 | Review: TEAC CD-W552E (IDE) Reviewer: Dennis Provided by: TEAC Germany Firmware: version 1.05 |
As most of our readers will know, the current CD-RW recorder market is reaching its peak. CD-recorders have reached their maximum speeds and almost all major CD-RW drive manufacturers have started producing their fastest recorders. The Japanese TEAC company is no exception and has recently released their CD-W552E drive. As the model number suggests the drive supports 52x writing (and reading) speeds, while re-writing is done at a maximum speed of 24x.
When we
reviewed the TEAC CD-W540E drive, it was the fastest 40x recorder available at that time. In this review we will compare the TEAC CD-W552E drive to other 52x recorders and see if this drive is also a 'speed monster'. Besides that we will of course also take a look at how the drive performs in general and with more advanced tests. Read on to find out what we have to say about this latest TEAC recorder!
Test Machine:
For the tests we'll be using the following configuration:
Hardware:- Motherboard: GigaByte GA-7VAXP
- Processor: AMD AthlonXP 2100+
- RAM: 512MB (PC2700)
- GFX: ASUS V8200 (GeForce 3 Ti200)
- Hard Disks: DiamondMax 40GB (7200rpm)
The TEAC CD-W552E drive was hooked up as Master to the (onboard) secondary IDE-controller and identifies itself as "TEAC CD-W552E". DMA (Direct Memory Access) was enabled and autorun was disabled for every device.
Used Software:
The Windows XP Professional operating system is installed on our test machine. We'll be using the following software to perform the various tests:
- Ahead InCD v3.5.22.0.b
- Ahead Nero Burning Rom v5.5.10.15
- Ahead Nero CD Speed v1.02
- Ahead Nero InfoTool v1.03.2
- Elaborate Bytes CloneCD v4.2.0.2
- Exact Audio Copy v0.9 beta 4
First things first as we check out the package TEAC Germany send to us. In the retail box of the CD-W552E recorder we can find the following items:
- TEAC CD-W552E drive
- Quick installation guide
- Warranty procedure manual
- Audio/flat cables
- Mounting screws
- Ahead Nero 5.5 disc, containing;
- Nero Burning Rom
- Nero Express
- Nero VisionExpress
- InCD/Packet-Writing
- NeroMediaPlayer
- EasyWrite Reader
- TEAC For Your Information disc, containing;
- Manuals
- Drivers
- Firmwares
- Applications
- One blank 48x 700MB TEAC CD-R
(manufactured by *Mitsui Chemicals)
The TEAC CD-W552E drives comes with a two year warranty period and its retail package is complete. We did miss one important item though: TEAC did not include any US-RW (Ulta-Speed ReWriteable) discs. This thus means that you will need to find your own 24x re-writeable media, which is quite difficult to come by at this moment. The CD-Recordable disc that was delivered with the TEAC drive also didn't want to record at 52x and only at 48x in Nero Burning Rom.
Luckily the rest of the package was good. TEAC has included Ahead's Nero Burning Rom with their drive and has also included their own 'For Your Information' disc on which you can find more information on TEAC products, manuals, drivers and other handy applications (such as VirtualCD, CD-player, Feurio! demo and speed utilities).
The Drive:
On the front of the TEAC CD-W552E drive we can find the TEAC logo and a big '52x Writer' logo. Besides that we of course have our usual headphone jack, volume control, busy/write LEDs and an eject button. One thing that's strange about the drive is that it has a 'High-Speed ReWriteable' logo while this should be an 'Ultra-Speed Rewriteable' logo (since the drive supports 24x re-writing). Perhaps TEAC made a little mistake here..?
The back of the TEAC CD-W552E drive is the same as all CD-recorders. There we can find the usual IDE and power connectors, the Master/Slave/CableSelect jumpers and the SPDIF (analog/digital) audio output connectors.
Specifications:
In the Nero InfoTool screenshot above we can see that the TEAC drive supports 52x (7.8MB/s) recording and reading speeds. The drive uses a 2MB buffer and has firmware revision 1.05 installed. What the screenshot doesn't tell us is that the CD-W552E supports 24x re-writing and has an average access time of 100ms (according to the TEAC website). Let's take a closer look at some of the features that the drive supports:
Features:
Buffer Underrun Protection:
On the retail box of the TEAC recorder we can read that the drive supports 'Write Proof' technology to prevent buffer underruns. In the Nero Burning Rom screenshot we can read that the technology is detected as being BURN-Proof (Buffer UnderRuN-Proof). Buffer underrun techniques basically all work in the same way: when the buffer of the recorder falls beneath a certain level, it will stop recording as of a specific location on the CD. The recorder then continues attempting to receive data from the PC to refill the buffer. As soon as the buffer has been refilled, the recorder will start recording again.
