detail information

Reading performance:

For these tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD's, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• 16x/8x on DVD-ROM SL/DL
• 12x on DVD±R
• 8x on DVD±RW
• 8x on DVD+R9 DL
• 48x on CD-R
• 48x on CD-RW

 Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing Creative Blaster Audigy install CD which is close to 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

The AOpen DUW1608/ARR had no problems reaching 49.42x (official is 48x), let us see how this compares to other drives and look below:

The fastest DVD-Writer we've had so far for reading pressed CD-ROM. The seek times could have been better though. The other drives listed above (except LaCie, Philips DVDR1640P, Samsung TS-H552B, Philips ED16DVDR and AOpen DUW1608/ARR) we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing PlexTools v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD. The disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation. 

The AOpen DUW1608/ARR came out almost equal with the Samsung drive on CD-R, but the seek times could have been better. The other drives listed above (except LaCie, Philips DVDR1640P, Samsung TS-H552B, Philips ED16DVDR and AOpen DUW1608/ARR) we used a disc containing PlexTools v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long.

CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed+ (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

As we can see above, the AOpen drive had no problems reading this CD-RW disc at full speed; let us compare it to other drives below.

It is the fastest drive - reading CD-RW's, and the seek times are good/average. The other drives listed above (except LaCie, Philips DVDR1640P, Samsung TS-H552B, Philips ED16DVDR and AOpen DUW1608/ARR); we used a disc containing PlexTools v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long.

Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the AOpen DUW1608/ARR, we again used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it's about 78 minutes long (77:43:45).

The drive reached 49.72x reading the audio disc back, let us compare the result with other drives:

The drive performed excellently - the fastest one so far, but the seek times could have been better. The other drives listed above (except LaCie, Philips DVDR1640P, Samsung TS-H522B, Philips ED16DVDR and AOpen DUW1608/ARR) we used an audio disc that it's about 78 minutes long (77:56:57).

Below is the results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive showed a rather slow performance in both burst and secure mode.

Advanced audio - DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed.

The extracting quality is excellent and it should support everything, except reading CD text.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

DVD - DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and dual layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it's useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you're going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD-Video Single Layer

 
DVD-Video Double Layer

Excellent, second best on DVD-Video SL and the fastest drive on DVD-Video DL.

DVD - DVD+R(W):

For this test we used a Plextor (Taiyo Yuden) 8X DVD+R and a Verbatim 4X DVD+RW with about 4,4Gb of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

The reading speed was locked to 8x for DVD+RW, which is pretty normal for most new drives.

The AOpen DUW1608/ARR is the fastest drive reading DVD+R, but among the slowest drives reading DVD+RW.

DVD - DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Maxell (Taiyo Yuden) 4X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 4X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4,4Gb of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

 There are minor differences compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

The AOpen DUW1608/ARR is the fastest drive reading DVD-R, but among the slowest drives reading DVD+RW.

Overall thoughts:

The AOpen DUW1608/ARR's reading performance is overall (very) good.

But now it's time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW discs…