Sony's CD-ROM Discman follows old strengths<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): On one of the shelves in my study sits the first
\nSony Discman that I had ever bought. It is definitely very bulky
\ncompared with today's designs, but it has a rechargeable battery.
\nIt introduced me to the wonderful sonic world of compact disks.<\/p>\n
My first audio compact disk was one that contained Mozart's
\nEine Kleine Nachtmusik played by the Academy of St. Martin in the
\nFields with Sir Neville Marriner as the conductor. At the time, I
\nlistened to this CD over and over because, as a student living on
\na scholarship in Honolulu, Hawaii, I didn't have money to buy
\nmore CDs.<\/p>\n
That old Discman has gone through a lot of abuse. I used to
\ntake it to bed at night because I really enjoyed listening to
\nsemi-classical music through earphones until I fell asleep (I was
\nsharing an apartment room with a fellow student and therefore I
\nhad to use earphones to leave him in peace). I sometimes took it
\nwith me to the library at the beautiful Manoa campus, and it got
\nsquashed between thick and heavy text books inside my backpack.<\/p>\n
Naturally, after a while this mistreatment had an impact. The
\nhinges of the cover were finally broken, and big dents and cracks
\nbegan to show here and there. The worst problem was that there
\nwas no sound from the headphones unless I spent at least ten
\nminutes fiddling with the jack.<\/p>\n
Later, the battery gave me just a few minutes of playing time
\nbefore it ran out of juice -- although I had recharged it for
\nhours. Yet, despite the damage, it can still play music if I'm
\nwilling to twist it, roll it and shake it.<\/p>\n
That was indeed an extraordinarily interesting product. I've
\nencountered many lousy Sony products, but I've also encountered a
\nlot of interesting ones from the giant electronics company that
\nare now as ragged as that old Discman of mine.<\/p>\n
It is more than nine years since I bought that first Discman,
\nand I have recently found another interesting Discman from Sony.
\nIt is interesting because, like the Panasonic KXL-D740 that I
\nreviewed early last month, it can also read CD-ROMs. I cannot
\ntest its sturdiness with the old tortures, because it is not
\nmine. But, courtesy of Memori Primatama, I was able to play with
\nit to get to know its features.<\/p>\n
You may recall from my review of the Panasonic drive, that I
\nliked it very much. The new Sony Discman costs about Rp 200,000
\n(US$86) more than that one, but the extra features may make the
\nprice difference irrelevant. That doesn't mean that I've changed
\nmy mind about the Panasonic drive, though.<\/p>\n
Slim design<\/p>\n
While unpacking the CD-ROM Discman, one may get a little bit
\nintimidated by the array of accessories that the box contains.
\nFortunately it doesn't require a rocket scientist to figure out
\nhow to put the pieces together.<\/p>\n
The handsome, two-color drive (the body is black and the cover
\nis dark gray) is very slim. It is smaller than the Panasonic
\ndrive, but it feels much more rugged than the latter. There is
\nnot a see-through window on the cover, and this increases the
\nrugged look of the drive.<\/p>\n
This portable CD-ROM drive comes with a rechargeable lithium
\nion battery, which is the newest kind of battery technology for
\nportable devices on the market today. This type of battery
\nusually comes inside an expensive notebook computer, because it
\ncosts more than any other type of notebook battery. The one that
\ncomes in the package is very small -- almost the size of an AA
\nbattery, and it slides into a compartment at the back of the
\ndrive.<\/p>\n
I did not test the battery as the gadget was on loan, and the
\nmanual did not say how long we could expect it to last when it
\nwas fully recharged.<\/p>\n
When it is playing audio compact disks, the LCD monitor tells
\nus the track number, the minutes and seconds of play time and
\nother playing mode information. Unfortunately, the LCD is on the
\nfront of the player. Not only is it very small, it is also
\ndifficult to read if it is placed on a table top because of the
\nangle. We have to be in front of the drive to be able to read it.
\nThe Panasonic's placement of the LCD display is preferable. Since
\nit is on the top cover, we do not have to bend down to read it.<\/p>\n
Although the unit does not have a strap, you could take it
\njogging if you wished. Just slide the alkaline battery case
\nunderneath the drive until the catchers click into place. This
\ndocking station holds four AA batteries. But we must still insert
\nthe power cable's jack from the alkaline battery compartment into
\nthe power socket of the drive. I wish Sony had made the procedure
\nautomatic by adding connectors that would snap together the
\nmoment the drive was seated properly on the base.<\/p>\n
A SCSI device<\/p>\n
The included PC Card that connects the Discman drive to a
\nnotebook computer is an Adaptec APA 1460 SCSI II host adapter.
