TEAC CD-540E

TEAC CD-540E:

Error correcting:
To test the ability of the drive to correct errors, we executed the benchmark with a prepared CD. This CD has two scratches, which formed together a "V".

The results shoe, that the drive has no problems with our prepared CD. For this test the access times, especially the maximum time, are interesting. In the test they do not differ from those of a pure CD. A topresult!

Log in:

The Log in includes the time, wich lasts from inserting the CD into the drive to the prompt of the content in the explorer. For the prompt the first sector of the CD must be read. Drives take between 10 and 40 seconds for this process.
Our test drive needs for all CD-types, original CD, green and blue CD-R, 25.0 Seconds. So the CD-540E is settled in the middle field.

Equipment and Accessory:

We first have a look at the accessory. In the delivery complexity are audio cable, screws and interface cable. With these added components the 'normal' user should be able to install the drive. Only a Y-cable for the power supply is missing. But one of those cables chould be free in the normal case, if you have not too many hard disk and drives installed.
Additional to those a CD is added, on which you can find next to several programs (Virtual CD, TEAC CD-Player, Speed Utility, Instant CD-Wizard, Feurio Demo) and drivers for plausible operating systems some promotion elements of TEAC, as photos, press releases, specifications and handbooks other TEAC products. Those elements give the CD a touch of a TEAC-information-CD.
Also special drivers for Windows NT (and OS/2) are missing. But the added software is respectable and can be helpful for every user.
For a quick installation a guide is added as print and on CD. This is really only a quick installation guide, which helps an user, who has ground knowledge in the hardware area. It must be known how to jumper the drive and where the audio cable has to be put on the sound card. A user without those knowledge has difficults to install the drive correctly. A longer guide is not added neither as print nor on CD. Alas!
From the Equipment point the CD-540E has all needed connections; digital & analogous audio exit, headphone jack, volume control are present. The drive can be installed vertical too. For playing audio-CDs (via headphone) the two button control is missing. The drive has only one for the ejecting and starting of the CD. A Skip to the next track on hardware base is impossible.

Summary:

This drive of TEAC can compete with nominally faster concurrents concerning access time and transfer rate (if you foresee of green CD-Rs. Especially the access times of rewritable ruffians are phenomenal. The error correction of the drive is brilliant too. In the other test features as Log in, audio extraction and Accessory/Equipment the drive is in the middle field. If the installation guide goes a bit more to the rookie, the drive would be interesting for this user group (The price of 110,-- DM lies in this region too). Otherwise the drive is recommended for everyone, who does not want to extract thousands of audio-CDs and knows, how to install a CD-ROM.