Introduction

Over the years, with the increase of laptop power, on-the-go users started to use external burners. Different solutions were available but none were compact, affordable and fast. External USB burners were very slow with a burning speed limited to 4x whereas internal burners easily reached 16x. External SCSI burners were a bit faster but required a generally expensive SCSI card. Yamaha, the well known Japanese brand, was the first manufacturer to announce and release a USB 2.0 external burner, the CRW70. The CRW70 can burn CD-R at the speed of 12x, CD-RW at 8x and read CDs at the record speed (for an external burner) of 24x. With an astonishing look, the CRW70 is quite slim, relatively fast and includes a killer feature: the ability to play MP3 discs, among other things!

Design

Yamaha CRW70 is one of the smallest external USB 2.0 burners available on the market. Its design might surprise most of you but personally I find this drive pretty elegant especially with its silver shell. Yamaha CRW70 is the only burner to offer an On/Off button so you can switch it off at your convenience while letting the power adapter connected to the power. 

Yamaha CRW70 (click to enlarge)

Since the drive can play MP3 discs while being connected to a Hi-Fi system, you’ll find on top of the drive a LCD screen (used to indicate the status of the burner and the number of the MP3 track actually played) as well as the Previous, Stop/Pause, Play/Mode, Next and Volume buttons. The opening of the burner’s cover is commanded by a small  button, however in case of emergency a small latch on the bottom of the drive can open the cover. The front of the drive hosts two LEDS: one indicating that the drive is powered, and the other that the drive is busy. 

  
Yamaha CRW70 Back & CRW70 Left Side (click to enlarge)

The back of the drive features three connectors: the USB 2.0 port, the DC IN connector and the Line Out jack. The right border of the drive offers a headphone connector. Yamaha also provides a nice power adapter where you can store the cable inside of it.

Installation

Connecting the drive to the PC is simple; you just have to plug the power cable to the burner and plug the USB cable to a USB 2.0 card. To take advantage of high burning speed the burner must be connected to a USB 2.0 card using a USB 2.0 cable. You can still use the Yamaha CRW70 on a regular USB 1.1 connector however the burner will burn and read CDs only at the following approximate speeds: 6x, 6x, 6x. Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP will automatically recognize the CRW-70 and install the default drivers, thanks to the Plug & Play.

Note that the CRW70 can’t be used as a drive to boot the system.

Features

• 12X Write Speed: Record a 74 minute CD in less than 6 minutes.

• 8X Rewrite Speed Record: erase and record again at incredible 8X speed!

• 24X Read Speed

• 24X Maximum Audio Ripping: Rip a full audio CD in a just a couple of minutes!

• Buffer Memory With a generous 8MB buffer memory, save time, media, and aggravation.

• SafeBurn™ Buffer Management System : SafeBurn is the most comprehensive buffer management system in the industry, designed not only to eliminate buffer under runs but also to allow you to burn CDs while running multiple applications.

• Audio Master Quality Enhancement System: This exclusive new Yamaha feature is designed to guarantee the best possible audio recording quality on conventional 4 or 80-minute CD-R discs. When Audio Master Recording Mode is enabled, the system widens the lands and the pits, significantly reducing jitter created during CD-R recording, improving audio and music recording quality to a level rivaling professionally prepared music CDs.