I suspect the answer to my quesiton is 'yes', but I wanted to check with the experts here.

Basically, my current drive, the 24/10/40A, is having trouble reading some discs at anything other than around 4X, rather than closer to 40X. This was a real problem, recently, when I had to reinstall WinXP from the CD and it couldn't read the disc fast enough (I had to take out my Plextor and attach another drive).

I also have far too many CD-Rs, so would like to start putting things on DVD instead, to free up some shelf space.

So, my existing drive is on the way out, plus I need to buy a DVD burner. One thing that is of importance to me is how well my replacement drive can do accurate DAE. I'm a big fan of backing-up my music collection, and found that my 24/10/40A was very good at this. I understand that the Plextor Premium does an even better job, so my question is this: Is the 712A as good as the Premium at DAE?

If so, I think I'll get the 712A. I can get one from Dabs for £125 delivered (http://www.dabs.com/uk/ProductView?quicklinx=36HK). Does this seem like a good price? Is this the drive to buy?

I must point out that I have read a number of reviews on this drive, but I just wanted to double-check with you guys i.e. I have done some research, but want to be on the safe side.

Cheers.

The PX-712A is a great drive. The only falw that I found is that here it tends to slow down the reading of audio CDs. The drive can read audio at 40x though but it often uses a slower speed in my case. Together with PlexTools all the new Plextor drives do a great job at DAE.

Okay, so it may read audio CDs slowly, but it still does it very accurately? That correct?

As far as I can tell it does (I use PlexTools for DAE) but I'm no audio expert. I usually just rip at the highest possible speed and set PlexTools to report the errors and slow down when it encounters an error. This works fine for me but some audio experts may disagree with me on this one (and say a lower read speed will give better results or something like that).

Cheers, G@M3FR3@K. I've been very happy using my 24/10/40A with Plextools for DAE, and it sounds like I'll be equally as happy using the 712A and Plextools for DAE.

I do have a couple of n00b questions regarding media for the 712A. Would I be better off starting a new thread?

Whatever you want, you can start a new thread of just reply to this one. I try to read everything that is posted here