Kenwood 72x TrueX ***PLEASE READ***

[ZoNtO]

Hey guys I have a deal on a Kenwood 72x TrueX pending, but I wanted some feedback regarding its performance in Windows XP. Has anyone had first hand experience or know anything about this? I could use ANY help, ASAP. Email me or pm me, and I'll check the post when I get home from school today. Thanks guys, Anandtech forums rock!

Riley Lovendale

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Not sure about xp performance but mine sucked reading CDR disks. I hear thats sometimes a common problem with them.

 

[thorin]

There are two common problems with these drives.

1) High failure rate
2) Inability to consistently read CDR/CDRW media

Thorin

 

[beatle]

What I don't understand is why Zen technologies, the company that patented the 7 laser pickup, is sitting on their technology. They haven't sold it to anyone else, and they don't seem to be developing a better system. Possibly with the right R&D, a more reliable, more versatile pickup system could be created, but noooooo!.

 

[JetBlack69]

I have one and it is great for pressed store-bought CDs. I don't have access to it now because I'm in another state. However, it doesn't read CDRs well, but that's what my burner is for. The digital audio extraction is ok but it's main shine is installing stuff.

 

[EXman]

mine just plain failed... not impressed

 

[Tab]

They make 72x? I've had CDs explode @ 52x

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: Tabb
They make 72x? I've had CDs explode @ 52x

72 TrueX drives actually spun rather slowly, just it had 7 laser pickups so it could read alot more data per revolution.

 

[styrafoam]

Originally posted by: thorin
There are two common problems with these drives.

1) High failure rate
2) Inability to consistently read CDR/CDRW media

Thorin

I had a 40x TrueX, it struggled with cd-r's, wouldn't read cd-rw's, and died after about 18 months. It was also very poor at ripping and creating disk images.

 

[KristopherKubicki]

The whole CDR technology is dying anyway. I would like to see them apply it to DVDR, but the physical limitations on the bus wont let you burn quicker than ATA33 anyway! (Thats like 20X). Its kind of a dead end technology.

Kristopher

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: KristopherKubicki
The whole CDR technology is dying anyway. I would like to see them apply it to DVDR, but the physical limitations on the bus wont let you burn quicker than ATA33 anyway! (Thats like 20X). Its kind of a dead end technology.

Kristopher

SATA high speed DVD burners would be nice.

 

[Codename49]

Originally posted by: Dulanic

Originally posted by: Tabb
They make 72x? I've had CDs explode @ 52x

72 TrueX drives actually spun rather slowly, just it had 7 laser pickups so it could read alot more data per revolution.

Be aware that 72x is by TrueX rating scale, not by MAX scale utilized on any other cdrom. Theoretically (as no max drive has comparable speeds, so impossible to test now), a 72 truex is roughly 120x in MAX scale.

I've had one, but my main issue weren't cdrs. CDRs read perfectly in mind, the problem was with macrovision. Absolutely nothing with safedisc 2 would ever work well with it.

 

[minus1972]

Originally posted by: EXman
mine just plain failed... not impressed

 

[sharkeeper]

SATA high speed DVD burners would be nice.

How about a static burner? That's right, no rotating spindle. Instead, it would buffer the entire data frame and flash it to a disk using a class IV diode bar, probably in the 30W range. Extremely dangerous if tampered with obviously, but totally cool. Make the interface fast (serial attached SCSI minimum) plugging into the host port via pci express. Imagine burning dual layer dvd's in under a minute!

DPSS technology could be utilised for blue ray writers. Statics may require active cooling of the chassis but that is addressed relatively easily.

Cheers!

 

[HeinekinMan]

I had two and they worked very well for me in Win98, fast and extremely quiet. However, the weak link for both of mine (both of which had to be RMA'd within a year) was the power supply (probably relating to the Zen technology). After the second RMA'd drive died, I finally woke up and switched over to LiteOn DVDROM drives. These drives are really quiet and awesome when they're working properly, I never used either of mine for reading CD-Rs however. I bought them specifically for on-the-fly data and audio burns where these baby's shine (DAE extraction rates of 40x and data extraction of 60x)!

Kenwood stated on their website (can't seem to locate this website anymore, it was called kenwoodtech.com) that none of these drives were supported in Win2K (I would imagine the same applies to WinXP). The drive will work but in a limited capacity. I use to routinely see DAE extraction rates of 40x (Win98). When I moved over to Win2K, the DAE extraction rate dropped to 16x or so (even with DMA enabled). That would have been fine for me had it not been for the power supply problems...

 

[Sideswipe001]

Mine Died...got it RMAed and that one died...so I RMAed it again and sold it.

I liked it when it worked. It was dang fast for installing; I wish they had worked out the CD-R reading problems. I would buy one today if they made one that had worked right.

 

[compudog]

I had the 52X and a 72X. Both died prematurely, couldn't read CDR's reliably. Unless you are getting it for $20 I wouldn't bother. Good luck!

 

[resinboy]

mine would spin up, and about 50% of the time, it was unable to read the disc.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: shuttleteam

SATA high speed DVD burners would be nice.

How about a static burner? That's right, no rotating spindle. Instead, it would buffer the entire data frame and flash it to a disk using a class IV diode bar, probably in the 30W range. Extremely dangerous if tampered with obviously, but totally cool. Make the interface fast (serial attached SCSI minimum) plugging into the host port via pci express. Imagine burning dual layer dvd's in under a minute!

DPSS technology could be utilised for blue ray writers. Statics may require active cooling of the chassis but that is addressed relatively easily.

Cheers!

A minute is still too long I say we move to Flash Drives...

 

[sharkeeper]

A minute is still too long I say we move to Flash Drives...

Most of that time would be buffering...

The faster the source the faster the buffering. A screaming 2GB/S SCSI array would suffice for now.

Cheers!

 

[mechBgon]

CDR-Info.com did a review of it here if you're curious to see it. I have... no wait, I finally threw it away. I had a TrueX 52x. It ran rather hot and finally just started failing while the system was running, which Win2000 thought was Not Amusing.

 

[rhawk79]

i used to have the 52x drive...it was fast reading commercial discs, but reading burned cd's was just horrid. also, kenwood is no longer supporting the drives, which means there are no more firmware updates. the drive will have difficulty reading newer types of discs, as mine did during it's last days of use.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: thorin
There are two common problems with these drives.

1) High failure rate
2) Inability to consistently read CDR/CDRW media

Thorin

VERY high failure rate.

Out of 10 purchased for 10 different comps in 2001, 0 are working today.

 

[Arcanedeath]

I bought 1 of these in 2000 to upgrade my 52X version which failed repeatidly but they supposedly fixed the "bugs" in the 72x version, I still have it and it still works, I use it to install all my software on all my PC's, it's been going fine for over 3 years now, one of the oldest PC parts I have left that I still use regularly maybe I just got lucky and got a good one, because I pretty much only use it for installing software I really haven't had to many issues w/ it, the bigest problem I've got w/ it is that it has trouble reading some CD-R's and just flat out doesn't work w/ CD-RW's, I've got some PNY 12x and 16x media that it seems to get along w/ fairly well, so I just use that for my software when I need it to read CD-R's and I've been fairly happy w/ my 72X true X drive, it's still faster than any other drive I've ever seen and makes less noise than any of my DVD roms or Burners in the house even at full tilt

 

[ZoNtO]

Well I don't think its worth the 50 bucks then. Why spend money for a drive that will end up failing anyway? Thanks for the help guys!

Riley