Microboards' 8X Copy Writer A2D - CD recording system - Statistical Data Included

Emedia Professional, July, 1999 by Stephen F. Nathans

Full audio CD images were burned to CD at breakneck speed, clocking in each time between 9:35 and 9:55. Twelve discs recorded to the three media types listed earlier--from both analog and CD sources--played back flawlessly in multiple CD players (home and car) and two CD-ROM drives.

a shrinking wish list

CD-R has always been the kind of technology that dares you to dream, especially in its dark early and middle periods when it was such a pain it hardly seemed worth it. And even as it's been refined to such an awe-inspiring apogee with products like the A2D--along with other recording bundles and duplicators based on robust 8X drives like the Plextor and forthcoming Matsushita (sure to make a splash in both the desktop and duplicator ponds)--it's no crime to want more. MicroBoards assures me the A2D will ship with a full-fledged, updated manual (documentation from the 4X model was sent with this one), which will presumably include a media support list, which is crucial information for 8X recording since there remain many more media brands in circulation that don't support it than do. [For now, get your media support information for the Plextor 8X at http://www.plextor.com/8xmedia.htm.)

Audio de-clicking is also an increasingly common technological perk on systems offering analog-to-digital conversion, as is MP3 support, which MicroBoards is emphasizing in some of its other CD-R products, and other duplicator vendors like Princeton Disc are promising in their latest systems.

That said, there's nothing the 8X A2D sets out to do that it doesn't achieve, and since its aims are pretty ambitious to begin with, that's saying quits a bit. I used to tell people even 2X recording was worth the trouble, considering all you had to do was click WRITE CD, go downstairs, have a beer, and return to find a perfect, full disc. But this 8X/32X combo really exists in an entirely separate dimension, and changes the equation entirely. You'd have to drink pretty fast to toss back a beer in the time it takes the A2D to toss off a disc. Which is a good thing, since it means CD-R's days of driving you to drink are long gone.

for more information, contact:

MicroBoards Technology, Inc., 1480 Park Road. Suite B, P.O. Box 848, Chanhassen, MN 55317; 800/646.8881, 612/556-1600; Fax 612/470-1805; http://www.microboards.com; INFOLINK #412

other companies mentioned in this review

Plextor Corporation
4255 Burton Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054; 800/886-3935,
408/980-1828; Fax 408/986-1010; http://www.plextor.com;
INFOLiNK #417

Stephen F. Nathans (stephenn@onlineinc.com) is Editor of EMedia Professional.

Comments? Email us at letters@onlineinc.com or check the masthead for other ways to contact us.3