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CD-ROM Drives that Can Be Used as Standalone Players?
An anonymous reader asks: "I am using an older, standalone CD-ROM drive as my audio CD player in my sound system. It is a NEC 4X SCSI in a small case with power supply. The case outputs very clean analog audio, great headphone output and a SPDIF coax link which plugs directly into my receiver. It works great standalone, it has a complete front panel, ie backlit LCD display, stop, play, pause, next and previous track buttons. But it doesn't read CD-RW, it uses a caddy and it heats up the CDs quite a bit. I know that all recent CD-ROM drives have only the eject button, not all of them output SPDIF (and with DRM who knows what the future holds) and who knows if they will work with only the power connected? Which CD-ROM drives, old or new, support being used standalone, have a decent set of front panel controls (at least a play and a skip button) and output SPDIF?" Generally for this type of purpose, I'd use a regular old portable CD player, but these generally do not output to SPDIF, either. Has anyone managed to find decent examples of either piece of hardware?
I've got this great little thngy I use to play my CDs. The case outputs very clean analog audio, great headphone output and a SPDIF coax link which plugs directly into my receiver. It works great standalone, it has a complete front panel, ie backlit LCD display, stop, play, pause, next and previous track buttons. It has a cabeled remote, plays CD-RWs wonderfully, and dosen't heat up. It can run directly with only a power supply, and can even run without the power supply if needed!
Know what? It's a Sony D-EJ815 Discman.
Cue The Sun...
the old portable 'clam-shell' has all you want for the audio end but spdif out, right?
if you could find a used (ebay, maybe) radio shack cd3400 portable you might be happy. the line outs were supposed to be some wicked clean and accurate signal. and it had a 1/8" mono jack for coax spdif out.
we (dat-heads, back in 1994 era) loved this deck, except for its clicking in the phones out. if you don't insist on perfect phones out and really care more about the line out and the spdif out, this is your deck.
google cache search result
now go hunt one down.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Seeing as every other response to this question is satirical or doubtful, I'll try to go against the grain. =p While I've yet to own a drive with SPDIF, I can assure you that the CD-ROMs with only an eject button aren't the only thing on the market. My current ASUS 32x12x40x cd-burner has a play/next track button, and a stop/eject button on the face plate.. It also has a volume knob and a 1/8" jack. And, these features are the exact same on my parent's recently purchased cheapo CD-ROM. Also, they don't require anything but the power connector to work; I've checked them both.
Of course, both of these drives lack SPDIF, and neither have the LCD screen. But then again, I didn't even try looking for 'em. o.O
This statement is false.
http://www.xenatera.com/bunnie/proj/cdhack/cdhack. html
But looks fun nonetheless.
Many moons ago, in the dark ages, I obtained a semi-broken iNFRA54 creative cd rom drive. It has
1) Earphones output
2) volume (up/down buttons)
3) Remote with numbered buttons etc.
4) play/next/rewind/prev buttons
5) Stop/eject button
6) Mode button (?)
7) Windows software which enables the remote to be a mouse etc.
On the back is a normal large 12V/5V/GND power socket, IDE port, master/slave jumper, analog audio out and didgatl audio out (2 pin cable thing).
The thing the laser sits on and moves kept sticking whenthe case was on though, but worked ok with the case off.
As mentioned elsewhere, a cheap AT power supply would work it great, I bet ebay as a few. Dunno if the digital out is the same as a coaxial digital out on DVD's and tuners etc.
I guess it's finally my turn to feel the thrill of seeing my 'ask slashdot' question posted, and feel the wrath of the kiddies slamming me! Yay! I feel like I'm part of the gang now! :) ) , as quiet as I'd want, really, and the coax SPDIF output went straight into the previously unused coax input on my receiver. /. the hacker mentality would prevail. I thought people would be happy that I'm recycling a useful, if old, CD-ROM player as a standalone CD player.
