It appears the latest firmware has attempted improvement with High-Speed Scanning(@12X & @16X).
Following are CD-DVD Speed v. 4.7.0.2 scans at 8X, 12X, and 16X speeds for comparison.
It looks like much improvement has been achieved with this firmware for fans of 16X PIE/PIF scanning.
Improvement has also been achieved with 12X scanning, but it appears an error correction reporting issue still remains to be resolved during the first 300-400 MBs of a burned disc when scanned at 12X speed.
More work needs to be done to improve 12X scanning results.