HISTORY:
You may well be thinking "Hell! it's just an old CD reading drive" ... but nothing could be further from the truth .... these were Plextor drives designed for professional use and were widely installed across the audio industry due to their reputation for reliable high quality audio CD (pressed and CDr) read abilities, particularly where the media was a bit "how's ya father" resulting in many "other branded" CD drives spitting the dummy but the Plextor shone through (well, most of the time!)
They were the first drive from Plextor with CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) capabilities, providing a more reliable read off the CD/CDr media.
If you were in the music industry back in the late 1990's, these drives were "must haves" in the studio environment.
You might be wondering .... what happened to Plextor? Some ten years after this drive was released, the name was acquired by Philips and Lite-On and Plextor (Japan) disappeared from the market
Sit back and let me tell you all about the history of this Plex Drive 12/20 SCSI drive!
I ran an audio post production facility for 25 years and we were involved in many aspects of production which often started with "reading" a clients Master CDr or Safety copy they had worked hard for in a recording studio.
We are talking the late 1990's ~ early 2000's, it was a very different world in those days - DAT had been the mainstay for years, DLT tape was used as masters for CD replication (pressing) and the recording studios were installing CD Writers (often Tascam or Yamaha writers with HHB discs) to write their client's final mix onto media they could "take away".
In our production facilities, these Plex Drive 12/20 readers were supplied with some of our original studio editing/restoration & media transfer systems plus our CDr duplication robots.
Until recently (I have since dismantled the tower and repurposed it) I STILL had the good old Trace CDr duplication tower system, an antiquity dating from before our CDr robotic systems and you can see this Plex Drive 12/20 at the top of the bay.
It's only purpose in life was to provide an accurate read of the client master disc, save the datastream to the tower system and then the CDr duplication would begin! We also used these same drives on some custom made media transfer equipment and our DAW's (Digital Audio Workstation)
Once the artist or band had made their studio recordings, undertaken some mastering (but not all did this, the black art of mastering is an expensive process) they would turn up at our premises with their newly created master or safety copy and request a short run duplication of their master CD so they could make a few bucks extra at the "gig door" or send out copies to the label A&R's in the hope of getting some recognition.
Reliability of the CD reading drive and accurate reading of the master CD was crucial and these Plex Drive 12/20's always met the challenge and performed very well. Masters or Safety copies were not always the "cleanest" when we received them, we are talking about highly excitable musicians/artists here, not technical boffins - so they would often rub their grubby fingers all over the media, being overwhelmed with excitement while holding their brand new album or EP release master in their hands!
To see my other SCSI interface items from that old Trace tower, click HERE
So, after that long introduction, let's get down to describing this component ....
PLEXTOR INC. - CD Reader
This drive does NOT write CDr's - it is for pro reading of CD media, useless for writing!
Made in Japan
Manufactured June 1997 (!)
5.25" form factor
Supplied with mounting rails (2) and screws
Model: PX-20Tsi
Series: Plex Drive
Trade name: Plex 12/20
NOTE: 12/20 refers to the varying read speed due to the CAV technlogy
Tsi suffix indicates that this drive is for internal system mounting
Interface: SCSI (50 pin 2x 25 male pin rectangular)
Audio output uses a small 4 pin (straight line) connector at the rear, I will supply the cable for connecting to this port.
Standard +5/+12V DC supply requirements
User manuals are available online but truly are not required, the function of all controls is pretty self explanatory, although for those unfamiliar with SCSI then the manual could prove useful in setting up the SCSI ID
COSMETIC CONDITION:
Clean
Undamaged physically
Ready to use once again! It has been resting for a long long time!
TESTING:
Fully functional back 15 years ago, which is the last time the duplication tower was operating!
The Trace tower duplicator was decommissioned in 2008 and has been in clean/dry storage ever since - only today has it seen the light of day!
The tower main system could NOT be powered up properly for testing (no 9 pin mouse or 5 pin DIN keyboard) but all is not lost!
These drives are practically "stand alone" meaning that I connected power and could undertake limited testing immediately, without a SCSI connection.
Power ON (Orange) LED lights up
Eject functions properly and smoothly
Inserted a test CD (The Beatles Sgt. Peppers) and after a short time, the GREEN LED lights up - all is good with the world.
I then listened to the audio output through the front panel 3.5mm socket, moved across tracks, paused etc and all functions are fine. Audio was fine, no issues at all.
Based on these simple tests I am happy that the drive STILL performs as it did all those years ago, with the exception of not being able to look at the SCSI interface outputs.
Now that the photo session is finished, my "testing" completed and the description is completed, I have now placed this drive into a sealed ESD "bag" and packaged it within nice cushioning bubble-wrap to protect against excessive vibration when it shuffles off to a new owner.
