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CD Recording FAQ
2. The CD Recorder
2.14. Using a recorder as a reader
Most recorders are also very fast as readers, with speeds often camparable to those of high speed cd readers.
Sometimes, a cd recorder may also be a high quality reader. For example, a SCSI recorder may also be a high speed SCSI reader, supporting synchronous data transfer, C2 error report and high quality digital audio extraction capabilities.
On the other hand, people are often afraid that using an often expensive recorder as a reader may be harmful for its mechanism and lessen its life.
In a cdr drive, the sensitive mechanism that carries the laser head may have much more inertia than that of a normal cd reader, which puts a stress on the drive when performing rapid movements due to non-sequential searches and reading. Sequential reading, for example making an image of an audio cd, is much less harmful.
A more critical factor is dust and dirt. When inserting a dirty cd into a drive, some of its dust and dirt may remain into the drive, which is definitely not a good thing for sensitive cdr mechanisms.
On the other hand, life expectancy for cdr drives may be too dismal (depending on the quality of the drive) to even think that using it as a reader will really have a great impact.
So, all these factors have to be considered. As manufacturers constantly
reach new levels of quality, using a recorder as a reader has become safer
than it used to be, but still depends on how much you value your cdr drive.