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As mentioned before during this review, the Yamaha CRW3200E uses the P-CAV method when writing discs. In the following write tests we'll see what this means in real terms. We already know that P-CAV is faster than Z-CLV but how much are we talking about? To answer these questions we set up a basic write process using the latest Nero Burning Rom version (v5.5.8.2). We used the DAO (Disc At Once) method for writing the disc. The disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc.

We first want to do a test with Yamaha's 'Optimum Write Speed Control' (see page 3: Features) disabled to see if it would write at 24x to a 16x certified disc. In the screenshot below you can see the result:

The disc was written without problems. To test the created disc we fired up Nero CD Speed, inserted the back-up disc in the Yamaha CRW3200E and started a normal 'Transfer Rate Test'. In the screenshot below you can see that the disc is read very badly and even has errors on it, causing the test to abort:

So let's see how the Yamaha CRW3200E writes when we leave the 'Optimum Write Speed Control' enabled. In the screenshot below you can see that the Yamaha CRW3200E reduces the write speed to 16x before starting the actual writing:

Now let's check the disc again with Nero CD Speed to see if the disc is of a better quality this time:

That's better! Now the disc can be read just fine without any errors at full speed. Some good advice if you decide to buy this writer or if you already have it: leave 'Optimum Write Speed Control' enabled!

An interesting point to note here is that although the Yamaha CRW3200E failed to write at 24x with 'Optimum Write Speed Control' disabled, we could write the same discs with the TEAC CD-W540E at 32x without any problems...

Comparing:

Next we did some more tests comparing the Yamaha CRW3200E to some of our previous reviews. Please note that we left 'Optimum Write Speed Control' enabled for the Yamaha drive. Please also note that some reviews were done on different machines using different CD-Recordables so the achieved writing times can be a little off. You can see an overview of the achieved results in the table below:

What can we conclude from the figures above? Well simply that the Yamaha CRW3200E is the fastest 24x writer when we compare it to other 24x recorders like the Plextor PX-W2410A and the Lite-On LTR-24102B. However, the TEAC CD-W540E beats the Yamaha (and every other drive) almost every time due to its very aggressive Z-CLV write method (see page 3 of the TEAC review for a screenshot).

Writing Audio:

The next and final step was to check how fast the Yamaha CRW3200E could write audio and to test its 'Audio Master Quality Recording' feature. Does it really sound better than 'normal' audio recording? Let's find out.

We created a WAVE image and CUE-sheet of an audio disc with Exact Audio Copy and then loaded the CUE-sheet into Nero. The audio disc used was about 59 minutes long. Please note that because 'Audio Master Quality Recording' takes up more space on a disc than normal writing you cannot fit 74 minutes on an 74 minute CD-Recordable (and the same also goes for 80 minute discs of course). The memory capacity of a 650MB or 700MB CD-R is respectively 63 or 68 minutes.

When starting a new write process you can choose the 'Audio Master Quality Recording' mode from the available write methods. Please note that you cannot choose the write speed since 'Audio Master Quality Recording' is limited to 4x writing:

It took the Yamaha CRW3200E 18 minutes and 34 seconds to write the disc. As you can see in the screenshot below the buffer underrun technique of the Yamaha (SafeBurn) was not enabled:

Then we created another disc using the 'normal' DAO write method and we listened to both discs. Unfortunately we couldn't tell the difference. Maybe if you have bat ears you'll be able to hear it but we simply couldn't.

Conclusion:

So what can we conclude from all of the achieved results? Well first of all the Yamaha CRW3200E is the fastest 24x recorder around. It's faster than most other recorders using the Z-CLV writing method. The TEAC CD-W540E is the only writer that's faster almost every time. Not very strange when you know that the TEAC uses a very aggressive strategy for writing discs (it starts writing at 20x while most drives start writing at 16x).

When writing audio the Yamaha CRW3200E offers the mentioned 'Audio Master Quality Recording' mode but unfortunately we couldn't tell the difference. What does this mean? Well maybe our ears aren't that good Or maybe it's just that the CD-players we tested aren't very picky. However if you have a sensitive CD-player like a car stereo which has problems playing CD-Recordables, 'Audio Master Quality Recording' might just be what you were looking for.