Neoseeker heeft een review gemaakt van de Sony Spressa CD-RW kit. Naast een CRX160E drive krijg je bij deze kit een IDE-kabel, een CD-R en CD-RW schijfje. De meegeleverde software bestaat onder andere uit Sony CD-Extreme, voor het maken van VCD's, CD-ROM's en audio CD's. Ondanks de brandsnelheden van 12X schrijven en 8X herschrijven en een 4MB buffer, beschikt de CRX160E niet over burn-proof technologie.
So did we like the Spressa drive –yes. Do we think it’s worth rushing out and buying one if you have never owned a CD-RW drive before Definitely! What about if you already own a fast 10X or 12X CD-RW drive but lack the faster 8X Re-write speeds? Our suggestion to this dilemma would be –if you need the faster re-write speeds then go for it, if you don’t then wait a while until you can justify spending the money!
The Spressa Professional recording system is a nicely rounded package that delivers average read speeds and great write and re-write speeds. The software package is nice and has many needed features, but we wished it provided full Windows 2000 support. We were aslo surprised to see Sony push the speed envelope higher without incorporating such technologies as Burn-proof into the firmware –so the CD writing experience is a little less complicated, especially for the beginners. At the time of this writing, the drive can be purchased online (from Sony) for about $279. That seems a bit steep when you compare it to the average net price of $180 for the older Spressa 10X4X24X drive –that has the exact same software package only performs just a little slower writing –yet much slower re-writing. But for $279 you’ll get a complete CD-RW suite, a one year warranty –and the ability to create any kind of CD you can imagine –in record times, just make sure you have a machine that can handle writing speeds that high because otherwise your forced to throttle down the burn speeds –thus having a slower CD-RW drive altogether and making the decision to upgrade wait a while.