First off let's
start with the ATIP information from the used CD-Recordable:
- ATIP: 97m 15s 11f
- Disc Manufacturer: Ritek Co.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
Now for the achieved results. We read the same disc with the Mitsumi CR-480ATE (firmware 1.0E) and a Toshiba SD-M1502
DVD-ROM (firmware 1012) for comparison. We'll let the figures speak for themselves. Please note that damaged sectors can
still be read. The important percentage is the one of the unreadable sectors. Of course the less, the better:
if a sector is good (readable) or bad (unreadable).
(one drive can read some sectors while the other one couldn't and vice versa) but the Mitsumi had just a little less
unreadable sectors.
That concludes the reading part. Now it's time to see how the TEAC CD-W540E performs when writing discs...
The TEAC CD-W540E can write discs at a maximum of 40x meaning a whopping 6000kb/s. What does this mean in real terms?
To answer this question we set up a basic write process using the latest
Nero Burning Rom version (v5.5.8.0). We used the DAO (Disc At Once) method for writing the disc.
In the screenshot below you can see the result:
the entire disc! We have seen some other reviews of the Plextor 40x drive and the Lite-On 40x drive on various sites but
they all needed more time to finish the job. The TEAC drive is clearly the fastest writer we've see so far!
time difference is about 30 to 35 seconds.
We also did a 650MB test write with the latest CloneCD beta (v4.0.0.0 BETA 4) and below a screenshot. Notice the neat
new feature of displaying the current data transfer and, in this case, writing speed:
When writing as such high speeds it's important that the disc is written correctly. So therefore we did a check with
Nero CD Speed to verify the written data. In the screenshot
below you can see that the TEAC CD-W540E can read the disc without problems at full speed:
And on the left you can see the actual speeds the TEAC CD-W540E reached. For the 40x write and quality test with Nero we
used the disc that was provided with the writer. Here's the ATIP information:
- ATIP: 97m 27s 57f
- Disc Manufacturer: Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, Inc.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)
Comparing:
Next we did some more tests comparing the TEAC CD-W540E to some of our previous reviews. Please note that some reviews
were done on different machines so the achieved writing times can be a little off. You can see the achieved results in
the table below:
produces an excellent result and achieves the best time with every used write speed. The differences aren't even minimal
but can be up to 30 seconds! These differences can be explained by looking at the way the TEAC writes the discs. Like
mentioned before all drives use Z-CLV recording but the TEAC is the only drive to start writing at 20x while other drives
start writing at 16x.
Writing Audio:
The next and final step was to check how fast the TEAC CD-W540E could write audio. Therefore we created a WAVE image
and CUE-sheet of an audio disc with Exact Audio Copy and then loaded the CUE-sheet into Nero. We started the write process
at 32x and checked if the write process would begin. The latest Nero version now luckily also has an option to check the
actual write speed of the disc being written. Note that Nero calls this 'Read Speed': the speed in which the data is read
from your harddisk:
used was actually certified up to 16x writing (so therefore the disc didn't write at 40x) but Nero reported that the disc
could be written at 32x. Strange since when we used the same discs with our Mitsumi CR-480ATE the maximum speed would be
16x as you can see in the screenshot below:
So what can we conclude from all of the achieved results? Well simply that the TEAC CD-W540E is a great writer. Not
only is it very fast, it can also write a lot of media (certified for a lower speed) at high speeds. In our tests we
were surprised to see that the TEAC could write certified 16x discs ('That's Write', manufactured by Digital Storage
Technology Co., Ltd.) at 32x. To verify this we even did another test and tried other 16x certified 'Traxdata'
(manufactured by Prodisc Technology Inc.) discs. These could even be written at full (40x) speed! An excellent result
indeed. A final conclusion we made is that, unlike the Plextor PX-W4012A, the TEAC CD-W540E isn't limited to 24x when
writing audio. We could write audio at 40x without problems using proper media.
Now we'll start testing the reading of copy-protected data discs. Copy-protections are used on almost every game nowadays
so it's important a writer can handle the various protections out there. For the tests we used CloneCD version 4.0.0.0 BETA
4 from Elaborate Bytes. As you might know if you've read our
CloneCD v3.5 preview, CloneCD now uses Profiles for each type
of disc. In this review we created a separate Profile for each protection with the common settings used in the old CloneCD
versions. E.g. for SafeDisc we only selected the 'Fast Error Skip' setting.
We scanned every disc with the latest German ClonyXXL version 2.0.0.3a to determine the used copy-protection. ClonyXXL
can be obtained from home.arcor.de/bejot. The 'skeletons'
underneath each ClonyXXL scan-result screen indicate the toughness of the used protection:
usual conclusions:
For this test we'll use a game called 'Desperados' protected with LaserLock 2. We scanned the disc with the German
ClonyXXL and it indeed finds the LaserLock protection.
