interesting, glad my 1st pressing was able to be ripped to MP3 without incident. I have the “error correction” tab always on, wonder if that helps.
Error correction never hurts to have turned on. Considering all the stories I’ve read, your very lucky to have not had any issues with the first pressing. I guess it’s a combination of various factors. The CDs, the optical drive, etc.
In my old iMac that had the optical drive in it, I cannot recall ever having an issue. Now with my LG external, it can be somewhat hit or miss when ripping with iTunes. So far this past week I’ve been ripping with XLD (about 20+ discs) and so far so good.
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I would get a Plextor 891SAF Plus, $35 at Amazon, and put it into an enclosure. OWC makes a nice enclosure for $65. OWC Mercury Pro Optical Drive External Enclosure
Thanks for the suggestion. Will definitely consider that as anther option.
A note about stability and vibration…
I would expect a decent brand full size optical drive (ie. PC tower form factor) in a good external case should have better stability and reliability than the smaller portable/laptop models. When I was ripping a batch of discs on a little laptop-drive-in-a-case model, I had to put it on a small block of foam to dampen the vibrations.
Even with a full size unit, listen and feel for vibrations. The louder and more vibration you notice, the greater chance of errors depending on the hardware and software, I would imagine.
Any thoughts or experiences on this point?
Also, the Apple SuperDrives and similar slot-loading, “toaster” units are cool to use and look at, but the load/unload mechanism often becomes unreliable or breaks much sooner than a typical tray loading drive.
As to the errors, that is why it’s good to use a program like XLD which can give you that information where iTunes and some others do not.
I only use the full size units for reading/recording although I have some of the smaller size ones for reading discs in older computers. They both do their job. Sometimes discs are louder simply because the disc is spinning faster and this is usually at the beginning of the disc and may not be a problem. Also, some discs could be a bit warped or have uneven art pressed into the top for the label and that can also cause vibration at high speeds.
Slot drives are commonly used in car audio and also can hold up well as I have one vehicle with one that is around twelve years old and still works fine. But discs can get stuck in those especially with labels on them so that is a concern especially in a car player if you’re trying to extract the disc.
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Yes, I agree, and that is why I miss not having an optical drive in my current iMac. Maybe once or twice at most did I ever have an issue with a CD rip in my old iMac - I guess the weight and stability of the computer gave the internal optical drive better stabilization.
Until recently, I had a piece of contact grip liner under my portable LG, but I removed it as it should not be necessary as my desk is a smooth flat surface and the LG player has those little rubber grip feet, so maybe that was causing part of the issue.
Since jk2gs has told me about XLD, I have ripped numerous CDs and all rips have been successful according to the logs that the program produces. I have not played every rip back, but the ones I have listened to are fine. I don’t have an answer as to why, but it’s working!
So for now, I’ve put purchasing another optical drive on hold, with the reason being is that I’m trying out Monterey on an external drive (I’m currently on Mojave) and I see I will have to purchase some new software for one or two apps and upgrade some existing software.
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XLD is still giving me error free rips according to the log sheets - once again many thanks! Looks like for now I can hold off on another optical drive and get myself up to speed with Monterey, which I see is going to cost me a bit with some app purchases and upgrades. 
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Just to add to the mix.
I initially used OWC drives, when apple discontinued MBPro optical drive laptops.
I think one of them was Blu-Ray compatible.
But Mac, per se, is not Blu-Ray compatible without third party apps.
My OWC external optical drives also had notable issues rendering poor CD rips.
I could never figure out why. (error correction always enabled)
I often felt that perhaps there was some incompatibiity with the power specs/configuration
… even with the dual USB power cabling supplied.
After another poor experience with a Samsung ext. optical drive I the opted for the Apple Super drive.
I have had the better experience with that model. I also have a number of them now for
use with various Region DVDs
And as to the “cheap” issue. I find most of these drives seem somewhat fragile but in my experience the Apple Superdrive is a rather solid device.
Not true as blu-ray burning is available in the Finder by right clicking on an appropriate data file or video file after a blank blu-ray disc has been put in recorder.
Now, there is no built-in app for playing blu-ray discs or authoring but burning functions are available as I use them with my LG recorder all the time.
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Thanks for your your input.
I was leaning a bit towards OWC, as I’ve purchased from them for many years, and I did contact them regarding their return policies on the 2 optical drive models I was considering, so I have something in writing to back me up if a return would be needed, but recently when I had to contact them for the first time ever for support on another matter, they were not the most helpful so that kind of put me off a bit.
The Apple Superdrive would still be a consideration if I do decide on another purchase. As I write this, I’ve just successfully completed another CD rip with XLD using my LG drive. If this success rate continues 
I’ll be quite happy with it.
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This has been my experience as well. I burn backups onto blu-ray discs via the Finder on a weekly basis.
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Regarding Mac blu-ray burning for video files, this tutorial shows how the process works. It also mentions using Windows if need be:
This is not to say that the process always works regarding tsMuxerGUI but most of the time, there are no issues. In any case, the burning function is part of MacOS.
got it,
I guess I was mainly referring to playback of commercial discs.
But I also recall, my experience anyways, with regard to playback, not creation, that even with blu-ray apps for Mac, on a compatible optical drive, that performance and playback features were not that great … so I stayed with DVD, and didn’t really explore