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1994-01-26
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(Message inbox:1769)
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Date: Sun, 11 Jul 93 17:06:58 CET
Message-Id: <9307111606.AA001yz@brewhr.swb.de>
Reply-To: hr@brewhr.swb.de
Organization: The Software Brewery
From: hr@brewhr.swb.de (Heiko Rath)
To: rab@cdrom.com
Subject: Test review about Apple-CD 300
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 10478
Hi Bob,
here is a review I wrote for the newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.reviews about the
Apple CD-300. How about uploading it to ftp.cdrom.com?
BTW, on 6/22/1993 I ordered several CD-ROMs and I'm not 100% sure, if you
received it. Therefore could you please confirm the order?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRODUCT NAME
Apple CD-300
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The Apple CD-300 is a dual speed SCSI CD-ROM drive that
supports playing of audio CDs, reading of CD-ROMs, is multi-session
compatible and conforms to several other standards. As a bonus it also
allows to read digital data off audio CDs.
AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION
Name: Apple Computer GmbH
Address: Gutenbergstr. 1
D-8045 Ismaning
GERMANY
Telephone: +49 (89) 99640-0
FAX: +49 (89) 99640-180
LIST PRICE
I don't know the list price. I paid DM 800,- (about $500 (US))
at my local Apple dealer here in Germany.
SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
HARDWARE
An Amiga with a SCSI host adapter.
A SCSI bus terminator.
SOFTWARE
A CD-ROM filesystem for accessing CD-ROMs (I'm using
the Babel CDROM FS V1.1)
For playing audio CDs you will need a little utility.
I have written such a thing called SCSIUtil that will
allow you to play selected tracks. A much more
comfortable solution is Jukebox, a program with a GUI
and ARexx support, available from Franz-Josef Reichert
(fjrei@kbsaar.saar.de).
COPY PROTECTION
None
MACHINE USED FOR TESTING
Amiga 3000/25
Quantum LP52S hard disk
Fujitsu M2624S-512 hard disk
Wangtek 5150ES SCSI FA14 streamer
2 MB CHIP RAM, 8 MB FAST RAM
AmigaDOS 2.1 (Kickstart 37.175, Workbench 38.35)
Commodore A2232 multiserial card
Macrosystems VLAB real time video digitizer card
Babel CDROM FS V1.1 (highly recommended)
COMPONENTS SUPPLIED IN PACKAGE
Apple CD 300
Power cord
Warranty Statement
License Agreement (that could turn your brain into jelly ;-)
1 Caddy
2 Macintosh floppies
1 User Manual
9 CDs:
- The Macintosh Demo Games CD
- The Macintosh Demo Applications CD
- Just Grandma and me
- From Alice to Ocean
- Euro CD Introduction to CD-ROM
- Mozart String Quartet in C Major, K.465 The "Dissonant"
- Apple CD-ROM Titles Sampler
- Apple Chronicle
- Kodak Photo CD Photo Sampler
REVIEW
After having decided to get a CD-ROM drive I watched the
newsgroup "alt.cd-rom" for suggestions on a good one to buy. As
minimum requirements I wanted a drive with double speed (300 KB/s),
multi-session Photo CD support and the ability to play audio CDs. When
I first heard about the Apple drive and that it would also allow me to
read digital data off audio CDs I was hooked.
My local Apple dealer told me that I would have to wait for the
drive, as it was available in the USA, but not in Germany yet. When he
also told me that the price would be around DM 800,- ($500 (US)) I
ordered one immediately.
Finally the drive arrived at the beginning of March 1993. The
box contained the drive, some Macintosh specific software and a short
users manual. The color of the Apple CD-300 is the same as that of my
Amiga 3000, only a little bit lighter. On the front panel it has an
eject button, a status LED, volume control and a headphone jack. Next
to the eject button is a little hole which is used to eject a disc in
an emergency. The eject mechanism is motor controlled and a trap door
very ingeniously protects the drive against dust. On the rear it has
two RCA audio output jacks (to connect to an external amplifier or
amplified speakers), the on/off switch, the power connector, two SCSI
50-pin connectors and a selector for the SCSI ID.
The drive requires standard Sony style caddies for accessing
CDs. This means that in order to insert a CD you first have to place it
into a caddy and then load it together with the caddy into the drive.
I connected the drive to my Amiga 3000 and installed the Babel
CDROM FS V1.1. Without any other setup problems I'm now able to use
ISO 9660 formatted CD-ROMs at a very decent speed (the directory
scanning and reading of data feels much faster than with a 150 KB/s
CD-ROM drive on my SUN workstation at work).
As the software that was available at that time to play audio
CDs was not compatible with the drive, I decided to write my own
utility. This was easily done by taking the ANSI SCSI 2 Draft and
using the commands described there, as the drive follows the
recommendations closely.
After I saw Franz Josef Reichert's (fjrei@kbsaar.saar.de)
Jukebox program I spoke to him about a version with support for the
Apple CD-300. He was very helpful and there now exists a player module
for this drive.
The drive is able to support multi-session Photo CDs with a
Macintosh. To do the same with my Amiga I needed some software. After
looking around and getting a hint to search in alt.sources, I found
Hadmut Danisch's (danisch@ira.uka.de) hpcdtoppm utility, originally
written on a UNIX machine. This was easily compiled on my Amiga and
enables me to convert Photo CD images to PPM, from where I can convert
to any other required format.
Because I'm very curious I wanted to know how to read digital
data off an audio CD. Several questions later I had the info about a
vendor specific SCSI command and incorporated it into my little
SCSIUtil. Now I'm able to read all these soundbits'n pieces and use
them on my Amiga.