- Read Speed: Max
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
- Intelligent Bad Sector Scanner:
- Sector Skip: 100 (default)
LaserLock 2 is hard to read for a lot of recorders but the TEAC CD-W540E performed very well. Whereas the Waitec
MEGALUS needed well over 1 hour and 30 minutes to read the disc and the Mitsumi CR-480ATE about 22 minutes, the TEAC
finished the job in under 9 minutes:
TEAC CD-W540E reading LaserLock
the read times of the Mitsumi CR-480ATE again using the same Profile. The Mitsumi needed about the same time (a difference
of only one second) as in our previous test:
Mitsumi CR-480ATE reading LaserLock back-up
For this test we'll use a game called 'Beavis and Butthead: BungHole in One' protected with the normal SafeDisc. Note
that 'Alt' means 'Old' since SafeDisc is a rather old protection:
- Read Speed: Max
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
Below you can see the achieved result of the TEAC CD-W540E. The drive needs just over 39 minutes to finish the job
whereas the Mitsumi CR-480ATE doesn't even need 3 minutes. As a comparison, the Waitec MEGALUS needed well over 1 hour
and 30 minutes to read the same disc:
TEAC CD-W540E reading SafeDisc
so far... The drive is lightning fast when skipping the errors and it's no wonder the TEAC cannot even come close to these
times since there are very few drives that can:
Mitsumi CR-480ATE reading SafeDisc
For this test we'll use a game called 'The Sims: House Party' protected with SafeDisc 2:
- Read Speed: Max
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
even come close to the time the Mitsumi reaches (2m:30s). However, as most people will know, we also need to check if the
drive can write SafeDisc 2. Unlike the other protections SafeDisc 2 back-ups depend on whether or not the drive support
'Correct EFM Encoding' which is needed to write 'regular bit patterns'. For more info on SafeDisc 2 read
this article.
We re-read the disc again only this time at 4x just to make sure that the created image was good. We used the same
SafeDisc Profile as before:
- Read Speed: 4x
- Fast Error Skip ON:
- Read Retries: 0
- Error Correction: Software
We wrote the disc with the default settings enabled ('buffer underrun protection and 'always close last session' on).
'Amplify Weak Sectors' was disabled in the Profile. Unfortunately the TEAC CD-W540E fails in making a working
SafeDisc 2 back-up. We tested the back-up in these drives:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: failed
- TEAC CD-W540E: failed
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: failed
Next we tried to write the disc with CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option enabled. This CloneCD feature is supposed
to help writers like the TEAC produce better (read: working) back-ups of SafeDisc 2 protected discs. For more info on this
new feature read this article.
following drives:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: success
- TEAC CD-W540E: success
- Waitec MEGALUS: success
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: success
Protected Data - SafeDisc 2.51.xxx:
Besides our SafeDisc and SafeDisc 2 tests we need to take a look at the latest SafeDisc 2 version 'called' SafeDisc v2.51.
This is a new version of the regular SafeDisc 2 and has caused quite a few problems for a lot of writers (which didn't have
problems with the normal SafeDisc 2). For this test we'll use a game called 'Serious Sam 2: Second Encounter' protected with
SafeDisc 2.51:
We then tried writing the image with the TEAC CD-W540E with CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option disabled. The
'Hide CDR Media' option was enabled in the CloneCD tray to test playing from the CD-RW drives. The results when playing
from these drives:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: failed
- TEAC CD-W540E: failed
- Waitec MEGALUS: failed
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: failed
Of course no major surprise since the drive also couldn't write the normal SafeDisc 2 protection without 'AWS' enabled.
The next tests we did was re-writing the same image but now with the 'AWS' option enabled:
tray:
- Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1502: success
- TEAC CD-W540E: failed
- Waitec MEGALUS: failed
- Mitsumi CR-480ATE: success
Serious Sam 2 refused to start when reading from the TEAC itself and the Waitec (both gave the usual error in .TMP file)
but played fine from both the Mitsumi and the Toshiba drives. A pretty good result overall (the game did work and
considering the huge amount of problems SafeDisc 2.51 has caused we feel this is still a good result).
The next protected data tests we'll do is with a game called 'V-Rally 2 Expert Edition' protected with SecuROM 2:
- Read Speed: Max
- Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks
- Read SubChannel Data from Audio Tracks
SecuROM 2. The drive is pretty fast but again not as fast as the Mitsumi CR-480ATE.
