[Fuddyduddy]

Hi everyone!

I'm new here. I listen mainly to classical music of all descriptions and to jazz (likewise). I'm using a PC as an HTPC. I recently had to replace its internal CD-DVD drive and for my new drive I chose a Plextor 116A reader. Big mistake:- it may read faultlessly for all I know but the noise the mechanism makes reminds me of the continuous loud hiss you used to get when playing shellac 78's with a steel needle. Similar in pitch and - in quiet passages - just as maddening. Nearly 60 years of "progress" and I'm back (accoustically speaking) where I started! It'd be funny if it weren't so frustrating.

It'll have to go. But then what...? Can any kind person, please, recommend a drive which as well as performing adequately by today's standards when reading CDs/DVDs, makes little or no noise and doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

HTPC System:-
EPoX EP8 VIA KM400; 512 MB RAM; ATHLON XP 2500+; Seagate Barracuda 160 GB: M-Audio Revolution 7.1; Plextor 116A CD-DVD drive (until I can replace it); Antec 'Aria' case.
Win XP Home; Foobar 2K; Media Player Classic
Meridian 561 Processor; Bryston 9B ST 5-channel amp; speakers - nothing special (can't afford to upgrade after buying above hardware).

 

[sgrossklass]

Check out the "Silent storage" forum over at silentpcreview.com. Your problem is not so unusual that it hadn't been discussed there.
Personally, I have an LG GSA-4040B DVD writer which can be throttled down to very low audio levels by 3rd party software on everything but audio CDs.
BTW, the quietest option still is ripping your CDs to disk (I'm using EAC) and preferably storing them losslessly compressed (e.g. FLAC format) or at least lossy with a high bitrate (e.g. LAME with --alt-preset extreme, which typically results in ~250 kbps on average). It also avoids wear of the optical drive if you tend to play some CDs more frequently.

 

[Alu]

I am using an external sony drx-500ul dvd-writer.
It's perfectly silent in idle mode, and while reading a dvd/cd it doesn't make all too much noise as well.

 

[laughingman]

Try turn down the reading speed when playing music? there's software you can download that just does that.

 

[Guust-Fi]

I recently bought a new nec nd3500. (Good burner, little less on reading)

You can make almost any dvd drive sound silent with "nero cd-dvd speed" (included with nero burning rom) by limitting the speed to 1x. The tool has to be running in the background though :s I am currently looking for another solution too because the drive is spinning to loud imo during dvd playback.

My previous nec nd1100 didn't have this problem.

 

[Fuddyduddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgrossklass Check out the "Silent storage" forum over at silentpcreview.com. Your problem is not so unusual that it hadn't been discussed there.

Thanks for this tip. I'll parade my ignorance by confessing that before I read your post I wasn't aware that any software like this existed. Having followed the trail to SPCR I thought at first my prayers had been answered.

But things are never that simple, are they? My Plextor 116A won't have anything to do with Nero DriveSpeed. I've tried twice and each time the Plextor just goes on strike; after I've entered *any* speed but 'maximum' it won't even play when I set it back to 'maximum' again and remove any lesser speed. I've had to use 'System Restore' to get the Plextor operational again.

At first I assumed I was doing something stupid but when I tested DS on my desktop's drive (LG 4020B) it played perfectly with speed reduced to x2. (BTW I'm running W98 SE on my desktop).

Do you know of other 3rd party software I could try on the Plextor? (Plextor's software doesn't support its own readers SFAIK, only writers).

Thanks for the help.

 

[Fuddyduddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laughingman Try turn down the reading speed when playing music? there's software you can download that just does that.

I already just asked sgrossklass this question but can I ask you too? What software (other than Nero DriveSpeed) were you thinking of?

 

[sgrossklass]

Personally, I'm using CD Bremse, Nero DriveSpeed would have been the other option that I couldn't remember

. If a drive won't work with DriveSpeed I'd assume it doesn't support changing speeds. My old Ricoh MP7040A burner of '99 vintage can be throttled down perfectly well, but a newer LG CRD-8482B CD-ROM doesn't give any settings at all (maybe I'll try that newer firmware one day, it's on the original 1.00 right now). I guess burners are more likely to support this since different settable burning speeds are a standard feature anyway. If a drive does weird things upon attempting to throttle speeds, it's maybe just buggy firmware that causes this; I'd check for an update. (Carefully examine the readme that comes with the update on how exactly this has to be performed. LG wants the drive to be master on the 2nd onboard IDE channel with no slave attached, for example.) But if Plextor's own throttling software only supports writers, maybe their read-only (DVD) drives are not capable of speed reduction at all.