Mount Rainier:
In the Nero Burning Rom screenshot we can also see that the TEAC CD-W552E drive support the Mount Rainier format. Mount Rainier enables native operating system support of data storage on CD-ReWriteable discs. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. Key features include:
- Defect management by the drive itself
- Logical write-addressing at 2k
- Background formatting
- Command set implementation
- Compatibility and standards-compliance
For more
information you can read our Mount Rainier article or you can visit www.mt-rainier.org.
Write Methods:
CD-Recordable Media:
In the screenshots you can see that the TEAC drive uses the CAV write method and has an enormously high write speed of more than 54x! According to the Nero CD Speed test, the TEAC CD-W552E drive has an average write speed of 41.24x and a top write speed of no less than 54.25x!
So far these are the highest speed we've ever seen on a CD-recorder (compare these speeds to the Lite-On LTR-52246S drive for instance, with 39.50x average and 51.95x maximum write speeds, in the same Nero CD Speed test). Let's continue with the graph of the TEAC's re-write performance:
CD-ReWriteable Media:
The TEAC CD-W552 drive supports ultra-speed re-writing and achieves a top re-write speed of 23.82x. The average re-write speed of the TEAC drive was 23.80x, higher than the Lite-On LTR-52246S drive (18.12x average) but slightly lower than the Plextor PX-W4824TA drive (23.91x average).
On the next page we'll take a look at how well the drive performs when reading various media...
In this part of our TEAC review we'll test how fast the drive can read various media, including audio CDs. On the retail box of the CD-W552E drive we can read that DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) can be done at 52x so let's see if this is indeed the case. Let's start with a pressed data disc:
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. As a comparison we've also read the same disc with a Lite-On LTR-52246S recorder. Below you can see both Nero CD Speed graphs:
TEAC CD-W552E reading pressed disc
Lite-On LTR-52246S reading pressed disc
From the produced graphs you can see that both drives show a similar performance. The Lite-On drive is slightly faster than the TEAC drive but both failed to reach 52x. Their seek times were also very close but the TEAC had a slightly lower, and thus better, CPU usage:
| Pressed Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Lite-On LTR-52246S | 37.94x | 22.97x | 50.06x | 88ms | 102ms | 152ms |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 37.53x | 22.09x | 49.54x | 88ms | 104ms | 160ms |
CD-Recordable Discs:
For the transfer rate tests with CD-Recordable Media we used a back-up (CD-R) of a PlexTools v1.05 disc. The used disc was a 'That's Write' CD-R certified up to 16x writing and manufactured by Gigastorage. The back-up disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD Speed:
TEAC CD-W552E reading CD-Recordable disc
Lite-On LTR-52246S reading CD-Recordable disc
From the graphs you can see that the TEAC was again a little slower than the Lite-On drive. Its seek times were a little higher than the Lite-On drive but its CPU usage was again lower:
| CD-R Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Lite-On LTR-52246S | 39.28x | 24.16x | 51.60x | 95ms | 98ms | 153ms |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 38.80x | 23.21x | 50.99x | 93ms | 105ms | 163ms |
CD-ReWriteable Discs:
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-ReWriteable disc. The used disc was a 'Plextor Ultra Speed CD-RW' disc manufactured by Mitsubishi. The CD-RW disc was of course also 74 minutes (333.000 sectors) long. Below you can see the produced graphs with Nero CD Speed again:
TEAC CD-W552E reading CD-ReWriteable disc
Lite-On LTR-52246S reading CD-ReWriteable disc
From the produced graps you can see that the TEAC CD-W552E drive is limited to about 32x when reading re-writeable media. The Lite-On recorder is also limited but to about 40x. The seek times of both drives were again very close and the TEAC drive again had a lower CPU usage:
| CD-RW Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Lite-On LTR-52246S | 31.94x | 19.38x | 42.14x | 88ms | 101ms | 154ms |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 25.12x | 14.79x | 33.16x | 92ms | 105ms | 154ms |
Audio Discs - Digital Audio Extraction:
To test the TEAC's digital audio extraction performance we again used Nero CD Speed to do a transfer rate test. The audio disc we used was of a slightly larger size than in our previous tests (77 minutes). In the graphs below you can see the performance of both the TEAC recorder and the Lite-On recorder:
TEAC CD-W552E reading audio disc
Lite-On LTR-52246S reading audio disc
From the graphs you can see that this time the TEAC drive was slightly faster than the Lite-On drive. The seek times of the TEAC were also a little better this time and the drive again also has a lower CPU usage. Both drives have an accurate audio stream and a quality score of 10 (which is the highest score):
| CD-RW Discs | Average Reading Speed | Start Reading Speed | End Reading Speed | Seek Times Random | Seek Times 1/3 | Seek Times Full |
| Lite-On LTR-52246S | 37.39x | 22.81x | 49.23x | 87ms | 101ms | 157ms |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 39.41x | 23.35x | 51.91x | 83ms | 100ms | 156ms |
As a final test we used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio disc to our hard disk. In the screenshots below you can see the TEAC CD-W552E's performance using both the burst ripping mode and the secure ripping mode. The TEAC CD-W552 supports Caching, Accurate Stream and C2 Error Info in EAC's secure ripping mode: |  |
TEAC CD-W552E ripping audio disc - Burst Mode
TEAC CD-W552E ripping audio disc - Secure Mode
The TEAC CD-W552E drive performs very well in both modes. It almost reaches 52x when ripping the audio disc in burst mode and its performance in secure mode is the fastest speed we've seen on a drive!
