Silent CD playback?

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 12:41 pm

I have a Samsung SD-816B DVD reader that I use in Sigma One.

When I go to listen to CD audio, the drive spins at a high enough speed that it's audible during silences; does anyone know how to get this drive to stay at a low speed, like 4X or under? I tried Nero but it doesn't detect any speeds besides 32X or Maximum, both of which are noisy.

I have already disabled digital CD playback in Windows, as well as "optimized" CD playback in Musicmatch Jukebox, so I know it's not because the drive is reading it as data (and hence spinning hard and fast). I'm using the CD player's digital audio output to my soundcard for listening to audio CD.

If anyone has a surefire way to play audio discs at low speed, that works on Samsung optical drives, please let me know!

-Ed

erik98225 · Post by **erik98225** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 1:42 pm

Are you using the latest version of nero and the latest version of the drive firmware? If so, I don't know what to tell you.

Personally, I use LiteOn drives in all my systems. They are "smart" enough to spin only as fast as the computer is requesting the data. That way they are nice and quiet at 1x when playing a CD, but smart enough to spin up to full speed for ripping. I have no idea why all drives don't include this as a standard feature.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 2:26 pm

Yes, I am in deed using the latest Nero; I need to check for newer firmware though. Thanks for the suggestion.

The drive's behavior is actually very inconsistent. Sometimes I can stick the CD in while Musicmatch is loaded, then go to the drive's properties in Device Manager to spin it up to high speed, then close it and click Play in Musicmatch and that forces it back down to quiet speed, but sometimes it only reduces the spin speed. It's getting extremely frustrating, and buying yet another optical drive is very annoying to deal with, as this is already the second drive I've had in here.

-Ed

Kostik · Post by **Kostik** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:02 pm

Have you tried CD-Rom Tool ?

If that doesn't work, maybe your drive doesn't support speed adjustement.

lm · Post by lm » Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:06 pm

Rip and encode the CD to mp3 or ogg. Should be perfectly legal and morally correct if you only use those for yourself from the CDs you own.
Then you don't need to have the CD spinning there.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:09 pm

I have tons of music ripped in MP3 format in VBR 100%, as well as songs ripped in WMA and mp3PRO format, VBR 100%, and the quality is noticeably reduced on my sound system. If I were using $5 headphones the difference would be piddly, but on my sound system there's a clear and obvious degradation in quality with lossy formats. I'm trying to figure out what encoding format is truly lossless, besides WAVe.

I tried CD Tool, thanks for the tip, but it didn't work either. When I tell it to detect speeds, all it finds is 32X, just like Nero. I might be screwed on this.

-Ed

lm · Post by lm » Sun Feb 08, 2004 3:18 pm

Did you try Ogg Vorbis, and with maximum quality? Tell me you can really hear the difference?

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 4:31 pm

Although I'm not using Ogg Vorbis, I am using FLAC, which I found out about while reading about Vorbis based on your tip. FLAC is great! Thanks a lot.

-Ed

erik98225 · Post by **erik98225** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:40 am

edwardng wrote:I have tons of music ripped in MP3 format in VBR 100%, as well as songs ripped in WMA and mp3PRO format, VBR 100%, and the quality is noticeably reduced on my sound system. If I were using $5 headphones the difference would be piddly, but on my sound system there's a clear and obvious degradation in quality with lossy formats. I'm trying to figure out what encoding format is truly lossless, besides WAVe.

I use Windows Media Player 9 with encoding method = WMA lossless. Makes a perfect copy of the CD but uses about half the disk space.

I agree with you that lossy compression sounds horrible. I can tell the difference between the highest bit rate MP3 and a CD. The MP3 is nowhere near CD quality.

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:00 am

MP3 at highest set bitrate (320Kbps) mos. def. sounds like absolute crud. MP3 at 100% VBR (averages anywhere from 150Kbps all the way up to something around 540Kbps for me, depending on the song etc.) still doesn't measure up to the original CD or FLAC.

Does anyone have any recommendation in regards to M-Audio Audiophile 2496 vs. Echo MIA MIDI?

-Ed

RaNDoMMAI · Post by **RaNDoMMAI** » Fri Feb 27, 2004 5:51 pm

erik98225 wrote:Are you using the latest version of nero and the latest version of the drive firmware? If so, I don't know what to tell you.

Personally, I use LiteOn drives in all my systems. They are "smart" enough to spin only as fast as the computer is requesting the data. That way they are nice and quiet at 1x when playing a CD, but smart enough to spin up to full speed for ripping. I have no idea why all drives don't include this as a standard feature.

Hi
i have a liteon 52x32x52x burner and it is way to loud when i put in an cd with vidds or music.

how do i use this "smart" spin

TIA
~RaNDoM

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:38 am

there is a utility in nero that lets you set the cdroms maximum speed, check it out in your start menu under nero. works a treat!