 

[Fuddyduddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgrossklass But if Plextor's own throttling software only supports writers, maybe their read-only (DVD) drives are not capable of speed reduction at all.

Hi,

An update. I was mistaken: Plextor's software ('PlexTools') does support their readers as well. Having discovered this, and read in the description of PlexTools given on their website:- "'Drive Settings' controls the drive's adjustable settings, like: read speed, spindle motor spin-down time, etc." I thought that I'd finally found what I'd been seeking. So I paid the eur12 charged to download and activate PlexTools.

Guess what? Having installed and run it, I find that my 116A read-only drive's speed cannot be adjusted. 'Drive Settings' provides only one option:- Maximum!!! Another eur12 down the drain. (This may not sound much but that's not really the point).

So, apparently, when Plextor's website tells you that their software controls their drives' "adjustable settings", you're supposed to know *which* settings of any particular drive (eg the one I happen to have bought) *are* adjustable because it turns out that not all the settings listed in the passage quoted are adjustable on *all* drives - a fact they misleadingly fail to mention. Plextor having failed to impart this highly relevant information, how (I ask) is an ordinary customer supposed to find it out before parting with his/her money?

I think this stinks and I wish there were some way in which Plextor could could be punished for such cavalier treatment of its customers. But of course there isn't.

So now I'm back to square 1:- with a noisy Plextor drive that I can't do anything to quieten. Except that I'm now a lot angrier.

(Since posting the above)
I had sent a complaint to Plextor about their drive but I was getting bitter and twisted and assumed the worst about their likely response. I'm now embarrassed because I've since received an Email which undertakes to take back my 116A and replace it another which "does not make noise during audio
playback and supports in PlexTools."

So I must make prompt amends by retracting the nasty things I said about Plextor yesterday.

I remain puzzled though. If another unit of the same product can so readily be supplied which doesn't make a noise during audio playback, how come the original unit did? Poor quality control? And, similarly, if the replacement unit is supported by PlexTools why wasn't the original? I await the replacement unit with interest.

 

[Helter Skelter]

I have an NEC 2510A DVD burner. It's the quietest optical drive I've ever owned. I actually look at the drive's activity light to make sure it's doing anything at all.

I've heard similarly good things about it's successor, the 3500A. It can be found quite inexpensively on newegg.

 

[Fuddyduddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helter Skelter I have an NEC 2510A DVD burner. It's the quietest optical drive I've ever owned. I actually look at the drive's activity light to make sure it's doing anything at all. I've heard similarly good things about it's successor, the 3500A. It can be found quite inexpensively on newegg.

That's interesting info. Thanks.

I've edited my yesterday's post because Plextor have now offered to replace my noisy 116A with one which, they say, won't make any noise during audio playback. This seems a surprising claim but having been unjustifiably rude about them once I'd better wait and see this time. If the replacement unit does indeed make no noise then my problem is solved.

BTW the NEC drives mentioned in your post are burners. Does this mean that they operate noiselessly when reading (CDs for instance), or only when they're burning? (Do you use yours for both?)

 

[Guust-Fi]

I use mine for bothe and my previous nec nd1100 was silent overall. My new 3500A seems to be alot louder during playback. It spins faster and I'm still looking for a way to make it quiet.

 

[bg4533]

My Pioneer DVR-108 is extremely quiet.

One thing I recommend for anyone buying a new case is to get one with a door covering the CDROM drives. I covered the inside of my door with foam and it deadened the last little bit of noise from my cd drives.

 

[toor]

If all you care about are CDs then you will not find anything quieter then the Asus QuieTrack. Which is also a pretty cheap bargain ($30 for a 52x burner). Lite-on makes some pretty silent products also. Happy hunting.

 

[poorimpulsectrl]

Another vote for the NEC 2500/2510. Quietest optical drive I've ever had.