Audio Discs - Advanced DAE Quality Test:
To conclude our read tests we did an 'Advanced DAE Quality Test' with Nero CD Speed. You can see the produced results below:
The TEAC CD-W552E showed an excellent performance in the advanced DAE test. Its average read speed was very close to the Lite-On LTR-52246S recorder (33.42x) and the TEAC drive had no problems reading the CD-text and SubChannel Data on the test disc.
So far for the reading part. Now let's see how the TEAC drive performs when writing discs...
On the second page of this TEAC CD-W552E review we already showed you a screenshot of Nero CD Speed in which the TEAC drive achieved a maximum write speed of no less than 54.25x. On this page we'll see what this write speed means in terms of write time when recording 700MB of data.
Writing Data:
For our data writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 700MB using the Nero Burning Rom software. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process and verification completed successfully:
Notice that in the screenshot above the elapsed time includes both the recording process and the data verification process. The total write time for 700MB was 2 minutes and 34 seconds, about the same time the Lite-On LTR-52246S recorder needed to write the same amount of data. In the picture on the left you can see that the TEAC recorder had no problems going faster than 52x recording (53.8x!) so it was a bit strange that the write time was actually longer than the Lite-On's write time (±2m:32s).
The only other media that could be written at 52x were Hitachi Maxell discs, certified for 40x recording. The write time for these disc was 2m:32s. Unfortunately we didn't have any certified 52x media so we couldn't do any more tests. We did do another test at 48x recording and, as you can see in the screenshot below, this was very close to the 52x write time (2m:36s):
Write Quality:
Recording at 52x and even faster speeds requires quality media to produce a reliable result. To test the TEAC's write quality we wrote several discs at maximum speed. For each disc we then used Lite-On's C1/C2 error scan program called WSES (Write Strategy Evaluation System) to measure the amount of errors.
In the graphs below you can see an overview of errors occurring during the read process. Please note that every burned disc will always have C1 errors. These are errors that are corrected by the drive and they will not effect the disc in a bad way as long as their amount is limited. C2 errors are however very bad for a disc and are harder to read and correct. When there are too many C2 errors present on the disc it means you have bad burned disc and it can't be read in the test drive you're using as a reader. Although a low amount of C2 errors can still be recovered by the drive, a zero amount of C2 errors is always preferred!
CMC Magnetics - 52x certified - 52x write
The CMC Magnetics disc was written at full speed and as you can see from the graph above, the number of C1 errors gradually increases throughout the disc. Their amount pretty high but luckily there are no C2 errors on the disc. Overall a pretty good result considering that the CMC Magnetics discs are not always known to be of very high quality.
Mitsui/MAM-E - 48x certified - 48x write
The TEAC showed a very poor performance when writing our Mitsui/MAM-E discs. There are way too many C1 errors and there are also a lot of C2 errors on the disc. The created disc could still be read after it had been burned though. Let's check some other 48x quality Taiyo Yuden media:
Taiyo Yuden - 48x certified - 48x write
The Taiyo Yuden discs are known to be of very high quality and this definitely shows in the produced graph above. This time the TEAC CD-W552E drive produced an excellent result.
Hitachi Maxell - 40x certified - 52x write
As a final test we wrote some Maxell media which was certified for 40x recording. To our surprise the TEAC recorder had no problems writing them at 52x and created a perfect disc as you can see in the graph above. Another excellent result.