OK, let me clarify. I used to have a decent A/V system years ago, consisting of a stereo VCR, Laserdisc player with optical SPDIF, carousel CD player and Minidisc recorder. I got most of it stolen 6 years ago, leaving me with only CDs and my Minidisc recorder (MZ-1).
This left me somewhat bitter and paranoid. Eventually I bought a Sony portable CD player with optical SPDIF output, the D-E805.
It's a piece of crap, it skips randomly on my CDs, which all look like masters, ie there's not a scratch or speck of dust on them, and this even on a stable surface with the AC adapter. And we all know about how wall warts take up too much space on a power bar, right?
One day I'm at a used computer store and spot a nice NEC external CD ROM case with internal power supply. I figure for 30$ canadian I can do something with this, thinking the 4X SCSI CD ROM is going to fly in the garbage. At home, I realize the headphone output on it sounds better than most Walkmans I've had, the analog line outs are dead quiet (except for the music, of course
Plus the CD ROM itself is unusual for the complete control panel and LCD display on it. Like I said, most CD-ROMS have an eject button, if that.
All in all, I was so impressed with this thing, it became my main CD player. The fact that it's only 7 inches wide by 12 inches deep was pretty cool too. It's also a neat conversation piece as I discovered.
I don't want a standard 19 inch wide CD player. Those things are flimsy, empty boxes. I don't see why this size still exists.
I'd have thought that at
The fact that it's smaller, uses a standard 120V power connection and only needs one cable to connect to the receiver are the reasons why I like it.
It raises the question why CD-ROMs don't play back MP3's natively, most DVD players seem to do it. That would be even cooler.
So no, I don't want to connect a portable CD player to my receiver. BTDT. I don't watch enough movies to justify a DVD player (another 19 inch empty box). I like the small form factor, OK? I want a newer CD-ROM that plays CD-RW and has enough buttons for standalone use, OK?
Yes I called all the local big boys in Montreal for computer crap, there simply are NO CD-ROMs with anything more than an eject button, OK?
And yes, I use my computer for ripping and playing MP3s and the occasional DVD, I just don't want to have to turn on the damn machine (at 200+ watts and fans) just to listen to some music. The NEC is quiet and fast.
That's all I want for crying out loud. I just want CD-RW read capability with buttons... Waahhh!!!
Oh and yes, I used to use my Hi-Fi stereo VCR to record 6 hours of music at a time, have you seen the specs of these machines lately?
Thanks to isorox and malraid for some of the only relevant posts so far!
You are quite wrong of course, but pretty correct in your point; as long as the signal doesn't degrade to the point of uncertainty where the signal level is close to the data threshold such that noise will cause bits to be at the wrong side of the threshold; as long as the signal doesn't degrade THAT FAR, the signal will be fine. But once the signal does degrade that far you might find a better quality cable will reduce the degradation enough for it not to be an issue.
... interference' refers to I believe).
Does this happen in real life with digital signals?
Sure it does, why do people make sure they get good quality IDE cables (esp. for UDMA), why do we need good quality network cables and connections?
It is true that the lower the data rate the signal will be less susceptable to cheaper cables; but don't be deceived into thinking it doesn't matter; especially in cases where impedance matching is important, or good sheilding is important (to protect the equipment as well as the signal; many a badly designed device has locked up in a damaging mode because of bad signals - this is what the FCC regulations regarding "must be able to accept
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
Another guy wants to recycle a CDROM player in his audio set. Seen on the debian-user list : http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2003/debian-us er-200301/msg00942.html
Better get yourself a used CD player on Ebay !
The problem with computer CD drives is that they won't work with the current copy control methods, like Midbar (=desert in Hebrew) or Sony's vicious key2audio - unless someone writes a firmware upgrade for them.
The upgrade should be very simple, and will consist of the following pseudo-code:
IF (cd is printed) AND (cd has audio tracks) THEN read_only_the_first_session
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss