Hi everyone,

I seem to have a problem with dBPowerAmp's CD Ripper. The ripping speed is way too slow, it seems to be capped at 8x-12x in general.

First some background

I used to have a TSSTCorp SH-224BB drive but I threw it out recently because it wouldn't read any CD properly anymore. Ripping went fine with it, generally at 20x or higher, only dropping after long ripping sessions (presumably to prevent overheating).

I bought the TSSTCorp SH-224DB instead (almost same drive with a firmware upgrade), and re-installed DBPowerAmp since I also had done a clean install of Windows 8 x64. Side note - I don't really choose a drive consciously, I buy most of my hardware at a local store that doesn't have much choice in the optical drive department. According to the DAE Features database it's a good one though.


Drive specs + software version


This is what DB Poweramp tells me about my drive:

Manufacturer: TSSTcorp
CD Drive: CDDVDW SH-224DB
Firmware: SB01
Serial: 0514
Maximum Speed: 7056 KB/sec (x40)
Current Speed: 7056 KB/sec (x40)
Spin-down After: 2 minutes
Buffer Size: 768 KB
Accurate Stream: Yes
C2 Error Pointers: Yes
Reads ISRC: Yes
Reads UPC: Yes

And I have:
dBpoweramp 64-bit Registered Reference
Release 15.1


What I've tried


I've fiddled around with these options:
  • Ripping Speed (selecting anything but (Maximum))
  • Ripping in burst mode instead of ultra-secure
  • Changing spin-up time

None of which made a difference to speed. For the record, communication mode is SCSI Pass-Through (SPT).

Interestingly, the part under [technical], "Current Speed: 7056 KB/sec (x40)", was not at x40 before, it used to be much lower, and I could only choose x8 and x16 as ripping speed.
It changed since ripping a couple of CDs.

However, now that the "current speed" matches the "max speed" it still doesn't make any difference.
Stubbornly, it keeps ripping at x7-x11 speed and I've never seen it go past x12, even if I select x40 as the ripping speed myself.

My wild guess is maybe because it's a brand new drive it needs to "burn in" or something, but I would be surprised if that is even a possibility.

Any help is much appreciated!