Now that we've finished our normal read and write tests, it's time to check the drive's re-write performance, including packet writing and Mount Rainier support...
The TEAC CD-W552E supports ultra-speed re-writing (24x) and on this page of our review we'll see what this speed means when writing a normal 650MB data compilation. We'll also check how well the drive performs with packet writing (using Ahead's InCD software) and the drive's Mount Rainier performance.
Re-Writing Data:
For our data re-writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 650MB using the Nero Burning Rom software. We again used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc we used was a Plextor US-RW disc manufactured by Mitsubishi. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully:
Our data compilation was written in 3 minutes and 39 seconds. As a comparison we wrote the same compilation with a Plextor PX-W4824TA drive and a Lite-On LTR-52246S drive. The Plextor was faster than the TEAC (3m:25s) while the Lite-On was a lot slower due to its CAV writing method (4m:51s).
Packet Writing:
For our packet writing tests we fired up Ahead's InCD and inserted an empty Plextor Ultra Speed CD-ReWriteable disc in the recorder. The InCD option to 'Format disc to CD-MRW' (Mt. Rainier) was disabled since we'll do the CD-MRW tests later on this page of our review. When formatting was complete we measured the time it took for the drive to write our test folder of data (containing 400MB (419.791.239 bytes)). In the table below we've summed it all up for you:
| Packet Writing | InCD Formatting 650MB | InCD Copying 400MB | Average Write Speed |
| Plextor PX-W4824TA | 7m:32s | 2m:23s | 19.11x |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 7m:32s | 2m:19s | 19.66x |
| Yamaha CRW-F1 | 6m:50s | 2m:19s | 19.66x |
From you table above you can see that we had a bit of a strange result. When formatting the US-RW disc the TEAC drive needed exactly the same time as the Plextor drive, but when writing our test data the TEAC needed exactly the same time as the Yamaha drive!
Mount Rainier:
When we reviewed the TEAC CD-W540E writer, it was one of the first drives that supported the Mount Rainier format. The TEAC CD-W552E is no exception and also supports it. Let's see how well the drive performs when using InCD. If you want to read more on the CD-MRW format please read our Mount Rainier article.
| Mount Rainier | InCD Formatting 650MB | Manual Eject While Format in Progress | Copying 400MB Data while Format in Progress |
| Plextor PX-W4824TA | 0m:32s | 0m:34s | 3m:09s |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 0m:40s | 0m:52s | 4m:15s |
| Yamaha CRW-F1 | 0m:40s | 0m:32s | 8m:21s |
| Mount Rainier (continued) | Copying 400MB Data to Formatted Disc | Reading 400MB Data While Format in Progress | Reading 400MB Data from Formatted Disc |
| Plextor PX-W4824TA | 3m:07s | 3m:26s | 2m:21s |
| TEAC CD-W552E | 4m:14s | 3m:21s | 3m:21s |
| Yamaha CRW-F1 | 3m:53s | 4m:46s | 1m:58s |
Although the TEAC CD-W552E recorder was not the fastest drive we've reviewed, it showed decent performance in our Mount Rainier tests. For the TEAC drive it didn't matter if the formatting process was still being done or if it already had been completed since copying and reading data almost took the exact same time in both cases.
Now that we've finished our normal tests, let's do some advanced testing...
For our final (advanced) tests we're going to test how the TEAC drive performs with data and audio copy-protections. Besides that we'll also check if the drive can overburn and if it can handle 8cm discs. Let's start with the data copy-protections:
Copy-Protected Data:
For our copy-protected data tests we used CloneCD to read and write several popular copy-protections. In the picture below you can see that the TEAC CD-W552E is full supported by CloneCD:
The TEAC CD-W552E supports the DAO-RAW96 recording mode which basically means that the drive can write uncorrected data and SubChannel Data. In the table below we've summed up all of our results and after the table we will clarify our results:
| Protected Data | Game Title | Protection (version) | Read Time | Back-up Works |
 | Desperados | LaserLock | 3m:42s | Yes |
 | The Sims: House Party | SafeDisc v2.10.030 | 3m:21s | Yes |
 | Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven (CD1) | SafeDisc v2.70.030 | 3m:55s | Yes |
 | Neverwinter Nights (CD3) | SecuRom v4.76.00.0051 | 1m:52s | Yes |
 | Final Fantasy VIII (CD1) | PlayStation LibCrypt | 1m:55s | Yes |
The TEAC CD-W552E showed a very good performance with our copy-protected data tests. Although the drive wasn't the fastest 'error skipper' we've seen, it was the fastest drive we've reviewed when it came to reading the LaserLock protection. When writing the various protections the TEAC drive showed an excellent result. It could write SubChannel Data reliably and didn't need weak sector amplification for the SafeDisc 2 protection!
