I’ve had a wytron dvd-688 for some time now with a 1-7 set up. All drives are pioneer 111d. I was wondering to fill up those last 3 spots with lets say a 112d. It would be hard to find 3 111d drives that are in good shape.
I called and asked two of the places that sell the cards and they said it was ok. I figure I would ask here to make sure.
The general consensus is that having the same drives with same firmwares will burn much more smoothly and quickly. Having 111D (16x) and 112D (18x) drives mixed together will not guarantee both because of different drive generations and writing strategies. In the end, it will burn, but likely slower than before.
I am fine with it burning slowly. Im more concerned with quality issues. I would love to buy some 111D drives but because no one really sells them and there hard to find on ebay it makes it a problem.
Quality can certainly suffer if one or more drives are doing buffer under-runs all through the burn. Which is exactly what will occur if they are not all identical.
If you really need Pioneer 111D, PM me