... that does not have a tray that feels like flimsy plastic crap. Does anyone do one? Such mech info seems extremely difficult to find. I'm looking for the kind of 'quality' mechanism found on high end CD players (but obviously I also need DVD functionality).
I'm not talking about complete CD/DVD players, but drives. You know - the ones people put in computers to read/write DVD/CDs. Typical price for crap - $30. What quality ones exist?
I paid hundreds of dollars for my first 5.25" floppy drive, in 1984, and by then the price had dropped considerably. I paid something like $80 for my first 3.5" floppy drive, it was only single-sided, in 1989. My first hard drive, in late 1993, was hundreds of dollars.
When you're paying that kind of money, you can expect things to stand up well. But when you have to squeeze costs in order to reach a price level that consumers demand, then of course things get flimsy. Yes, some of cost reduction is due to a greater market, and some to higher integration, but mechanical parts are often a means of cutting costs. People want cheap, but on the other hand they aren't expecting to repair things. They'll pay thirty dollars for a drive, and then not worry when they have to replace it, for another thirty dollars. They know it would cost more to have it repaired.
Keep the price high, and that limits who will buy. But it gives far more leeway for good construction, and when people are paying good money for something, they are more willing to spend a percentage of that money to keep the item running.
What do you mean by quality? Looking it was made by the soviet union, weighing a tone, and with a lifespan of two weeks, or made with a quality plastics and having a lifespan greater than your computer?
$30 will buy you a quality drive unless you pay $29 to the middleman.
Great examples are from NEC, toshiba, plextor, LG, Lite-on, mitsumi, ASUS, pioneer,Aopen,optorite. Even sony makes OK drives.
For example, an ASUS CB-5216A can be had for $31.99. It will easily outlast your PC.
It's going into audio equipment. So it has, at least, to look like a top of the range audio CD player. And trust me on this one - the trays on such systems *aren't* shaky, rattling bits of flimsy plastic.
Tell you what - next time you have a few minutes and are passing a store that sells quality audio stuff drop in and ask to see a CD player costing in excess of $1000. Look at the CD player tray. Compare it to the average PC. That will give you an idea of what I'm looking for.
Probably the same folks that make the $30 units for PCs. The piece you see is just the disk tray and is custom made to the specs of the A/V equipment manufacturer. The innards are probably standard and don't differ much from the generic PC units.
Like someone else suggested, have a machinist mill a tray out of aluminum, finish it to your specifications and fit it to a PC drive.
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Paul Hovnanian mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
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They are specially made for the device. They are an important part of the 'look and feel' and thus can cost a lot of money.
Now that kind of requirement does not exist for the mass market - it would actually be against the purpose to use a mass market device, no matter how good it is.
Maybe you can get by using a slot-in drive. My slot-in DVD makes a lot of noise - check if that is a problem with what you select.
High end audio drives are also slow. Maybe a slower motor or changed gear can make a different impression too.
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