Protected Data - PlayStation/LibCrypt:
The final protected data test we'll do is with a LibCrypt protected PlayStation disc called 'Final Fantasy VIII'. We used
the first (of four) disc(s) of this game:
- Read Speed: Max
- Read SubChannel Data from Data Tracks
- Read SubChannel Data from Audio Tracks
TEAC CD-W540E reading PSX
under 9 minutes. Not the best time we've seen but good enough. The Waitec MEGALUS for instance needed about 12 minutes to
read the same disc. As a final comparison we re-read the PlayStation disc again with the Mitsumi CR-480ATE using the same
Profile as before:
Mitsumi CR-480ATE reading PSX
The TEAC CD-W540E is a fairly good reader for copy-protections but it didn't come close to the Mitsumi CR-480ATE, but, on
the other hand, few drives can. The drive was able to read every protection at an acceptable time and that's what's
important. The TEAC CD-W540E does not support 'Correct EFM Encoding' which is needed for the popular SafeDisc 2 protection
but it did manage to make a working back-up when CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option was enabled even with SafeDisc
2.51.021. So overall a pretty good result but not the best we've seen.
During the review we've already seen that the TEAC CD-W540E is a great writer when it comes to CD-Recordable media but
how does it perform with CD-ReWriteable media? To format our CD-RW discs we used Ahead's InCD version 3.24.3.
Formatting:
We formatted an Infiniti 700MB (!) CD-RW disc with Ahead's InCD and got a free useable disc space of 572MB. An increase
of about 36MB compared to a normal 650MB CD-RW disc.
Infiniti 700MB CD-RW Disc 4x-10x Certified
Packet Writing:
Then we measured the time it took the TEAC CD-W540E to write a 411MB (431.036.416 bytes) file to the CD-RW disc with
InCD. The file was copied in roughly 4 minutes and 32 seconds. About the same time as the Mitsumi CR-480ATE reached
(4m:34s) and about one minute faster than 10x CD-RW recorders. The average writing speed of the TEAC CD-W540E was
10.32x compared to 10.24x of the Mitsumi CR-480ATE.
A lot faster than the average writing speeds of the Waitec MEGALUS (7.16x), the Lite-On 24102B (7.23x) and the Plextor
PX-W2410A (7.20x). Please note that the Plextor and Lite-On speeds were reached on different machines so the achieved times
can be a little off.
Normal Writing:
Next we used CloneCD to do a Quick Erase to clean the CD-RW disc and used Nero Burning Rom version 5.5.8.0 to write the
same file as a normal data compilation. The disc was recognized as CD-R disc and the write speed was automatically set to
12x. Below a screenshot of the process completed successfully:
Writing Tests above.
Mount Rainier Writing:
We have mentioned the new Mt. Rainier format a couple of times now but what does this mean? If you've read our description
on page 3 you'll know that it means "native OS support of data storage on CD-RW". Great but the problem is that operating
systems do not support this yet! So in the meantime we have to rely on third party software like InCD to write in the Mt.
Rainier format. In this test we again used InCD v3.24.3 and formatted the disc in Mt. Rainier format.
When you have InCD installed and you view the properties of your CD-RW drive you will see a tab called 'InCD page-settings'.
You will find the option to format into the Mt. Rainier format there if your drive supports it. Note that the screenshot
on the right was done on a Dutch Windows version. The English translation is 'Format disc to CD-MRW'.
We currently have only two drives supporting the Mt. Rainier format: the TEAC CD-W540E and the Mitsumi CR-480ATE. Below
we compare the write times when writing the same 411MB file as in our packet writing tests:
| Mt. Rainier Format |
Write Time |
| Mitsumi CR-480ATE |
12m:56s |
| TEAC CD-W540E |
14m:30s |
We will, for now, not go any deeper on how Mt. Rainier works exactly since Mt. Rainier was intended to be used without
third party software like InCD. When operating systems start supporting Mt. Rainier like they should we can do more tests.
For now we can only say the Mitsumi was faster than the TEAC writer.
Conclusion:
As with CD-Recordable media the TEAC CD-W540E also performs very well with CD-ReWriteable media. Because of its high
re-write speeds of 12x it's a lot faster than 'normal' 10x drives we've previously reviewed. When comparing the drive to
another 12x drive like the Mitsumi CR-480ATE the drive achieves about the same results. The Mitsumi was faster with Mt.
Rainier writing but like said before we need to test this some more when operating systems really start supporting this.
There's no point in reviewing something that hasn't been completely finished yet.
On the next page we've summed up our tests results with various media...
In this part of our TEAC CD-W540E review we'll test how fast the drive can write different media (CD-R's and CD-RW's).
Of course we tested every disc afterwards if errors had occurred. We used a 700MB avi-file and used Nero Burning Rom to
write this file in DAO (Disc At Once) mode. In the table below we've summed it all up for you:
that 40x certified media isn't widely yet available... If we could get our hands on some of these CD-R's we would have of
course included their write times and write speeds.
