Hello Stereo2Go, I thought I would share another jewel from my collection. This was technically considered portable and 'compact' back in its day, so I think it qualifies for this? This is the 1987 Apple CD SC (see bottom unit). It was Apple's first attempt at CD-Rom technology. This device will connect to an Apple Macintosh or an Apple IIGS using SCSI. While it was cutting edge, many didn't see the point of CD-Rom back at this time, and there are few CD-rom titles for System 6, so it's mostly just an expensive compact CD audio player. This unit was designed to be as portable as Apple's Macintosh Computers. Pictured here with the CD SC, is the Apple 40MB SC hard disk, the Apple Macintosh SE SuperDrive, and the Apple ImageWriter II. The Audio Stuff: The device itself was created entirely by SONY, and has absolutely no Apple designed parts inside. Apple designed the case and that's it. Par Sony's design spec for the time, it uses the CD caddy to load discs. Since computers at this time were typically not capable of handling PCM digital audio, the system uses a conventional D/A convertor, and audio out jacks on the back, and a headphone port on the front. No sound can be sent to the mac. The system uses a Burr Brown PCM16 DAC, which was used in some Sony ES CD players of the time, and the Luxman/Sony CD players. The system also has a special Sony KSS electromagnetic tracking servo for the laser. Electronically, some of the same chips that Sony used in Discman units of the day appear in the unit. The system sounds almost identical to a SONY ES cd player and performs similar to a D-15 logically. The unit sounds really clear and crisp. Think Luxman D-117. Although there is no way to hear the audio on the mac, there is no way to control the CD unit without the mac. For this, apple created special software: The CD remote interfaces with the drive and enables user control of track selection and program/repeat/shuffle. This is a bit clunky, and sometimes the software is a tad slow to react, due to this being the SCSI 1 spec, but it does work. Although this software may seem like it does a lot, it only sends a signal to the SONY CD logic circuitry, and it's nearly identical to pressing repeat or shuffle buttons on a Discman. Nowadays, CD drives have none of this circuitry, and the software really does handle this. Hope you enjoyed the read!
I have a Sony SCSI CD ROM that uses the same Caddys, Although it was a cheap second hand unit, before the days of Ebay I spent about £10 on buying a single caddy for it. Since it is from the same year people might be interested in the PC equivalent. Clint actually has some contemporary CD ROMs to try in it. Since you are in the USA you might now be aware of what was being done in the UK with LD-ROM. Streetview in the 1980s !
Very interesting! I also have some CDs for my unit, but I left out that from my analysis and focused on the audio stuff. Yeah, Caddies are expensive, and since Sony used that design until around 1996, there are many drives that need it. Apparently, CD-rom titles were so expensive, people were apprehensive about taking them out of a jewel case and laying them bare on a tray, where they could be scratched. The Caddy was supposed to be the answer, but a short test will prove that the Caddy scratches discs far more than a tray can.
I missed this thread, cool computer Recaptcha! I had an Apple II+ (Bell & Howell Model) but by 85 it was worthless, most of the equipment at school was either IBM PC or Macs, both were world's apart for their use. It took awhile for CDs to take off for data discs but then they went big around 95 when Packard Bell Computers was selling clones with two CD drives! No copying but for some data intensive programs or for running early Windows you needed the extra drive to run two programs at a time. The best part about Apple was the expansion slots on the computers which gave them the ability to add a ton of hardware. My well-off friends would "pop the hood" and show off all of the cards stuffed in the case and they could fit some really long ones, maybe around 12" long x 3.5"? I was watching one of the tech guys on YouTube, Apple also had a cool litte mini portable but I don't think it made it out of Japan. It was completely made by someone over there but wrapped in Apple's Beautifully Designed Casing. The design on the 80's Apples is amazing and really stood the test of time.