BTW, the Apple CD-300 replies to a SCSI INQUIRY command with
"SONY CD-ROM CDU-8003". I heard that this basically a Sony CDU-561
drive with a patched ROM.
Apple CD 300 Technical Specifications:
Playback medium: 12-cm optical disc installed in a CD caddy
(any CD-ROM or audio compact disc is compatible)
Capacity:
Mode 1: 656 MB
Mode 2: 748 MB
Recording surfaces: 1
Data/block (available to user):
Mode 1: 2048 bytes
Data/block (available to user),
Mode 2: 2336 bytes
Blocks per disc: more than 270,000
Audio playback:
Playing time: more than 1 hr.
Frequency response: 20 to 20,000 Hz
Characteristics:
Rotational speed:
-- Normal speed (1X): 230 to 530 rpm
-- Double speed (2X)*: 460 to 1060 rpm
Average access time:
-- Normal speed (1X): 360 ms
-- Double speed (2X): 295 ms
Data streaming rate, normal speed (1X):
-- Mode 1: 150 KB/sec
-- Mode 2: 171 KB/sec
Data streaming rate, double speed (2X):
-- Mode 1: 300 KB/sec
-- Mode 2: 342 KB/sec
*The symbol for increased performance--
double the spin speed
Block rate:
-- Normal speed (1X): 75 blocks/sec
-- Double speed (2X): 150 blocks/sec
SCSI bus transfer burst rate (over one
CD-ROM block): 2.5 MB/sec
Buffer size: 256 KB
Formats supported:
Multi-session Kodak Photo CD
ISO 9660/High Sierra
Macintosh HFS
CD-ROM XA (requires additional ADPCM hardware to read
compressed audio)
CD+G
CD+MIDI
Standard audio CDs
CD digital audio data via SCSI bus Interfaces
One headphone jack with volume control (front panel)
Two SCSI 50-pin connectors (rear panel)
Two RCA audio output jacks for external amplifier or
amplified speakers (rear panel)
Electrical requirements:
Power requirements:
-- External: 100 to 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
-- Internal: +5 V DC 15%,12 V DC 1 10%
Power consumption:
-- External: 0.28 A AC (drive on)
-- Internal: 350 mA maximum for +5 V and
750 mA average, 1.5 A peak for +12 V
Operating environment:
Temperature:
-- External: 41! F to 104! F (5! C to 40! C)
-- Internal: 41< F to 122< F (5< C to 50< C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 90% noncondensing
Non-operating environment:
Storage temperature ( 6 mo.):
-22! F to 122! F (-30! C to 50! C)
Transportation temperature (72 hrs.):
-40! F to 149! F (-40! C to 65! C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Size and weight:
External:
-- Height: 1.96 in. (5.0 cm)
-- Width: 7 in. (17.75 cm)
-- Depth: 13.1 in. (33.4 cm)
-- Weight: 6.29 lb. (2.85 kg)
Internal:
-- Height: 1.68 in. (4.25 cm)
-- Width: 5.85 in. (14.85 cm)
-- Depth: 8.2 in. (20.82 cm)
-- Weight: 2.76 lb. (1.25 kg)
DOCUMENTATION
The Apple CD-300 comes with a users manual, that explains how
to connect it to an Apple Macintosh, install the required software,
handling of CDs and working with the Macintosh software. It also
contains a short technical specifications page about the drive.
As the documentation was written with an Apple user in mind,
it is fairly easy to read and understand, but wont help an Amiga user.
I didn't require any manuals myself, as connecting the drive to the
SCSI bus is straight forward..
Unfortunatly the manual doesn't contain any programmers
documentation and my local Apple dealer still hasn't been able to get
me some from Apple.
LIKES AND DISLIKES
I like the Apple CD-300 as it is fast, reliable, compared to
other drives relatively cheap, complies very closely to ANSI SCSI 2,
supports multi-session CDs and is able to read digital data off audio
CDs.
Some people that I know, dislike CD-ROM drives with caddies,
myself I don't have a problem with them.
COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS
The Apple CD-300 is comparable to the Toshiba 3401 speed- and
featurewise, but it is cheaper (at least here in Germany).
The NEC CD-73 doesn't support multi-session discs, doesn't
care too much about ANSI SCSI compatibility and is more expensive.
BUGS
The drive responds with an error to the SCSI command "READ
SUB-CHANNEL" when the sub-channel data format is set to 0. This is not
a big problem though, as all the information of the sub-channel data
format 0 can be obtained with data formats 1, 2 and 3.
VENDOR SUPPORT
I'm still waiting for some programmers documentation that I
asked for when I bought the drive. I don't know if this is the problem
with my local dealer or with Apple.
WARRANTY
1 year limited warranty
CONCLUSIONS
I'm very pleased with the Apple CD-300. It satisfies my needs
for a fast, reliable and relatively cheap CD-ROM drive with some extra
features.
I would buy it again.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Copyright 1993 Heiko Rath, All rights reserved.
--
// <HR> aka Heiko Rath, Raiffeisenstr.10a, 64331 Weiterstadt, Germany
\X/ The Software Brewery |PGP-key on request| HR@brewhr.swb.{de|sub.org}
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheers, Heiko
--
// <HR> aka Heiko Rath, Raiffeisenstr.10a, 64331 Weiterstadt, Germany
\X/ The Software Brewery |PGP-key on request| HR@brewhr.swb.{de|sub.org}