->       From Binnies message, the $599 isn't where these will bottom
-> out, and from her messages I am guessing the price slide will
-> be fairly rapid, like we saw with RAM and Fixed Disks.
See my other post - at Comdex, we were shown the "Smart and Friendly" brand 
x
burners will be blown out for $399 RETAIL.....
->       If you have a CD player already in your system and add a CD-R
-> unit, you can copy directly from one to the other, like dubbing a tape. I 
am
-> not positive, but believe there is no use of the
-> fixed disk for buffering as I had expected there to be. I
-> watched the HD light very carefully and could see no evidence
-> of HD access in such a manner to be consistant with HD buffering.
You -can- do this, but I DON'T recommend this, especially w/data disks with
lots of files; "buffer under-runs" PLAGUE the HP and other 1st generation
burners due to a measly 512k internal buffer. All the new machines sport 1mb 
or
2mb internal buffering. Also F.Y.I., the HP bios revision (it is flashable) 
s
up to v1.27 last time I looked (2 wks ago)......
->       In my case I just added an NEC MultiSpin 4x4 CD unit that is a
-> 4 disk changer in a half height slot. They are selling for
-> $99!!! And, although only a 4x speed, and IDE in configuration, they clip
-> along at a good rate and will allow me to load up
-> four different audio CDs and choose the best from each for
-> burning to the CD-R unit without shuffling every track or two.
Nice idea! We sell those as well (same price even), use a couple for the BBS,
might grab one for my workstation :-)
->       The HP CD-R is now on sale for $599, complete with very decent
-> software.
This is where we differ slightly - I was somewhat satisfied with the stripped
down EZ CD that ships with the HP, but can now say that it is one of the
weakest packages out there....Take a look at either Corel, Gear, CDR 463, or
even the full Adaptec EZ CD 4.0 to see what else is out there!
Lastly John, if you want to get slick, try Sonic Foundries "Sound Forge v4.0"
audio package; dump your tracks to HD, and use SF to crossfade, beatmatch,
pitch shift, noise gate (on OLD sources ), e.q., or whatever, in
NON-destructive editing, THEN burn it! This technique I have shown to several
local D.J.s who then went out and bought/did the same thing. FUN!
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