Sony CDU-4821: A Superior CD-ROM
Written: Apr 30 '01 (Updated Jun 10 '01)
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Pros: Fast, very good digital audio extraction, reads CD-RW discs, has digital-out connector
Cons: Sometimes gives off high frequency noise, skips in CD-Audio (rare), bad support
The Bottom Line: Although most would opt for a DVD or CD-RW drive and not a plain CD-ROM, this unit shows off some of the best of what CD-ROM technology has to offer.
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| jucm's Full Review: Sony CDU 4821 Internal 48x CD-ROM Drive |
After putting up with a Panasonic CD-ROM for many months, I finally picked up one of these units as a replacement. I never regretted it. This drive does what it's supposed to do and does it well.
Installation
Just like any other CD-ROM, the installation consists of sliding the drive into an open half-size bay and screwing it in. It takes a standard power and IDE connector. For CD-Audio sound, you can plug in a standard audio cable (included) or use the digital SPDIF connector (more on this later.)
After installing it, Windows 98SE detected the drive automatically and didn't even ask for the install CD. It worked on the first try. There were no frilly drivers to install with the unit, nor did it need any.
Useage
What can I say? The drive worked the way it should work. Put in an Audio CD and you can listen to it. Put in a data CD and it reads it, but definately not at the 48X (7.2 MB/s) rated speed. The data access speed depends on where physically the data is on the disc. This can reach a maximum of 48X but is generally between 20X and 30X for all 48X drives. The player has controls on the front for play/stop/forward track and well as a volume control and a headphone jack. Of course you'll probably never use these because the sound will be sent through your sound card and into your speakers. The drive's mechanical workings are quite quiet but you can still tell by the sounds it makes when it's spinning the disc. It's slightly noisier with burned CDs.
The drive is multisession capable of course, and has never failed to read a properly burned CD-R disc. The specifications say that it can read CD-RW disc as well, but I have not tried it. You need to get a software update from Adaptec if you want to use this feature.
On a few occasions, when I had been playing a CD for several (5+) hours, the drive started behaving strangely. It would skip tracks and sometimes jump to the next track without completing the current one. This only happened a few times and on each occasion when I removed the CD, it was very hot.
One complaint I have is that the drive often gives off a very high pitched noise. It's very quiet and inaudible to most people because the frequency of the sound very high, at about 18-19 kHz. If you're an adult then you probably wouldn't be able to hear it since a person's upper hearing threshold becomes lower as you become wiser, especially in men. The sound still bothers me a lot when it's present (which is not common.) It's unclear if this is a feature with all drives of this model or just mine.
Digital Audio Extraction
This is the process of also known as 'ripping audio tracks.' It's necessary for converting CD music to mp3 or some other digital format, or re-burning them onto CD and making your own mixes. The ripping process on this drive is remarkably stable.
In comparison to my old Panasonic that would cause pops/clicks whenever there was a small scratch on the disc, the Sony cleanly read even battered discs, and has never in my experience produced sound artefacts. This applies to cases where I didn't touch the computer while it was ripping. The solid digital audio extraction is one of the main reasons why I like this drive. Using Audiograbber, the speed of digital audio extraction was about 3.3x. Not too fast but it's worth the wait to get cleanly ripped tracks.
Quality
The quality of CD-Audio played through the drive is nothing to complain about. I've heard better on high-end Nakamichi component-system based CD Players, but the difference is very minimal. The quality of the sound from a CD is dependent on a large number of factors, so this comparison may not be fair. The Nakamichi unit I mentioned was in a stereo with a very high end amplifier and venerable B&W loudspeakers.
I've never had any problems with the unit breaking down or eating CDs for lunch (or any other meal for that matter.)
Digital Audio Out (SPDIF)
The drive features a SPDIF (pronounced spee-diff) jack on the back. This means that you can have an all digital connection between your CD-ROM and sound card for superior CD Audio quality. Not all sound cards support this, but the appropriate jack is on Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live!. Although the digital sound sounds the same to me, this can be useful because the drive's standard CD Audio and SPDIF interfaces can be used at the same time. This allows you to pipe CD-Audio to two different sound cards simultaneously (assuming that you have two installed in the first place and one of them supports the digital interface.) Note that you have to buy the appropriate SPDIF cable if you want to use the SPDIF connection. I found one for about US$3 at a local computer shop.
Support
Sony's support is downright bad. Their website has nothing but a specifications sheet for the drive, and whenever I tried to contact someone, they simply said that their department doesn't support that line of products and then referred me to someone who either did not exist or did not answer my e-mail requests.
The BIOS (programming that controls how the thing works) in the drive was version S0.N when I first received it. Sony later released an update which fixed some random crashes in windows that moved the BIOS up to version S0.P. They might as well have not released it because there was no mention of it on their site whatsoever. I had stumbled across the update by chance on the site of a computer manufacturer who builds computers who use that drive. This kind of behaviour by Sony is irresponsible and they should make a better effort to inform customers of updates to their products.
In Conclusion
If you want a solid CD-ROM drive, this unit is a strong candidate, although you might be better advised to look into a DVD-ROM or CD-RW unit considering how their popularity is growing. And just a side note: I mentioned that I was fed up with my Panasonic drive at the beginning of this text. The drive was actually branded with the Creative Labs name, but all CD-ROMs of that type are made by Panasonic.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 65
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
jucm
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Location: Canada
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 19 members
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The world is a conspiracy. You either know it or are part of it.
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