So you want to buy a CD-ROM drive? Let me first say the following is my opinion based on a whole lot of personal experience, and a whole lot of feedback about my program CDDA (extracts audio from CDs and stores it as WAV files). Some people may be offended by the fact that I have bad things to say about a lot of drives. Tough. If this doc helps cut the traffic on the net about peoples trouble with crap drives then it has done what it is intended. I'm going to include CD-R manufacturers as well in this discussion. Summary: Most CD-ROM drives suck. Most companies tech support sucks. I'm going to name the good ones and the bad ones. If I had to go out today and buy a drive, I would use the following list: Ultra cheap 2x drive: Mitsumi FX001D 2x non-scsi/soundcard: Sony 33A 2x non-scsi/IDE: Sony 55E 2x scsi: Toshiba 3401 4x non-scsi/IDE: Toshiba 5402 4x scsi: Toshiba 3701 6x scsi: Plextor 6Plex note: the Plextors appear to be the only drives that will extract audio well at speeds higher than 1x. The Toshiba 3401 may well be the best CDROM drive ever made. You can get them for a song, and they are very compatible and very robust. There appear to be no decent 6x ATAPI drives. I would suggest that you should either spend extra and get a Plextor or live with either the Sony 77E or the Toshiba 5402. Both of these drives should be in the $50-$60 range now, and will continue to get cheaper. Here are the manufacturers I've dealt with, and the drives involved. They are not in any particular order, just the order I remembered their names. Mitsumi: They make good cheap drives. If you just want to read plain CD-ROMs, then get yourself an FX001D double speed. Don't spend more than $100. Don't expect things like XA or reading DA to work. Avoid the new 4x drives. I'm getting tired of all the messages on the net about people and the trouble they are having with IDE. Their tech support is virtually nonexistant. As far as I know the only way to get ahold of them is through their BBS. The only good answers I got was by talking to one of the engineers directly. Note: Mitsumi drives have not, do not and will not ever support reading DA. Period. Sony: If I had to pick a good 2x (non-SCSI) drive, it would be a Sony. I hear very little in the way of problems with these drives and my program. They work just fine reading DA and also work just fine reading both Green and White book CDi discs. I understand that the 31A, 33A and the 55E are all about the same. I haven't heard much yet about their 4x drive so I can't comment. If I had to pick a 2x scsi drive it would NOT be a Sony. I have a lot of trouble with these drives reading DA. They have a lot more jitter than most other manufacturers. I've not had a lot of luck in dealing with their tech support either. PS don't ever try and get a programming manual for their drives. It is a grand exercise in futility. NEC: My favorite (NOT). I so rarely ever hear from someone who gets my program working on a NEC drive, I wonder if anyone ever gets anything to work on a NEC. Their drives may on may not read DA. Don't ask them which do and don't. Tech support doesn't know. Actually they don't know much about anything. Certainly they don't know CDROM. They only positive note is that they have an 800 number so it's not your nickel to have your questions not answered. Who can forget the 511 vs. 510 problems? For those that have forgotten, NEC made two versions of the 3x drive. They OEM'd one and sold the other. The drives had problems like only giving 1.5x performance, and anyone who bought the OEM drive was denied support from NEC, and thus was stuck with a crappy, slow drive. NEC won a lot of new friends over that one. I've been trying to get programming manuals for their drives for over 2 years. I've been promised phone calls several times, but in the end they never follow up on those promises. PLEXTOR: These guys are known for fast solid, drives. I hear lots of good things about the drives. Tech support was very good when I had to deal with them. They also have an 800 number. I got the pages I needed from the programming manual faxed to me, although they never did send me a whole one. Both their 4x and 6x drives seem to be getting good reviews on the net and from users of my program. They bought up the old TEXEL and have been selling their drives (3028/5028). They are a little pricey, but it may be worth it for you. The only downside is that they seem to have built their drives around the Sony microcode. The jitter problems in the Sony drives are mysteriously present on the PLEXTOR. The PLEXTOR programming manual just happens to be word for word the same as the Sony except that they did do a global search and replace on the string "SONY". TOSHIBA: These guys are my #1 choice for both SCSI and IDE. They were the ones who started it all allowing reading DA when they modified a 3301 for Silicon