Copy-Protected Audio:
For our protected audio disc tests we used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) and CloneCD. We simply inserted the audio discs in the TEAC recorder and waited if the drive could recognize the disc and if so, could extract the audio tracks. In the table below we've summed up our results:
| Protected Audio | Audio Title | Protection (version) | EAC | CloneCD |
| Shakira - Laundry Service | Key2Audio version 2 | Could not recognize disc | Failed to read sector 0 but read the disc | |
| Celine Dion - A New Day Has Come | Key2Audio version 3 | Could not recognize disc | Failed to read sector 0 but read the disc | |
| Bitte Ein Beat! - Beat 5 | Cactus Data Shield 200 | Read the disc without problems | Read the disc without problems | |
| Yorin FM - Hitzone 21 | Doc.loc | Could not recognize disc | Could not recognize disc | |
The TEAC CD-W552E recorder showed a poor performance when reading our protected audio disc. The only protection it could read was the Cactus Data Shield protection. Although the drive could read the Key2Audio discs with CloneCD, the tracks were heavily distorted and thus also a failure. The Doc.loc disc could not be recognized by the drive.
Overburning:
We used DataTrack 99min/900MB CD-R's for our tests that were certified up to 40x writing. We used Nero CD Speed to do an overburn test. We set the 'Test capacity' to 99 minutes, started the test and Nero CD Speed reported that the TEAC drive could overburn to 99 minutes without a problem:
Writing overburned discs was no problem so reading probably also won't be a problem. To test this we started a transfer rate test in Nero CD Speed, using a 99 minute disc. In the graph below you can see that the TEAC drive had no problems reading the disc (although there was a small slowdown at the end of the disc):
8cm Discs:
As a final test we tested if the TEAC CD-W552E drive could read and write 8cm discs. For our write test we used Nero Burning Rom and after that we used Nero CD Speed to do another transfer rate test. Both tests were completed without a problem:
Positive:
- Good software package
- Two year warranty
- Extremely high write speeds of almost 54x
- 'Write Proof' technology to prevent buffer underruns
- Digital Audio Extraction can be done at full speed
- Excellent performance with copy-protected data
- Low CPU (processor) usage
- Supports overburning up to 99 minutes
- Supports Mount Rainier format
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Supports reading and writing of 8cm discs
- Supports reading and writing of CD-Text information
- Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data
- Could back-up all SafeDisc 2 versions without weak sectors amplification
Negative:
- Only 2MB data buffer
- Package did not include any 24x US-RW media and no 52x CD-R media
- Reading of CD-ReWriteable media is limited to about 32x
- Write quality with certain media needs to be improved
- Performance with copy-protected audio discs needs to be improved
Conclusion:
The TEAC CD-W552E drive showed a good performance overall. When reading various media the drive performed very similar to the popular Lite-On LTR-52246S recorder, but with a lower CPU usage. Digital audio extraction was no problem for the drive and could be done at maximum speed. It was too bad that CD-RW media could only be read at a maximum of about 32x.
The TEAC package needs some work in our opinion. Although TEAC has included good software with their drive they definitely need to add Ultra-Speed ReWriteable media and CD-Recordable media that actually works at the drive's maximum speed (52x).
When it came to the drive's write performance we have nothing to complain since the TEAC has the highest write speeds we've ever seen on a drive (54x [8.1MB/s!] was no exception). It was too bad we didn't have any 52x certified media to do more tests at the drive's maximum speed. What did bother us was the drive's write quality. Although the drive performed very well with quality media such as Taiyo Yuden, it didn't do so well with other, lower quality, media.
The TEAC CD-W552E's re-write performance was good. It could easily keep up with other drives supporting ultra-speed re-writing. During our packet writing and Mount Rainier tests the TEAC drive again showed a good performance.
The last tests we did with the TEAC drive we're our advanced tests. The drive showed excellent performance when reading and writing data copy-protections so we were a little disappointed with the drive's audio copy-protection performance. Perhaps TEAC will be able to improve this via a future firmware upgrade. Last but not least, reading and writing of exotic media was no problem at all for the TEAC CD-W552E drive
The price of the TEAC CD-W552E drive is about $ 82.00 (checked March 28th 2003 on DealTime ). Overall we think that the TEAC CD-W552E is certainly not a bad buy for this price.
