When the Spressa USB first came out, it was one of the only USB CD-RW drives out there, and there weren't many CD-RW drives designed for notebooks at all. So, if one had an USB port on their laptop, it would be an easy (and cheap) way of adding a CD-RW to a portable.

I decided to purchase a Spressa USB based on this logic; however, I find that even those the drive is very easy to use with my laptop, it does have its share of difficulties. For example, when I first installed the CD-RW drive, the Sony Hotburn software (the included burning program) would occasionally lock up. This lock up will ruin a CD-R if it happens during the burn process. I called tech support, and after about a 20 minute hold, the service representative told me to make a few changes to my registry, and now my Spressa only locks up about once every fifty times I use it.

Another slight frustration that I have with the drive is that it uses the Sony Hotburn software. I personally don't like it because it seems too dumbed-down when compared to Adaptec's Easy CD Writer.

If you own a desktop and want a CD-RW drive, you may want to consider skipping this USB drive in favor for an internal drive.

But the drive does have many strong points to it:

(1) I have burned well over 200 CDs with mine, and it's still going strong.

(2) Being USB and slightly portable I can take it with my laptop.

(3) It can sit horizontally or vertically, which is great if your space is cramped.

(4) It burns 4X CD-RW, which gets a CD-RW done in about 17 minutes.

(5) It's USB. Great for iMac and laptop owners.

Also, I mainly use my Spressa to burn CD-Rs and CD-RWs. It's 6 speed read is too slow for most applications these days.

The Spressa also has RCA audio outputs in the back so you can connect it to a speaker system when you play audio CDs in the drive. This feature is kind of confusing since most computer speakers don't use RCA audio inputs. I ended up hooking my Spressa directly to my receiver, but I don't remember if I ever used my Spressa to listen to a CD before.













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