Is it normal that CloneCD (version 4.2.0.2) a cd reads at a average speed of 705kBytes/s (4x) although i put the setting at max speed?
I 've read the cd with a plextor 16/10/40A.

It depends on where you are setting the speed from. If you are selcting a profile then the read speed is dictated by that profile. Its no good setting the speed to max when the profile you are using is set to 4x. To make it read at max right click on the given profile and click edit. Change the read speed to max and click ok.

Ok, that is what I thought, however, I was running some tests on copying a game cd last weekend and I found that Clone CD was both reading and writing at speeds higher than what I selected in the profiles (both read and write profiles). I set the profiles to read and write at 1x speed and they both happened at 3 - 4 x speeds. I then set the read speed to 1x and the read went down to 2-3 x speed and I can't remember if the speed is selectable in the writing mode (I seem to remember it wasn't) and I believe it wrote at the same speeds as before.

Regardless, when I set the speeds in the profile for what I wanted, CloneCD (Version 4.2.0.2) read and wrote at slightly higher speeds. That is really not a problem for me, since I have a new Memorex badged Lite-on 52x24x52 and I was using cheap CDRW's to test and quality Fuji CDR's for actual writes. However, I ran similar tests on the original CDRW drive that came with my HP Pavilion and Version 4.1.0.1 and changing the profile speeds (both read and write) caused CCD to write at those speeds.

Any thoughts?

The read speed dictated by the audio profile is max., so normally it must be read at 40x (16/10/40) but max. average speed is 4x. It takes about 12 minutes to read a cd. I find this very long.

Plextors have some limitations reading audio. The newer Plextors won't rip audio faster than 8x nor will they read faster than 8x when Sub channel data is enabled in Clone CD. I presume this applies to you with your older 16x Plextor as well.

That's not true. Newer Plextor writer can all read audio at maximum speed (or in case of the 48X Plextor, 40X audio reading). They're limited to 8X when SubChannel Data reading is enabled only and this applies to the PX-W4012A and PX-W4012S drives for example. The PX-W4824A drives can read SubChannel faster and almost at maximum speed.

Ok, most Plextors 40x and below cannot read subchannel data faster than 8x in Clone CD.