I just bought a used 72X here in Japan for around $30. I have 5 days to return it so I'm checking it out using CDSpeed99.

When I run the transfer rate test the green line stays level and the yellow line drops down. I get something like 22X start and 27X end.

If I try to run the DAE test, I get a read error at 0.00, test aborted. I do have an audio CD in there.

I'm running Win98SE and when I look in Device Manager, the DMA box is unchecked, but when I enable it and reboot, it stays unchecked.

Anybody have any clues? I know this CD-ROM came out a long time ago (manufacture date on it is Dec. 1999), but I'm sure it's supposed to support DMA and do some sort of DAE.

I also heard people had a lot of problems with them so maybe this unit is bad. It runs audio CD and installs software fine.

The Kenwood drives are very picky. Your info about DMA was a little confusing, I assume you mean you can't enable DMA for the drive. The drives will have a problem with DAE if the CD is not in perfect condition. It reads with 3 lasers to achieve it's speed. If an error is detected, the drive must re-read the sectors read by all three lasers. If you haven't had problems enabling DAE with other drives I would return the drive.

I was checking out the Kenwood and CDSpeed2000 web site and actually, I am doing pretty good. Some guys were not even breaking 20X transfer rate. DMA needs to be enabled, and there are two different firmware depending on your motherboard.

The drive I have was updated with the 221 firmware, which is only recommended for Athlon or Intel 820 systems. But I currently have it in a BE6-II. I notice I can't find DMA Enable in the BIOS, even though I have the latest BIOS. But this is an old 440BX board, so probably can't do anything about it.

Looks like I have to run this drive in my Athlon rigs, or change the firmware back to the 226.

Actually, I will use the drive for a killer system I'm building with a 15,000 rpm Seagate drive on an U160 SCSI controller (2.4 gig PentiumIV running PC1200). I think a 72X CD screamer should do nice for installing software and playing games. I have a couple of newer CD-ROMs I can use for burning.

I'll try playing around with it some more. I just want to see what it will do in DAE. Apparently it still holds the DAE record of 48X or something, but yeah, owner's comments on CDSpeed2000 voice a lot of limitations with burning.

I just gave away my Kenwood 72X, it was blazing fast ..... when it would read a disc, which turned out to be a real problem.

Just be aware that if you plan on using it to load software, it can cause some frustrating problems to occur when it doesn't copy all of the data to your hard drive, due to improper reading of the CD.

Yep while they can be very fast, all-in-all IMHO opinion not a very good drive from what I've read.
The best overall right now still seems to be the LiteOn LTD-163 DVD drive

Interesting terminology "a 72x CD screamer", add this to a 15K RPM Seagate Cheetah (or is it Chatter), and you've got more noise than a loud scream. If you just want bragging rights the 72x CD-ROM may be a good idea, but for actual performance I agree with Hoss, get a LTD-163 DVD-ROM. It may not hit an unreliable 46x DAE, but a reliable 37x DAE is pretty good.

You may be interested in the CDRInfo Kewnood 72x Review (http://www.cdrinfo.com/hardware/kenwood72x/index.shtml).

Yep, crappiest drives ever.

Tried two. None of them could read CD-R discs with blue back at all(verbatim and such). Green/light blue discs did sometimes work and gold(phthalocyanine) discs did normally work.

And it produced WAY to many errors when reading!!!

Actually, I have an LTD-163 also. As well as a Teac 540E and Afreey 56X, so I got plenty of good CD-ROMs for burning. It's because I got 3 computer rigs. Plus two rigs are 10-bay server cases, so I got plenty of extra room.

Since this 72X has the 221 firmware I stuck it in my Athlon rig and it tested no problem in CDSpeed99. I got a 62X transfer rate; it runs at 68-71 for almost 3/4th of the run and takes a dip at end to drop to 62. But my 540E did 25X and my AOpen CR1232 did 20X on the exact same CD so that drop is pretty miniscule.

DAE is also pretty impressive: averaged 46X. I don't do much burning but I tried burning an audio CD on the fly, my usual practice with the 540E, and naturally had no problem since my AOpen CR1232 only does 12X. The CD sounded flawless, same as with the 540E.

Think I'll keep it for $30 and play around with it some more. Kenwood still services the CD-ROMs but charges $70 for a rebuilt unit!