Installation

Installation of the Shuttle CD-ROM is a matter of utter simplicity. This due to the fact that under Windows, installation only requires that you activate the corresponding channel of your hard disk controller in your BIOS.

Under DOS, a floppy disk in supplied with the CD-ROM drive for installing the proper drivers, and configures your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Personally, I prefer to connect the CD-ROM drive in the secondary port of my hard disk drives controller, in order to avoid it slowing down the transfer speeds of my hardrive. I found no need to change the jumper that places the CD-ROM in a default "Slave" mode, but I was careful to close the master channel, and open the slave channel of the hard disk drive controller in the BIOS, as previously suggested.

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Test Results

All test were performed under Windows, with a system of the following configuration:

Mainboard: Shuttle EP-6VBA
CPU: Intel Pentium III 450mhz
Memory: 64mb PC100 SDram (LGS)
IDE first channel Primary port: Quantum Fireball KA 9.1gig UDMA66
IDE second channel Primary port: Shullte 56X UDMA33
AGP slot: MSI 8806 TNT2
PCI slot number 4: Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Value
ISA slot number 2: US Robotic 56k X2 modem
OS: Win98 4.10
DirectX 6.1

CD Winbench99

The results obtained by this CD-ROM, demonstrate a net advantage of the Shuttle CD-ROM drive.

CD Tach 98 version 2.00

High Performance tests, using CD Tach 98 version 2.00, were performed with read-ahead, and the Windows CD-ROM cache activated. This configuration was used to match conditions similar to those of the default Windows configuration. As you can see, the CD-ROM drives using the True X reading technology are faster, but report a random access time slower than the Shuttle. Don't forget that two different technologies are being used: True X makes use of 7 lasers that read from 7 tracks simultaneously...

Photo Visualization Test

The photo visualization test is a benchmark wherein a suite of 80 1MB high-resolution images are called up as quickly as the CD-ROM drive can manage. This test, performed on two True X CD-ROM drives from Kenwood (40X and 52X) as well as the Shuttle 56X, demonstrate the superiority of the True X technology. However, don't forget that this type of CD-ROM is much more costly (about the same cost as a SCSI CD-ROM drive...) than standard CD-ROM drives...

Digital Audio Extraction under Win98

While the True X CD-ROM drives win the round on the Windac test, the Shuttle 56X proves faster than the Kenwood 52X on the AudioGrabber test.

Sound Quality

The sound quality of this CD-ROM drive was very pleasant. I found the quality of the music to be completely without reproach. The analog-out of this CD-ROM drive is of truly high quality, and sits as what this type of CD-ROM drive does best. Crystal clear high frequencies, excellent deep low bass and very clean mid frequencies are accurately reproduced by the analgog audio output of this CD-ROM drive.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the Shuttle 56X CD-ROM struck me as a device of excellent quality, passed in performance solely by its True X competitors. Its sound quality and ease-of-use are very pleasant. Operating noise caused by vibrations are less than apparent, and quite discreet compared to the Kenwood devices. I really liked the Shuttle 56X, and I have no specific complaints to level against this excellent product. Remember that the Kenwood CD-ROM drives that were tested against the Shuttle 56X, are equipped with technology allowing them to read 7 track simultaneously, and cost much more than the Shuttle. For that reason, it's not a totally equitable comparison for a product that nevertheless came out ahead in 3 of the 6 tests performed...

For more information, visit Shuttle.