Sony Spressa Professional 12X8X32X CD-RW Review - PAGE 1

Introduction

The Sony Spressa 12X8X32X CDRW

Sony is making waves again in the CD-RW drive arena with the release of it’s latest Brand of CD-RW Spressa Series drives. Some say it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks –but we think Sony has polished the Spressa drive even more than before and it’s ready to compete in the heavy-weight division with speeds of 12X8X32X! For the most part this drive is identical to it’s older brother, the Spressa 10X4X24X –but the big difference is what’s under the hood! Let’s see what’s new –along with what’s not so new.

Inside the box

Sony sent us the retail boxed Premium CD-RW recording system. The package consisted of the drive itself, which was model number CRX160E, along with a 40 wire IDE cable, screws, a quick start guide, and two other nice additions which were a brand spanking new 12X CD-R disk and a 10X CD-RW disk. In addition there was the usual warranty and registration cards. Also inside our box was a flyer –which was rather odd to see right from the start, stating some incompatibilities with the included software and Windows 2000 plus work-a rounds for some common CD writing errors (such as the synonymous Buffer-Underrun).We felt this was a major drawback for Windows 2000 users because two of the four software suites are incompatible –Mixman Studio and Abcd.

Installation / Software package

Installation of the drive is simple –as it should be with any IDE device. The drive didn’t seem to be particular to any given setting (master/slave) so we just mastered the drive on the secondary channel of our lab system as it had a free IDE channel there. The quick start guide should get the novice going without much problem as well –but we didn’t care for the fact they didn’t include the full blown manual in any paper form, which forces you to revert to the CD for more technical questions. But that shouldn’t be a big problem unless the Spressa drive is the only CD-ROM installed in your computer and you have installation problems. :)

The software package included is very well rounded and is also very similar to what you would have gotten with an earlier version of the Spressa drive. Starting with what you will use to create your CD’s –Sony CD Extreme.

Cd-Extreme screams versatility and should make even the most power hungry users happy. It has the ability to burn audio, video, data, and cd copies. It supports drag and drop along with MP3 conversion on the fly –which makes the package even sweeter! The navigation bars and quick menus made it easy for us to work through simple CD-writing sessions (just a few files) or even more complex video CD creations.

Next is the familiar ABCD – This utility installs onto your system and works by giving your CD-RW drive a floppy-like function. Which allows you to send files straight to the drive without having to enter into an entire CD-writing session. Think of it as a “write and go thing” Actually –it’s called packet writing and it’s very useful. Abcd works just as described and could be compared to Direct CD by Adaptec.