USB CD Rippers

[Stephen Healy]

Hi all,

We would like to hear feedback from you with regards to optical USB CD drives that have worked well for ripping through our devices that support this, such as the ZEN Next-Gen and ZENith Next-Gen.
As an example to get the ball rolling, we have had positive reports from some users on this drive, a Pioneer BDR-X13E-X:

BDR-X13E-X | Pioneer | Blu-Ray Disc Drive | Optical Disc Drive | EU

pioneer-blurayodd.eu

This is one that we at Innuos need to test internally still, but external feedback so far has been positive.

Please comment below with the drive that you have successfully used!

 

[frank7036]

Asus ZenDrive U8M Ultra Slim External USB-C DVD Drive and Writer
Plugged in to back of Zenith NG with supplied cable , set the offset (+6) and away we went. No drama, worked fine. Not as easy to get cd in/out from the disc drive as compared to my old Zenith mk3 but as I’ve already ripped my cd’s this should only see occasional use.

 

[Stephen Healy]

Asus ZenDrive U8M Ultra Slim External USB-C DVD Drive and Writer
Plugged in to back of Zenith NG with supplied cable , set the offset (+6) and away we went. No drama, worked fine. Not as easy to get cd in/out from the disc drive as compared to my old Zenith mk3 but as I’ve already ripped my cd’s this should only see occasional use.

Just to echo @frank7036 here as we do get a lot of questions about recommended optical drives.
From my own experience, I would say Asus drives are a good choice on the basis of being reputable, widely available, nicely designed and sensibly priced. They even do a 'ZEN' line, so that's quite fitting!

https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/optical-drives/external-dvd-drive/zendrive-u8m-sdrw-08u8m-u/

This would be my suggestion, and I believe the Pioneer one mentioned at the start of this thread is fairly hard to come by now.

 

[Midway]

ASUS seems to be one of the few options available. Everyone else has left the market. Buffalo may be another but reviews I have read are not promising.

I own an ASUS External Blu-Ray Burner BW-16D1X-U. It seemed to work fine but I didn’t find an offset listed for that model. I’m not sure I like the extra step required to load discs and how it will hold up over time. A door first swings down before the tray can slide out. It looks pretty though.

https://www.asus.com/us/motherboards-components/optical-drives/external-blu-ray-drive/bw-16d1x-u/

I also have an OWC Mercury Pro enclosure. You can install any SATA optical drive with standard dimensions. The Enclosure has a USB connection to the Innuos or PC/Mac. Mine came with an LG BH16NS40 Blu-Ray drive and I’m 60 CDs or so in so far using the OWC/LG. The ASUS internal SATA drive would fit if preferred, you just order the OWC enclosure and drive separately. LG may be out of the market from what I heard.

https://www.owc.com/solutions/mercury-pro-optical

Might want to pick something up as options are limited and shrinking fast.

 

[stepdol]

Would it be possible to use a melco ripper?

 

[Stephen Healy]

Would it be possible to use a melco ripper?

I think i recall being told it does work, yes. Generally I would expect any optical drive to work, with the exception of any that seem to use some kind of proprietary connection or software that locks it into very specific systems/functions.