What ever happened to Kenwood TrueX drives?

[Zucarita9000]

I've read so many good things about them, what happened? Why didn't they manufacture DVD or CD-RW drives with the technology?

 

[magomago]

I remember seeing those 72X drives around....maybe because the chances of the CDs exploding were huge?

I remember something like once you hit 13,000 RPMs on a disc the chances of it shattering increases which is why speeds weren't increasing - perhaps someone can clue us in and be more specific....

But good god who needs 72X drives (cdrom or CDRW)? the only thing it affects would be install time (and maybe burn speed if you copy a lot of CDS)

 

[John]

Too many laser problems and issues reading cdr/rw's.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: magomago
I remember seeing those 72X drives around....maybe because the chances of the CDs exploding were huge?

I remember something like once you hit 13,000 RPMs on a disc the chances of it shattering increases which is why speeds weren't increasing - perhaps someone can clue us in and be more specific....

But good god who needs 72X drives (cdrom or CDRW)? the only thing it affects would be install time (and maybe burn speed if you copy a lot of CDS)

The reason the 72x drives were so great, is that they used multiple heads to get the speed at like 16x, so they were very low RPM and low noise, and very fast reading. I was wonddering myself intil I read Johns response. I hope the same idea comes back.

 

[Mday]

zen's concept was great. but kenwood made crappy drives. because of the technology itself, these drives tended to overheat, not only during normal operation, but while idle as well. i had a 52x myself. i was one of the lucky ones to get one that wasnt DOA or die soon thereafter. it wore itself down, and i no longer use it.

 

[Arcanedeath]

The company that licensed the tech from Zen Research and sold it to kenwood went out of business (ie the distributor I forget their name) their were plans in the works for DVD roms and 100x or faster cd-rom drives based off this tech but it didn't pan out due to the financial difficulties of some of the companies involved or so I heard from a friend in the business, anyways it was a real shame these drives went away, they were very quiet and performed very well and once kenwood got their QC issues under control after all the 52x drives that had issues the 62x & 72x true x drives turned into very nice and reliable products, I still have one of the 72x drives in service I used it to load all the software on my new builds, a buddy of mine also has a 72x drive still in use in his PC he's had it in constant use almost since they came out....

 

[Moonbeam]

I pretty much limit using my 72x to reinstalls.

 

[merlocka]

I use my 72x for ripping mp3.

As said above, too many problems reading scratched discs or CDR CDRW. But when it works it is fast.

 

[Yoshi]

Yeah, lots of CDR and CDRW reading problems in addition to the fact that most that were sold are already dead. Including myself I know several people who bought 72x drives and none of them work or are even around any more.

 

[OddTSi]

I bought my 72x pretty much when it first came out. I still use it as my main CD-ROM drive to this day. Once in a while it'll be picky about a CD-R, but that's usually only with cheap/crappy, old, no-name disks.

 

[Slappy00]

Yah is a damn shame taht that tech is not being used, ESP with the high volumes that DVD disks have, it seems like a logical way to improve data rate without turingin your DVD-ROM into a blender

 

[jeffrey]

I'll tell you what happened to all the 72xTrueX drives. The enthusiasts who bought them are hoarding them.

The darn drive is jaw-dropping fast. The thing you need to realize is that a 48x or a 52x drive only reaches that speed at the end of the disc. They start out much lower, probably around a 20x reading. The 72xTrueX drive starts reading data at around 68x and rises to about 74x or so at the end of the disc. The speed chart on the drive is almost completely flat.

With pressed media nothing compares to the speed. CDR discs are normally fine, as long as they are not scratched bad.

The negative of the drive is that it is a luxury nowadays. It will take up a bay and it is cheaper to buy a 16x dvd drive. Luckily I still have and run mine.

 

[MrMaster]

My 52x all but died two years ago. It doesn't install stuff properly. It's like it skips when reading the disc.

Overall I also wish they would come back.

 

[Sideswipe001]

I had 3 72x drives. First one died after a month (kept getting errors in Windows 2000 telling me it was unplugged!). I RMAed it. The replacement drive did the same after anotehr month or two (RMA again). I sold the 3rd one before it had a chance to die on me.

I liked it so much when it worked...but boy did it have issues.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Sideswipe001
I had 3 72x drives. First one died after a month (kept getting errors in Windows 2000 telling me it was unplugged!). I RMAed it. The replacement drive did the same after anotehr month or two (RMA again). I sold the 3rd one before it had a chance to die on me.

I liked it so much when it worked...but boy did it have issues.

I did the same, went through 2 then sold the 3rd when it came... they were garbage.