Looking burner w/ non-locked rip speed

[NiteLite]

Looking for a new burner w/o any rip-speed lock. I have a Plextor 708A and all I have to do is hold the eject button for 3 blinks and it opens rip speed to max. I dont want to have to use an unofficial firmware and it appears Pioneer, NEC, may need those to unlock (If my search reading was not in error.) Late night reading so it may have been...
In fact I would like the Plextor 712A but cant find a retail vs (for the $30.00 rebate) on-line and Newegg is out of stock. Also not sure about the 716A as I read about problems with that model(?)
Kind of hung up here so I would appreciate any suggestions as to where to find a 712A, Plextor or another unit compatible with my 708A and have full open rip speed out of the box or with a manufacture firmware release.
Pricegrabber listed a few places but I have only done business w/ Newegg and not sure about reliability w/ others.
Thanks
NiteLite

[Deekkeed]

Hello nitelite
Well I have heard people saying that pioneer drives have a locked ripping speed. But I recently purchased a retail version pioneer A08XLA from Bestbuy and installed the latest firmware version 1.18. I have been getting ripping speeds as high as 11X to 12X. I am not sure if that is considered fast. But compared to my old TDK 420n that only ripped at 2X to 4X max, it is.

Deek

[NiteLite]

Deekkeed....Thanks for the info!
The PIO 108 and NEC 3520 were a couple I'm looking at if I cant find a Plextor replacement. I'm not concerned with DL - just looking a faster rip speed with quality write.
My Plextor 708 reaches a max of about 11.5X near the end of a rip of a DVD-5, but slow on 9's w/ deep analysis and encoding.
Thanks again for the reply. I'll have to search some more . Maybe it was the NEC that was locked???
Regards,
NL

[Quantum]

The OEM Pioneer DVR-108 is locked. I flashed mine with the Piodata DVR-108BK firmware (another Pioneer line) and it now reads at 12x in addition to bitsetting DVD+R SL/DL to DVD-ROM. The Pioneer is a better reader than the NEC 3500 with riplock free firmware. Might want to see what others are reporting on the NEC3520 to see if they've improved it at all.

[NiteLite]

Quantum...Again, thanks for the info! It explained some of the posts I had read concerning locked or not. I also will check out the firmware you added as I've seen it mention a lot.
Newegg doesnt look as though they will have any more Plextor 712A stock so I found a place called the nerds...hope they are reliable as newegg has been home for awhile.
Still new to the DVD hobby (July) and really appreciate the help.
Regards,
NL