Conclusion:
In conclusion all tested media could be written at their certified speed but most of the times even faster. The biggest
surprise were the 'Traxdata' CD-R's manufactured by Prodisc Technology. They could be written at 40x while they were only
certified up to 16x writing.
To conclude our review we will take a look at how far the TEAC CD-W540E can overburn and if it can handle 8cm
CD-R's...
We're almost done with our TEAC CD-W540E review and we'll conclude with our 'special discs' tests. These include an
overburning test and a test to see if the TEAC can write 8cm CD-R's. First off, the overburning test:
Overburning:
We used Infiniti 99min/900mb CD-R's for our tests that were certified up to 32x writing:
We set the 'Test capacity' to 99 minutes and started the test. You can see the achieved results below:
writing up to 99 minutes. We of course put this to the test and the TEAC CD-W540E could write the disc without problems
at 32x.
8cm CD-R Tests:
To conclude our TEAC CD-W540E review we tried to write 8cm CD-R's manufactured by Plasmon. The discs can hold a maximum
of 23min/200MB and were certified up to 12x writing. Aren't they cute ?
- ATIP: 97m 27s 19f
- Disc Manufacturer: Plasmon Data Systems, Ltd.
- Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- Nominal Capacity: 201.86MB (23m 00s 00f / LBA: 103350)
We setup up Nero Burning Rom to burn a compilation of about 200MB:
it was written:
for 8cm discs and even, if the disc would be read faster, the rpm's of the disc inside the recorder would be enormous
(10.000+ rpm's). A good result.
That concludes our TEAC CD-W540E review. Let's go to our final words and conclusions.
Positive Points:
- Supports 40x Z-CLV writing
- Supports 12x CLV re-writing
- Supports 48x CAV reading
- Supports 'Mount Rainier' format
- 2 year warranty (only in Europe)
- 8MB (6746kb useable) buffer
- BURN-Proof Anti-Coaster Technology
- Good read performance with data discs
- Good seek-times
- Good DAE speeds (40x)
- Good DAE quality
- Excellent write performance (fastest we've seen)
- Excellent read speed with CD-ReWriteable discs (up to 49x!)
- Good read speeds with copy-protected discs (using CloneCD)
- Supports UDMA 33
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports overburning (up to 99 minutes!)
- Supports writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Supports CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option
- Could partially back-up SafeDisc v2.51.021
- Excellent package (software, manuals, cables, etc)
- Can write most discs at high speed (faster than certified speed)
- Great features (Running OPC, Fine Focus Control, Intelligent Speed Control, Metal Chassis)
Negative Points:
- 'Correct EFM Encoding' not supported
- Some problems when reading CD-Recordable media
- Seek times with CD-ReWriteable media could be better
Overall we can say TEAC has produced a great drive. It has great futures (Running OPC, Fine Focus Control, Intelligent
Speed Control, Metal Chassis) ensuring the quality of your back-ups. As 'usual' the TEAC CD-W540E supports all major
features like SubChannel Data, CD-Text, RAW, overburning, 8cm discs, etc. Besides that the TEAC produced an excellent result
when writing discs and was the fastest drive we've tested.
When we did the Mitsumi CR-480ATE review we thought that reading CD-ReWriteable discs at 40x was extremely fast but then
came the TEAC... It can read CD-ReWriteable discs at an amazing 49x. Of course when reading and writing at these high speeds
the drive produces noise. The TEAC wasn't the quietest drive we've reviewed but we think this is no major disadvantage.
The DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) speeds of the TEAC weren't the fastest we've seen. It's fast,
don't get us wrong, but since the drive is the only 48x capable reader we feel this could have been a little bit better.
On the other hand the TEAC CD-W540E can write audio discs at full (40x) speed and isn't limited like the Plextor PX-W4012A
(24x) for instance.
When reading protected data the TEAC performs well. It cannot come close to the Mitsumi CR-480ATE but there are few
drives that can. The tested protections could all be read at an acceptable time. It's too bad the drive does not support
'Correct EFM Encoding' but it does work pretty well with CloneCD's 'Amplify Weak Sectors' option. We could create a working
back-up of both SafeDisc 2 and SafeDisc 2.51.021 with this drive using this feature.
Overall we give the TEAC CD-W540E a 10 out of 10 score. Why not a 9 out of 10? Well because the TEAC has a very
complete software package and besides that offers a two year warranty on their drive. So therefore we can 'forgive' the
TEAC its little negative points.
We can definitely recommend this drive if you're looking for quality, speed and features. The retail price of the
TEAC CD-W540E is EURO169,- / $150,-.
