Pioneer A09 vs 109

[blackmagic]

Hi just wanting to ask a couple of questions:

What is the burn quality difference between an A09 and a 109?

Do the drives have the same hardware. ie is a 109 flashed to an A09 as good as a real A09?

Thank You.

[Richard_G]

They are the same drive, one is the retail the other the OEM version.

[e404pnf]

I could be wrong but...
...they are essentially the same drive the A09 being retail and 109 being OEM as Richard_G said but the A09 also has a "Quite Drive Utility". I'm not sure how much quieter this makes the drive, I have a DVR-108 (rather than the A08) which is very quiet anyway.
And yes you probably could get a cracked f/ware upgrade to covert to the A09 - are you that bothered though?

- e404pnf

[lordsmurf]

My 109 is super super super quiet. I have no "quiet drive" utility running at all.

[chas0039]

The A09 uses a slightly different firmware that will allow the use of the Pioneer Quietdrive utility. The other benefit of this utility is that it can be set for very fast ripping as well as very quiet running. When enabled it will get closer to 12X rips. It is very easy to crossflash the 109 to A09. See the threads at CDFreaks.com under the Pioneer section.

The firmware and utilities are here: http://www.dvd-recordable.org/wwwimgs/media/flash/html/Firmware/index.php?path=PIONEER%2FDVR-109/

[waheed]

They are essentially the same drive. A09 being a retail and may come with software and well as being boxed. 109 being an OEM and comes with drive only.

My drive has no quiet utility and is super quiet too. I dont think theres much of a firmware differnece either as both drives are physically the same.

[HARRYSPADGE]

Find more info here,

http://pioneer109.com/

[Poppa_Meth]

There are a few minor physical differences. The faceplate is made differently and the top of the A09 has a hexagonal grid pattern to the metal that is suppose to reduce noise as well. Not much difference other than that.

[blackmagic]

Thanx for the replies everyone. As my computer has about 5 fans in it anyway how quiet the drive is isn't particularly important to me so i think i'll just stick with the 109. Also does anyone know when the 110 is meant to be coming out. I've seen some rumored specs but thats all.

Thank you

[Poppa_Meth]

cdfreaks has a few topics on the 110. Personally I'd say wait for the 110. The 109 still has problems buring 16x pure CAV media without locking up from time to time. Pioneer has done nothing about it in the past several firmware updates so I'm starting to believe it isn't something that will ever be fixed.