My trusty old Sony Optiarc AD-7241 has been showing symptoms of aging, so I’m now looking for a replacement.
I know that NEC-based Pioneers were among the best DVD-burners ever made, and also excellent for burning “picky player compatible†audio-CDs. I was just wondering, how do currently available Pioneer DVD- and Blu-ray-models (DVR-220 and BDR-208) compare to those legendary “true†Pioneers in terms of DVD and especially CD writing quality? Or how they compare to each other?
Ever since Pioneer went with QSI design (since 118/218), using MediaTek chipsets, their drives have been just “ok.” You may be better off in getting the BDR-208 since the chipsets in their Blu-ray drives have been consistent in using Renesas.
You also try to find the Optiarc 7200S/7201S/7203S drive for DVD and CD burning since they’re pretty good.
Thank you for your reply. I guess finding used Optiarc 720xS would not be a problem, and I’ve seen posts in this forum that say it’s actually better burner than newer 7241S (which I currently have), so it would probably be a safe choice. I don’t know its CD/DVD write quality and media compatibility compares to Pioneer and other new blu-ray drives, but at least it would be a lot cheaper.
The Optiarc 720xS drives used similar NEC chipsets as the Pioneer x16 and x17 series, if that’s any indication. 
Thank you for the info.