Must heartily agree with Dr. Pino. I have a Plextor 716a, and have not had a single problem with it (about 40-50 burns now). I also have a Pioneer DVR-108 that always comes out far better on TA Quality tests than my Plextor burns. However, I cannot ‘speedread’ with it (it averages 3.5x), whereas I can with my Plextor (but I only speedread at a max of 8x [as I have not tested if I’ll get more errors on PIE/PIF scans reading it at 12x–although I’ve seen no additional errors reading at 8x max], so it averages 5.5-5.7x)
We can get lost in these discussions with which is better. It doesn’t seem to me from the tests I’ve seen at www.dvd-recordable.org on Pioneer DVR-108, 109, or NEC 3500 that someone could not go wrong with those drives. Although I’ve seen a lot of weird things on testing others have reported with Lite-Ons, they work great for some; many love BenQs and LG4163Bs, although I’ve read some only use BenQ (1620) for quality testing and how some BenQs will produce “wildly different burns” depending on the media used. The only consensus seems to be that LiteOn, Memorex, TEAC and other “low-end” burners could cause more headaches than great ‘burner stories.’ Bottom line: it seems the Pioneer DVR108/109, NEC 3500/3520A, LG4163 get largely positive reviews, with Plextor 712/716 also getting them (where those users have all good experiences with them). The only certainty seems to be that no one’s ‘reputation’ has a ‘lock’ on quality and that the only way to perhaps reduce bad experiences with purchases is to purchase from a retailer with a good reputation to start with (e.g., newegg.com). Otherwise, it’s hard to say what one might get these days when one buys, as in general it seems you can only trust some retailers and products as ‘far as you can throw them.’ 
and this, while the drive is still less than a year old!!! 
Although quite tiresome, and with the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is my sacred duty to keep the force in ballance