Home > Consumer Reviews > Plextor PLEXWRITER 52/32/52A INT-ATAPI CDRW BLK ( PX-PREMIUM/SW-BL )

This drive is amazingly accurate. I selected it to rip a thousand CDs at full resolution based on the numerous positive reviews for Plextor drives on sites devoted to exact audio copying. What I learned along the way in upgrading from my previous drive (Sony OEM of Lite-On) is that audio CDs encode bits differently than CD-ROMs, and that not all CD players are created equally in terms of their ability to read the exact bits from audio CDs.

Using a freeware (well, technically postcardware, the author would appreciate a postcard) program called Exact Audio Copy, or EAC, it is possible to assess how accurately an audio track is being read from CD. The audio CD standard allows for a fair degree of error-correction in the CDs, as well as fairly substantial error-correction via interpolation; CD players vary in their accuracy at reading and in their error-correction software. EAC is particularly good in taking multiple passes over the CD and verifying segments in which the reads disagree. EAC also controls disk read speed and looks up CD titles in a free CD database to structure the way in which tracks are stored to disk.

The bottom line is that this Plextor provides 100.0 percent accurate copies (according to EAC) on 9 out of 10 tracks, with the remaining track usually scoring a 99.9 or 99.8. My previous CD-RW was scoring 97.0 comparitively. I should note that this is at roughly an 8-10X speed multiplier, not at the 52X at which this drive is rated for super-fast CD-ROM reading and writing.

This is the drive you want to make exact audio copies. It's also surprisingly quiet and smooth, with an inconspicuous black on black bezel.

The features of this drive makes other CDRWs look like child's play. I purchased this drive with the sole intention of making quality backups of my music CDs.

But, I've yet to get this drive to work right.

Techie-speak warning...

I first installed this drive in "slave" mode--as the second drive of the IDE controller--and it worked in mode PIO-4; very slow. So I purchased an ATA133 IDE controller (just for the burner) to have it work in the recommended DMA mode. That didn't help. It would not burn faster than 24x.

I tried several brands and manufacturers of CDRs; both silver and blue azo dye. My other OEM CDRW/DVD drive (Samsung SM-352B) works like a champ with only a 2MB buffer, yet this one at twice the price has been a headache. So, I'm reinstalling WinXP before I send this in for repair...

Update Sep 23, 2003:
Reinstalled WinXP and the problem remained. After exchanging several e-mails with Plextor Support, and several jumper settings later they agreed to replace the drive. Received the replacement--a new unit actually--and installed it. Turned on the machine and there it was in DMA-mode. Uneventful. Plug-and-play. The way it should have been out-of-the-box. It appears I had a lemon.

Although I am taking a star for the bad experience, I am quite satisfied to have found support to be technically knowledgeable of the product, and hassle-free in getting the problem resolved quickly.

The new burner has also turned out excellent.

After receiving my Plextor Premium and burning About 25 discs within three days, I have yet to make one coaster. Awesome speed and quality.

Plextor Premium is unlike other CD-RW brands like Lite-On, LG, AOpen. Plextor Premium is built for quality, not speed. This drive is extremely quiet and everything runs so smooth. Yes, price is little bit high but it's worth it. Everything about this drive is quality and true high-end class CD-RW, not just speed and noisey drive.

I agree with Bob Carpenter, i have been using Plextor burners all my life, my first plextor was a 12x scsi, second was a IDE 40x, now i have the 52x. The quality is second to non, plus i never had a problem burning or ripping at max speed.

Plextor drives r the best for making perfect copies. I tried liteon retail and oem. plus samsung burners but they were no good. I used these three to copy the Diablo II play disc and the Command & Conquer 2 cds, a total of 2 tries on each drive, even though they finish burn, when using the cds they dont start the game. But when i use the plextor + the clonecd software i got no problems and playable copied games, for this reason i never had to hack any of the games.