#DAK's New $199 CD Drive
30 messages in this thread
Information about DAK's new $199 caddyless front-loading CD-ROM drive (and
optional bundles) is now in the database as DAK199.TXT in the Marketplace
section.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan,
I just ordered the BSR 380 millisecond drive from Dak. I was wondering
whether this new drive you are talking about is better than the one I just
ordered. I'm very pleased with Dak, and pass it on to the company that I
think their bundles are outstanding. I ordered 2 of them. Thanks a lot.
Kevin
Kevin,
The caddy drive has faster access but the caddyless uses a different design
that provides similar throughput. Either drive does a great job with
Multimedia Beethoven, MPC Battle Chess and Composer Quest, and probably any
other MPC application that doesn't put huge audio/video demands on the
system.
Bryan
Bryan,
I just ordered the caddy drive from Dak – $299. Now, I am wondering
how this drive compares to the new NEC 73M or 83M. Thanks.
Kevin
Kevin,
It is slightly slower and a few hundred dollars less than the NEC drives
you mentioned.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan,
re: "slightly slower"
Hey, don't get me wrong, I like the $199 CD offer, but "slightly slower"?
Gads, it's more than twice as slow than most caddy style drives…800msec!
At that speed, don't you have problems with sound files/applications?
Cheers, Al
Al,
Well, I don't have any problems with Multimedia Beethoven so I guess it
all depends on the application. As I mentioned, if you want full-motion
video or plan to use applications that have high audio/video i/o demands,
you should be looking at an $800-900 drive.
On the other hand, if you just want to use your CD drive for professional
or reference applications, you'll notice very little difference. Let's
face it, anything from 300ms-800ms is slow compared to an 18ms hard drive.
But, a hard drive is a random read/write device. CD-ROM is basically
sequential read only — so its structure, index and search can be uniquely
optimized because the data never changes.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan,
Sorry to see that your Torrance store is closing. It was a 40 minute
drive to get there, but it's still a LOT closer than Canoga Park (we're in
Orange County). Are there any plans to open another 'outlet' down this
way?
BTW, are any of the CD drives you sell SCSI? I have mostly Amigas and
would like to hook a drive up.
Vic,
No plans to open any other outlets. We'v always wanted to put all effort
into the catalog and solo mailings.
The regular BSR drives aren't SCSI, but I think we may have a few NEC
drives left in stock. Give the store a call when you get a chance.
Bryan/DAK
The new caddless drive is back ordered through the first week of May.
Bryan: Is it a Mitsumi?
I ordered one to test our CD-ROMs on. We've had some reports of problems
with certain drives such as your BSR external & certain Chinon drives. If
they run on the $199 drive, they should run on anything!
Kevin
Kevin,
We actually have the hardware in stock, we're just waiting to get the disks
and manuals from our duplication house.
Thanks for the order. Yes, it is from Mitsumi.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan: Thanks for the reply. KJM
Bryan,
Is the new drive internal or externa;? What disks are bundled with it?
Does one need an audio card in order to hear the audio on some of these new
MPC-compliant titles? I don't/cannot use Windows, will that be a problem?
I am not interested in the video/graphics, just the audio and text? Thanks
for any comments.
Judy
Judy,
The $199 BSR caddyless is an external drive. The price doesn't include
any applications but when you buy a drive you are entitled to purchase any
of four existing CD bundles (and all new bundles we develop — we have
about 25 new titles in the works).
The best thing for you to do is call 1-800-DAK-0800 and request a catalog.
The CD ads cover several pages. Thanks for your interest.
You don't need Windows or any additional sound card for any of the CDs we
sell. If you buy any MPC applications, however, you will probably need
Windows and sound card (but it depends on the application).
Bryan/DAK
I have your CD rom and all CD bundles from your catalog. I also have
Windows 3.1, and a pair of external speakers (which I currently use to play
music with the BSR CD Rom player). I'm thinking of getting some multimedia
disks. Would I be able to use them with my current equipment if I added a
sound board. If so, are there any sound boards which work better than
others with your BSR CD Rom player? Any hope that DAK will be offering some
type of multimedia upgrade in the future?
Ron,
I have Soundblaster Pros running with both our drives. Both play
Multimedia Beethoven great with Windows 3.1.
We are looking at a couple of sounds cards for the catalog, though. We may
be selling one in the near future. I'll keep everyone posted.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan: Just received my $199 drive & it works pretty good! It's serving
the purpose as some marginal discs that ran with problems on my Toshiba
drive fail on the BSR caddyless.
The utilities & install are nice too!
Kevin
<<<< some marginal discs that ran with problems on my Toshiba drive fail on
the BSR caddyless.>>>>
I wanted to get clarification on this. Do you mean that you have CDs that
neither drive can read?
Bryan/DAK
P.S. Glad to hear you're enjoying the utilities!
Bryan: The marginal discs are produced for us. There was a manufacturing
glitch on a recent release that has since been corrected via replacement
discs.
Kevin
Anything I should know before trying to hook up a Soundblaster Pro with
hour drive? From the ads, I get the impression that Soundblaster Pro comes
with a CD-ROM Drive controller. Would I still use the card packed with your
drive, or does it hook into Soundblaster's card? Where do the speakers get
hooked to–the CD ROM or the Soundblaster Pro card? If the speakers are
hooked to Soundblaster Pro, can they still be used to play audio CD's?
Ron,
I have a SoundBlaster Pro installed in the same computer as the $199
caddyless drive. The drive and SoundBlaster are not connected to each
other. You have audio output from the drive AND from the sound card. If
you get an optional cable you can loop the CD audio back into the sound
card and use the mixing capabilities to the blend both into a single
output. I haven't tried this but another guy at DAK showed his setup — I
just have to go out and buy the cable.
Bryan/DAK
Hi, I live in the UK, how can I get one of your drives? If they are
internal I should not have any problem fitting, but if its an external one,
we have 240V mains here, does your drive support that?
Gary
Gary,
I'm sorry, but we don't ship out of the U.S.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan,
Why the restriction?
Adrian
Adrian,
Don't know.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan,
I was just curious. Academic for me as I've already got a drive, which I
bought mail-order from the USA. Still looking for other sources of CD ROM
discs though.
Adrian
Bryan:
Ok, so you put put more stuff for the PC. How about the Mac?
Hans Mahr
Hans,
No Mac products are planned for the immediate future. Right now we have
our hands full keeping up with the PC world.
Bryan/DAK
Bryan,
Do you have a Macintosh unit? I have a Mac Classic that I would like to
use with a CD. I've seen your adds for a DOS unit and I'm impressed. I
have one of the few Atari CD ROM's that were produced and now I want to add
one to my son's Mac. Thanks Hal Dougherty
Hal,
No, sorry. No Mac hardware. Maybe in the future.
Bryan/DAK