[Fickle-Friend]

Maybe this question should be in the dedicated source section but I thought it best to post here since it was concering a computer company.

I came across this baby:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10422

Its a LaCie external drive with firewire out. No doubt far superior to my slot loading mac mini CD/DVD drive. Looks fantastic and no doubt is built like a tank. Infact there is another model a little higher up the chain that even burns an image ontop the top of the CD once recorded.

So anyway I was thinking to maybe use this sucker as a separate source. That is to say. Use it to rip more accurately and to play CDs more acurately.

I'm pretty sure the CD drives we use on our computers dictate how well a programme can use something like say error correction. Also CDROM drives are used by many luxury audiophile companys like Cyrus and Linn. This could prove to be a good transport connected via firewire to my mac and then to my DAC????


What say you??

 

[Scrith]

I think with a program like EAC (or its equivalent on the Mac, whatever that is), the actual device probably doesn't matter (that is, assuming any CD-ROM can actually read a regular CD error free...I would think they all can do this!).

That ones does look kind of nice, though.

 

[stefan]

My experience with Lacie has been very negative. They basically just use bog standard components and put them into admittedly very nice aluminium cases. I had an external hard drive delivered that was full of bad sectors and unusable from day one. Inside was a basic, noisy Western Digital hard drive. Lacie customer service was truly appalling -- took me more than 6 months to get a replacement, after initially being told bad sectors were inevitable on hard drives and not covered by guarantee. Then I had a LCD monitor with was delivered with 9 dead pixels. They initially refused to replace it -- one rep explained that a monitor has 'hundreds of thousands of pixels, so a few malfunctioning ones is normal'.

Perhaps just bad luck, but I would now avoid Lacie -- even my friends who have not had problems admit their products are on the expensive side.

I would personally check out to see what alternatives there are: I've seen something from Plextor, which makes excellent drives, although it costs about $220. Another alternative would be to get a reputable drive and an enclosure.

When ripping with EAC, the drive does matter for both speed and accuracy. I used to have Memorex and Phillips, and they were very slow and failed on many CDs. Recently switched to LG drives, and have been very happy -- very fast and very accurate.

 

[cosmopragma]

Once you have a bit perfect copy your hard disk is superior to any CD drive, no matter if internal or external CD-ROM or dedicated HiFi CD player.
Why bother with crappy drives when perfect and cheap HDs are available?
Just get a relatively cheap LG or Plextor, rip your CDs utilizing EAC, done.

 

[philodox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma Once you have a bit perfect copy your hard disk is superior to any CD drive, no matter if internal or external CD-ROM or dedicated HiFi CD player.

The bit perfect copy is superior to any CD maybe... but if you are comparing the CD drive, you need to include the whole computer [power supply, sound card, software, etc]. Once you compare the whole package, a HiFi CD player will edge ahead of the computer setup by a fair margin... unless you know some tricks to design perfect HiFi computers? If so, do share.

 

[stefan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma Once you have a bit perfect copy your hard disk is superior to any CD drive, no matter if internal or external CD-ROM or dedicated HiFi CD player.

Agreed on Hard drive vs. computer's internal CD-Rom or DVD-Rom.

BUT as for Hard Drive vs. any dedicated HiFi CD player, that depends on soundcard, DAC and lots of other things.... and getting quality to match (let alone beat) a decent CD player is pretty hard...

 

[philodox]

As a related question:

Are there any slot loaded CD drives that don't suck? I've been thinking about getting one of these for the new computer I am building for purely asthetical reasons, but remember reading that they arent all that good.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a black slot loading CD drive that performs well and is relatively quiet? [Possibly with recording capability, but not necissary.]

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stefan Agreed on Hard drive vs. computer's internal CD-Rom or DVD-Rom. BUT as for Hard Drive vs. any dedicated HiFi CD player, that depends on soundcard, DAC and lots of other things.... and getting quality to match (let alone beat) a decent CD player is pretty hard...

Really?
I think it's quite easy.
Get a prosumer soundcard (I prefer RME due to the excellent and hassle-free drivers), connect it via AES/EBU (or even Toslink or coax) to your favorite asychronously resampling DAC, that's it.
This would set you back about $ 1200, but even if we ignore for a moment the inherent inconvenience of grandfather's gear I've found no "decent" CDP (sub $3000) in the same quality range.
IME, of course, I've listened only to about 8 "decent" CDPs.

 

[geoges.ravel]

Should do something about the power supply and CPU fans too.

 

[philodox]

Which external DAC are you talking about cosmo? I think the Eastsound CD-E5 would be much better than this $1200 setup if you are refering to the DAC1... and it only costs $750 shipped. There is more to consider with a computer setup than just the soundcard. Unless you spend the time to quiet it down, buy a good powersupply [expensive] and worry about power conditioning and a decent power cord the CD player will have obvious advantages as anything in that price range will have decent filtering and will not be in the middle of a noisy [both sound and power] computer.

LOL @ 'the inherent inconvenience of grandfather's gear'... nice way of putting it.

PS. I found one black slot loader by plextor... what do you think? It is a little expensive [prices in canadian $$$], but looks like it would do the job. Link

 

[cosmopragma]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox Which external DAC are you talking about cosmo? I think the Eastsound CD-E5 would be much better than this $1200 setup if you are refering to the DAC1]

My current favorite DAC is the AQVOX USB 2 D/A. Quote:

There is more to consider with a computer setup than just the soundcard. Unless you spend the time to quiet it down, buy a good powersupply [expensive] and worry about power conditioning and a decent power cord the CD player will have obvious advantages as anything in that price range will have decent filtering and will not be in the middle of a noisy [both sound and power] computer.

The PC in my main rig is self-assembled.The PS is a quiet "LC-Power Super-Silent"( $40), not exactly what I'd call expensive.I've simply drilled a hole into the wall, and the PC is mounted onto the other side, that's dead quiet, sufficient even for listening to the K1000.
No need for power conditioning as far as the PC is concerned, jitter spec of the RME is 3 ns peak to peak inside a noisy PC IIRC, and my DACs ignore reasonable amounts of jitter anyway.
All power cords are DIY based on Lapp cable and "hospital grade" plugs, less than $20 each.And you have to take into account that I'm living in central Europe, we have decent power to begin with and no flimsy american plugs and jacks.
Both the AQVOX and the Benchmark don't respond to power conditioning, they are equipped with decent PSs already.
The power conditioner does improve some of my amps slightly, so ít's not totally useless.

 

[Sinbios]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stefan My experience with Lacie has been very negative. They basically just use bog standard components and put them into admittedly very nice aluminium cases. I had an external hard drive delivered that was full of bad sectors and unusable from day one. Inside was a basic, noisy Western Digital hard drive. Lacie customer service was truly appalling -- took me more than 6 months to get a replacement, after initially being told bad sectors were inevitable on hard drives and not covered by guarantee. Then I had a LCD monitor with was delivered with 9 dead pixels. They initially refused to replace it -- one rep explained that a monitor has 'hundreds of thousands of pixels, so a few malfunctioning ones is normal'.

Hahaha. Well, what'd you expect from the people whose catchphrase is "Designed by Ferrari"?

 

[Fickle-Friend]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sinbios Hahaha. Well, what'd you expect from the people whose catchphrase is "Designed by Ferrari"?

Its actually a different car, of the German variety

 

[OakIris]

Fickle-Friend - Read in another thread that you bought the Lacie drive yesterday. Let us know what you think of it when you get a chance.

Holly

 

[Fickle-Friend]

Guys theres a big debate about this on the mac forums:

heres the link!

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...2&page=1&pp=25