Recommendations for External DVD/CD drive/burner.

I use, and prefer, Pioneer optical drives. Currently I am using a BDR-XD07S (the current version of it is the BDR-XD08S.) It works flawlessly with my Macs. BTW, if you intend to burn discs, I strongly encourage you to get the associated power adapter for whatever drive you purchase - don't rely on bus power when you are burning discs.

The OWC Mercury Pro optical drive also has an excellent reputation, but it's quite a bit more costly.

+1 on having an external power supply, even if it costs extra. Optical drives need a lot of energy to both run the logic board and a drive motor. I've seen too many posts here of bus-powered optical drive failing due to a lack of power.

"Bus-powered" means the drive has to scab all its energy from one of the computer USB ports. USB ports have limits on the amount of power they can provide.

An optional external power supply makes a drive "self-powered." Good.

"Recommendations for External DVD/CD drive/burner.: I have a new MacBook Air. Running macOS Tahoe. We need suggestions on what external dvd/cd reader/burner to buy so that we can play our CDs and DVDs and perhaps doing a bit of burning."

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Blu-Ray Burner:

What I External All-in-One Optical Writer Works like a charm on my M1 Macs and Intel Macs. The software is quick and easy to use. It does more than what you want (burn DVDs and CDs), but it will allow you to read/write Blu-Ray disks (which are high in capacity). Image.