\nUsing a card made by the leader in SCSI adapters means that we
\ncan connect other SCSI devices to our notebook with no problem.
\nThe drive can be assigned SCSI ID # 3 or # 5 by changing the dip
\nswitch on the bottom side of the drive. When the card was
\ninserted into the PC Card slot of my notebook for the first time,
\nWindows 95 immediately recognized it and requested Setup Disk # 7
\nto be inserted into the floppy drive so that the necessary device
\ndriver files could be copied to the hard disk.<\/p>\n
Unlike the Panasonic drive, however, the connection at the
\nback of the drive uses a small SCSI interface, which may still be
\ndifficult to find on the market. I like the Panasonic drive
\nbetter because it uses the standard wide SCSI connector. If your
\ndesktop PC already has a SCSI board, you can normally attach the
\ndrive to it and it will become an external CD-ROM drive. In the
\ncase of the Sony Discman, you will have to buy the new, small
\nconnector to make it work.<\/p>\n
Getting the notebook to recognize the drive was a little bit
\ntricky, particularly because I had sinned by not reading the
\nmanual carefully. It turned out that I had to turn on the drive
\nfirst by pressing the Play button before inserting the card into
\nits slot. Only then could I begin to install the driver for the
\nCD-ROM drive which came on a single diskette.<\/p>\n
Once the software driver was installed, the device worked
\nflawlessly. Performance was just what you'd expect from a quad-
\nspeed drive. The drive could read all kinds of CDs -- including
\nCD-recordable, multisession Photo CD and CD-extra. A green lamp
\nlights up when the drive is busy working.<\/p>\n
Other features<\/p>\n
The installation process also added EZ-SCSI utilities to
\nWindows 95, including Adaptec CD-player and Photo-CD viewer. In
\naddition to the standard CD player utility, there is also a mini
\nCD-Player that does not take too much space on the notebook
\nscreen. The driver diskette also contains drivers for Windows 3.x
\nand DOS. It is thoughtful of Sony to include all these drivers,
\nbecause not everybody is using Windows 95, even a year after its
\nlaunch.<\/p>\n
For music lovers, Sony included a pair of Sony headphones that
\nproduce good quality sound. Like most other ultra-portable CD
\nplayers, there is only one control button for sound, i.e., the
\nvolume control. Unfortunately, the control is a little too close
\nto the headphone jack and the line-out jacks, which makes setting
\nthe volume rather awkward if you have it connected to a pair of
\nheadphones and an amplifier.<\/p>\n
The control buttons could have been located more sensibly. The
\nRewind button is placed to the right of the Play button. It would
\nbe more logical to put this button to left of the Play button and
\nthe Fast Forward to the right of the Play button. The Power Off
\nbutton has a label underneath it, but unless you had read the
\nmanual you would not know that to power up you should press the
\nPlay button.<\/p>\n
Two buttons sit to the left of the LCD display. One activates
\nthe Select mode, and the other selects either CD-ROM or audio CD
\nplaying mode. In my opinion, the functions of these two buttons
\ncould easily be combined into one. The bass frequency range can
\nbe boosted, using the Mode and Select buttons, too.<\/p>\n
The sound quality is good, whether you're listening to the
\naudio CD through a pair of power speakers connected to the line-
\nout jack or through the included headphones. The CD, however, has
\nto be pushed down the hub with a little force. It is unlike most
\nother CD players that we've seen, where we usually only have drop
\nthe CD inside the well.<\/p>\n
This reminds me of the CD-ROM drive of a friend's Compaq
\nnotebook. I was trying to install a software program from my CD-
\nROM, but I couldn't get the drive to read the CD-ROM. When I
\npushed the Eject button, the tray refused to come out. When it
\nfinally came out, I realized that, as for this Sony Discman, I
\nshould have pressed the CD-ROM all the way down the shaft.<\/p>\n
The good thing about the locking mechanism on this player is
\nthat it is more immune to shocks. But remember this when you use
\na new CD-ROM drive: You may have to place your fingers around the
\ncenter of the CD-ROM and press it down with a little force before
\nthe drive can work properly.<\/p>\n
As I mentioned earlier, this Sony Discman is more expensive
\nthan the Panasonic. If what you want is performance and if the
\nextra convenience of a rechargeable battery is unnecessary, you
\nshould buy the Panasonic. But, if you have the money and you like
\nthe rechargeable battery, you should go with Sony. With the
\nlithium ion battery and the cute headphones, the price difference
\nis certainly worth it.<\/p>",
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