Graphics. They haven't looked back. Their 3401 is still my favorite 2x SCSI drive. They've had some trouble lately with a couple of their drives, but it seems that they have all been sorted out with the 4.4x SCSI(3601) and the 4x IDE(5302). Tech support doesn't have an 800 number, but they always seem to answer by the 3rd ring. They seem to know what they are talking about, and have genuinely been helpful with my problems. Getting a copy of the programming manual is downright simple. I rarely ever hear from people who have trouble with these drives. Toshiba may be getting themselves into trouble with the 5302 drive. It seems that they are only OEM'ing the drives and not selling them themselves. This means that they are not prepared to offer tech support. This new development smells of the NEC OEM fiasco. I hope it stops soon. CHINON: I gather they don't sell many of these drives. I almost never hear from anyone who has one. Those that do all say that the drive works well. Tech support was fine but not an 800 number. Getting the programming manual was a breeze. I don't know much about their 4x drive, but if it is like the 2x (535) then it should be fine. PS. I recently tried to get updated programming manual information from them. No luck. Things seem to have changed for the worse. PANASONIC: (sometimes known as Matsushita or Matshita) Their 562/563 drives have been going strong for more than a year. I rarely ever hear from anyone who has trouble. Like the cheap sony 2x drives, the Panasonic drive is a good choice for a starter drive. Their only downfall as far as I know is that the drives won't read Green book CDi discs. If that is important, have a look at Sony. They also have a SCSI version. I have heard some about some trouble with their new 4x drive, but don't know any details. HITACHI: They used to be a big player in the CDROM market, and then I don't know what happened. They have almost fallen off the face of the earth. I have been hearing that the Hitachi ATAPI drives may just be the most incompatible drives available. That may have something to do with the fact that they are now selling for about one half the price of all the other decent 4x ATAPI drives. SANYO: I never hear from anyone using their drives, so I can't comment. Apparenty their new 3 CD changer works well, and will read DA. TEAC: These guys were in first with the cheap sound card bus 4x drive. Unfortunately it isn't up to much. Tech support barely knows how to pick up a phone to answer it, let alone know anything about the products. Certainly don't try to ask for programming information or expect to get phone calls returned. I hear from people who have trouble with the 4x drive. You can do much better for less money. The drives promise to read DA, but in reality they just puke. PIONEER: I hear quite a lot of good things about their drives. These are the folks who had 4x drives years (well it seemed like it) before everyone else. They also have 6 pack drives. A bit too expensive for me, but overall good drives. I haven't had to reach tech support, so I can't comment first hand. Second hand I hear they are decent. YAMAHA: I hear plenty of good things about their CDR machine. Most people seem to have good luck producing reliable CDs. Tech support is available via an 800 number, and seem to know what they are doing. Getting the programming manual was simple. KODAK: Apparently they just take a Philips drive and slap a Kodak sticker on it. Did you know that you can call 25 different numbers for Kodak and not actually get to talk to anyone who knows anything about CDR machines? I won a gold medal for the most phone transfers within a single company and not getting anywhere. I have had mixed success in getting them to return calls. Apart from that, I hear good things about the drives (which may be thanks to Philips). eventually heard from a helpful chap at Kodak who offered to help track down the manual. He ended up having the same trouble I did, and he worked for the company. PHILIPS: To be honest I haven't had to deal with them yet. I hear good things about their drives (the recent ones that is). I have since received a copy of the programming manual from a nice person on the net, so I haven't actually received help from Philips. PINNACLE: They have been getting slammed lately on the net for having a cheap CDR machine. Deserved? I don't know. I do know that tech support (via 800) knows a fair bit about the product. Just don't expect promised phone calls, or try and get the programming information. PS. I finally got in touch with the manager of Customer Service who pulled the necessary strings to get the programming manual. Without him there would be no Pinnacle support in my program. APPLE: They just take a Sony drive, make a couple of tiny changes to the rom and slap an Apple sticker on it. Lately they have also been using a Matsushita drive.