detail information

Positive:

• Supports CD-R writing at up to 52x
• Supports CD-R/RW writing at up to 32x
• Can write certain CD-R media at higher than rated speed
• Supports Mt Rainier
• Very fast and reliable reader
• Very good CD-R write quality on most media
• Good quality software package included
• 2 Sheep burner (including SafeDisc 2.90)
• Very good DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) capabilities
• Low price tag

Negative:

• CD-RW write quality needs improving
• Some CD-R and CD-RW media burns slower than its rated speed
• The drive runs very warm

Conclusion:

Let us summarise the most important positive and negative points below:

The Main Positive Points:

The Lite-ON SOHR-5238S is a very fast and reliable reader; it was able to read all the discs it burned without any problems.

The Lite-On SOHR-5238S was also a very good writer on most CD-R media, in some cases managing excellent quality burns on good quality media.

The drive also excelled in our DAE (Digital Audio Extraction) tests.

The SOHR-5238S also qualified as a 'Sheep 2" burner and handled our SafeDisc 2.90 test with ease.

The drive also supports Mr. Rainier and good packet writing performance.

The supplied software should meet most people's needs, from beginner to the more experienced user.

The Main Negative Points:

The main negative point had to be the Lite-On SOHR-5238S ability to write CD-RW media with quality. In 4 of our 5 tests the burns were poor quality. We would like to see some improvements here.

Some media were not supported by the drive at the media's rated speed.

The SOHR-5238S also gets very warm when in use. This was noted even on a very well ventilated PC case.

In summing up:

The Lite-On SOHR-5238S is a very capable drive when it comes to CD-R media, the burn quality is very good indeed. The SOHR-5238S is also a very fast and reliable reader and can also read protected media well. Digital Audio Extraction quality is also a plus point with this drive and consistently impressed us with the DAE speed and quality.

The SOHR-5238S is let down by poor CD-RW write quality, and this is really the only bad point about the drive.

If you are in the market for a fast CD reader, with good CD-R write quality, and don't wish to spend a great deal of cash on a drive. Then this drive might be just the drive you have been looking for. If however you are looking for a drive that has a high write quality with CD-RW media, then this may not be the drive for you.

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we found the retail drive is listed at $24.99 (July 2005).

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

Bell Technology spol s.r.o. - Czech Republic for providing the media used in this review.

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe - The Netherlands for providing some of the media used in this review.

Medea International - United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review

E-Net Distribution - United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.

Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing some of the media used in this review.