princeton disc CDXpress Plus - introduction to the CDXpress Plus disk drive - Statistical Data Included

Emedia Professional, August, 1999 by Peter Schworm

in July 1999, Wall Street, once the province of well-heeled financiers, extended its hours to 10 p.m., fearing the loss of rank-and-file customers to online after-hours services. This decision signaled the market's realization that its four walls no longer contain the sole arbiters of high finance, dramatically shifting influence to the general trading public. It also illustrates how the elitist school of thought that equates complexity with sophistication is increasingly falling out of favor.

Princeton Disc's 8X write/20X read CDXpress Plus exemplifies this emerging emphasis on achievement over status, substance over style, by embracing a simple, though not simplistic, design and format that fulfills multiple consumer needs with a no-frills approach. Sure, at nearly 16" (L) x 17" (W), 4.25" (H) and 16-pound bulk that will surprise you every time, CDXpress Plus is a cumbersome deviation from any streamlined industry norm. Its design looks like a cross between a '60s stereo receiver (minus the wooden handles) and a recycled PC from the early 90s. The LCD display, which rests above the CD/CD-R-drive, appears to have been made from an old 3-1/2-inch drive bay. Also found on the front panel are the power, reset, and CD-eject buttons, three LED buttons indicating the machine's current status, a headphone jack, and a volume control.

Yet its heft does not prevent the CDXpress Plus from catering to many functions, serving as a CD player, CD recorder, and a CD copier. Indeed, its versatility and ability to fulfill several duties separates it somewhat from the ruck of contestants in the current market. As either an addition to a stereo or computer, CDXpress Plus allows users to copy all CD formats and record and edit audio from both digital and analog sound sources with ease and speed. Connecting the CDXpress to a PC as an external device via a SCSI cable allows it to provide the full range of CD-R functionality, including serving as a back up for data files.

recording the q & a way

In testing, CDExpress burned a 38-minute audio CD in four-and-a-half minutes, after extracting it in 10 minutes at 6X pace. With the unit's plug-connect-then-record installation, I had a burned CD in hand 20 minutes after breaking open the unit's shipment box. No trial and error or prior knowledge is required to begin. A quick instruction sheet for CD-copying stands at the ready, but CDXpress Plus virtually works alone as a direct copier. It detects audio automatically, and therefore can differentiate between CD data types and source and blank discs.

Audio-data copying to the unit's hard drive begins simply by closing the CD-ROM drive tray, burning by replacing the master with the blank. There's no muss and no fuss, just a welcoming message reading "Copy Was Successful!" upon completion. Located at the left of the display on the front panel, two red selection buttons marked "Yes," and "No," succinctly escort the user through the product's many functions.

Those who have trouble coloring inside the lines may feel somewhat inhibited by the restrictive options, but as a guide through the minefield of CD extraction and creation, the CDXpress Plus displays military-like efficiency. Perhaps not surprisingly, the display interface communicates with the user much as a sergeant would talk to his enlisted men--accepting only yes and no responses. In line with its no-nonsense approach, however, CDXpress Plus eschews gradualism in its options menu in favor of a slash-and-burn campaign.

an ear for music

The main menu, which appears when the device is turned on or reset, offers six options: copy, verify, audio CD player, read audio tracks, record audio tracks, and edit audio tracks. Each options contains additional attractive subfunctions. The audio player contains a repeating "loop" option; read audio tracks facilitates the creation of customized CDs from several source discs; and record audio tracks feature allows the user to import sound from any external source to the computer's internal hard drive for audio-CD creation, including radio, MIDI and WAV files, DAT, LPs, cassettes, or live music from a mixing board or a multitrack recorder.

Choose edit audio tracks, and you can manipulate already-extracted files, and play, delete, or rearrange certain songs. The verify option is a quite useful feature as well, particularly if you are remiss in labeling CDs. After scanning the CD, the machine concludes whether the disc is the same as the master, and provides an error message when no audio tracks are verified. CDXpress Plus facilitates nearly effortless LP or cassette-to-CD-conversion, including indexing tracks through an auto-recording silence feature, which marks the end of each track when it encounters a certain length of silence. The user determines the amount, choosing from a half-second and five seconds in intervals of half-seconds. This is a handy feature for users copying entire LPs or LP sides, since it enables the recorder to perform the entire process unattended instead of forcing the user to make manual track-to-track transitions.