rbrewer@reed.UUCP (Robert S. Brewer) (12/28/89)
I am looking to buy a CD player this holiday season. Obviously, I want one
that will work with the Mac. I need the following features:
1) Must play audio CDs
2) Must be able to control audio CD functions from the Mac
3) Must be able to control audio CD functions without a Mac
4) Must support all the Apple driver conventions (so I can read High Sierra
CDs, etc)
So basically I want something like the Apple CD ROM player with audio CD
buttons on the outside. It would also be nice if it was as fast or faster than
the Apple CD ROM player. If anyone has any suggestions, please either respond
here or send me email as you see fit.
P.S. Once I choose what CD player to buy, I will need to decide what mail
order place to buy from. Any suggestions here would also be appreciated.
--
Robert S. Brewer
brewer@wri.com (uunet!wri!brewer) or rbrewer@reed.UUCP (tektronix!reed!rbrewer)
This is your brain. This is your brain on spam. This is your brain on spam,
with a side order of eggs, sunny side up. Any questions?brianw@microsoft.UUCP (Brian WILLOUGHBY) (12/31/89)
In article <13802@reed.UUCP> rbrewer@reed.UUCP (Robert S. Brewer) writes: > >So basically I want something like the Apple CD ROM player with audio CD >buttons on the outside. It would also be nice if it was as fast or faster than >the Apple CD ROM player. If anyone has any suggestions, please either respond >here or send me email as you see fit. > >Robert S. Brewer Microsoft seems to swear by a CD ROM drive made by Amdek. As employees, we even get a discount if we purchase through MS, so I checked out the specs. I don't recommend the Amdex because the audio outputs are rated at over 1% distortion. It is a waste of hardware to have digital CD quality audio and budget rate output circuitry. I imagine that the reason for the ridiculous levels of distortion is that Amdek didn't want to make a large impact on the total price of the drive, so they used cheap parts and a poor design. I suspect that many other CD ROM drive manufacturers have taken the same shortcut. If the audio circuits have such poor specs, I would prefer audio outputs to be a cost option, so I could get the quality D/A conversion I'm looking for in a CD player. If I were you, I would check the specifications of the analog outputs on any CD ROM drive that is to be used for audio. If anyone knows of a CD ROM drive with audiophile quality analog outputs, send me some email! If you want a faster drive than Apple's, you _might_ have to move to a faster media than CD ROM. The CD format was optimized for audio use, i.e. quick sequential access and a very large amount of data. The tiny tracks are squeezed close together, and they are arranged in a single spiral track. This is adequate for sound data, but random access is not simple because a CD ROM is unlike a standard disk where tracks are concentric and precisely located at static locations. Of course, Apple's drive may leave some room for improvement - I haven't compared any CD ROM drives side-by-side. Brian Willoughby UUCP: ...!{tikal, sun, uunet, elwood}!microsoft!brianw InterNet: microsoft!brianw@uunet.UU.NET or: microsoft!brianw@Sun.COM Bitnet brianw@microsoft.UUCP