Customer Reviews

Yamaha CRW70 Spyder 12x8x24 External USB 2.0 CD-RW Drive and MP3 Player

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

So, I bought this for my lap top, and not knowing much about burners I kind of had to guess which to get.

Let's start with the bad then end of with the good:
1. Yamaha never sent me the rebate that was advertised with the burner. So, it makes this burner a little more pricey than others
2. The burning software is a little bit buggy and often does an illegal operation and shuts down. however, it hasn't really affected it too much because it usually does the error when you are shutting it down anyway.
3. I often lose sound on my regular cd drive when playing discs and on the hard drive when playing music. but that could be my own computer's fault.
4. I bought the drive thinking i could use it with headphones since it's portable. well, you need an outlet to get power, so it's not something you can use to run off of batteries. I also thought it could store MP3's, which it doesn't, but that's pretty much my own ignorance when it comes to these things.

Ok, so the good things:

1. it was really easy to install
2. it records music very quickly
3. the sound quality is good
4. you can plug it into a receiver and play CD's that way without having to buy a separate cd player for your stereo.

well, anyway, I hope this helps!

I've been using the product for six weeks and I have been very happy with it, even though I normally buy nothing but Plextors. I have winXP on my hp notebook, and after plugging the drive in to the usb port using the included high-quality cable, the drive was recognized and installed immediately.

Audio burning allows cd-text, overburning (necessary for using 90 minute cdr's), and other features only found on high end burners, but extremely useful.

I was pleased to find an enclosed card for a mail-in free pci usb 2.0 card (faster than firewire) or a discounted pcmcia usb 2.0 card (with 4 ports!). The requirements are technically different from the mail-in rebate, so you apparently don't have to choose between the two. Unfortunately, though a UPC "photocopy" is listed as acceptable for the mail-in rebate, I received a postcard that my rebate had been rejected because an "original" barcode was not sent to them. So in reality you have to choose between the usb 2.0 card and the rebate, due to false advertising.

So far, I've had no bad burns or dae flaws.

The bundled Nero software is good for advanced hobbyists but impossibly complicated for newbies. Nero is fully XP compatible, and it is the only major burning software suite to support overburning for 90 minute cdrs. But it has a complicated, unintuitive interface. If you do NOT use winXP, and you've never done cd burning before, you're better off buying a retail version of Roxio Easy Cd Creator to go with the Spyder. (Free bundled versions of Easy Cd Creator lack the jewel case cover creator anyway, so it's just as well Yamaha went with Nero.)
The ac adaptor is rather large for carrying around, so this isn't everyday portable, but it's portable enough for me to stick into USB ports on my family's computers and back up their date conveniently for them.

My particular drive worked fine as general-purpose storage. It would play normally encoded CDs but not MP3 files that it recorded itself. (The MP3 files all conformed to the parameter restrictions in the manual.) I confirmed that the MP3-encoded CD itself was OK by taking it to a store that had a boombox that played MP3 CDs, and it played fine on that (so it wasn't operator error). I had expected better digital design or quality from a drive that is this expensive. Also the manual had only a medium correlation with the software on-screen menus. It had poor orientation to MP3 files and software choices. Only one of three people on the phone-line tech-support knew anything about the product & I don't think they had one physically with them. I am returning the drive for a refund.

A wonderful cool looking device that immediately worked under Linux. Only problem: Most computers (such as my notebook purchased last year) do not have a usb 2.0 port. The drive also works with the old usb 1.1, but will only run at a speed of 6x instead of 24x.

So you will have to buy a usb 2.0 port card in addition to this drive. Apart from that it would be 5 out of 5 stars:

The buffer-underrun-protection works wonderfully, and that it can play mp3 cds without the computer being connected is just another plus.

Linux 2.4.19 will have usb 2.0 drivers included, they are already in the 2.4.19pre3 code.

Michael
PS: Windows XP worked also, but Linux is just better ;-)

It was simple to burn an audio CD but burning image files (my primary need)was another story entirely. The user manual on the supplied Nero software disk is far to complicated. The instructions in the Help index were useless.
I finally got a hold of Yamaha customer support (only open 9-5)and they were helpful. The solutions were simple, just not explained. I was up and running after a short time.
Now it works really well. Just don't rely on the enclosed documentation.

The Spyder is a truly awesome drive. It is pretty much compatible with almost anything and every type of computer. The Spyder is very small, and can burn CD's in 6 minutes. It also comes with great software, and it's so easy that you'll be up and ready to burn CDs in about 5 minutes. Give the Spyder a shot!

they trim/slim considerably that brick the R&D Yamaha people call a power supply!
What were they thinking?

I just bought a Yamaha CRW70 "spyder" 2 weeks ago and I have been a burning CD's with it eversince. It is truly a great product!!! So far I have no complains. it writes perfect CD's everytime.

Thanks to Yamaha Audio Master Quality recording! Now you can't tell whether it's the original playing or just a copy.

Great for traveling! The writer is so light that you can take it almost anywhere. I just bring portable speakers and I have an MP3 player! Yup! It plays MP3 without a computer. No skips!!!

Excellent Product!