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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!caen!destroyer!ncar!catch-the-fever.scd.ucar.edu!baseball
- From: baseball@catch-the-fever.scd.ucar.edu (Gregg Walters)
- Subject: Re: PAS-Plus SCSI and SB Quality?
- Message-ID: <1992Dec18.003403.28686@ncar.ucar.edu>
- Sender: news@ncar.ucar.edu (USENET Maintenance)
- Organization: Scientific Computing Divison/NCAR Boulder, CO
- References: <1992Dec16.231322.14692@ultb.isc.rit.edu>
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 00:34:03 GMT
- Lines: 51
-
- In Article: 5518 of comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard,
- pti4378@ritvax.isc.rit.edu (Patrick) wrote >>
-
- >> I would like to purchase a soundcard. I am not interested in much more than
- >> regular Soundblaster level functionality. I would, however, like to use
- >> it as a CD-ROM interface in the future. I do not want to deal with the SBPro
- >> proprietary interface.
- >>
- >> Is the SCSI interface standard and good enough to use to run a SCSI
- >> CD-ROM drive and a SCSI Hard drive?
-
- Three months ago I got a SBPro 2.0 Basic under the assumption that I could get
- a compatible external CD-ROM drive. WRONG...ALMOST CompUSA (Denver) told me
- Saturday that Creative Labs has discontinued the external drive. So I figured
- I either had to buy a complete multi-media kit (two by MediaVision, one was
- the Fusion CD16 for $1099 and the other a Media Vision with a multi-spin CD-ROM
- drive for $1199) which is just too much for me, or forget the idea.
-
- I tried the cheesy $399 Fusion CD (MediaVision) multi-media kit. The card
- and the CD-ROM interface card must be mounted physically parallel in adjacent
- slots. That's because you have to connect the two with a 5-line ribbon cable
- that is an astonishing 4 inches long. 16 inches would let me put the interface
- card in an unused 8-bit slot. In my box that meant taking 2 of 3 16-bit slots
- and I was already using two. I jury-rigged an open-case setup just to test it,
- and I thought the sound was SH*T. When I returned the kit to the dealer they
- tried to tell me I could get a longer cable - 12 inches. Enough already ...
-
- Then I found a NEC CDR-36 CD-ROM drive at Bizmart for $499. It came with a SCSI
- interface card (8-bit slot), a headphone jack, Grolier's Encyclopedia, and two
- other reference type CDs. When I set things up, on a hunch I decided to run a
- line from the headphone jack to the SBPro line in. HEY! It works. THIS IS NOT
- DOCUMENTED IN THE KIT'S MANUALS. I get the soundbites from the Grolier's, and
- I can play music CDs - even while system sounds, or the SBPro Dr. SBaitso
- applet are running. The SCSI interface has 2 SCSI ports one external (with my
- line to the CD-ROM drive) and one internal. I'm not sure if the both can be
- used simultaneously, but the documentation does say that you can daisy chain
- your peripherals on this thing - just need to setup unique IRQs for each device,
- etc.
-
-
- Gregg \\ //
- \\ //
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