Over the last 20 years or so, the topic of possible replacements for defective CD-ROM units that would do the job has been widely discussed. All kinds of suggestions and experiences have been published. Also, as you know, DTS has introduced several modifications and kits to enable other drives to work with their units. These required some financial investment which again caused the incentive for users to try and find other solutions. A lot has been tried and some SCSI drives have shown to work pretty well. That being said, the accent has to be on the wording "pretty well". There is widespread experience with alternative drives that indeed do work nicely, but they're never as reliable and trustworthy as the originals. I have done quite some research here myself and have had good results with the Plextor (high quality!) Ultraplex 32x caddy drives that have been in service here for some 10 years now. Like a few other selected brands, they work well...., that is, up until once in a while the system freezes and a reboot will then be necessary to get everything going again. This phenomenon only happens occasionally, but it's not ideal for the perfectionist . So far nothing new. We know that somehow, somewhere in the digital marriage between the replaced CD-ROM drive and the DTS proprietry electronics things are not 100% in perfect harmony with each other. To solve this one needs the original drive, which was an extremely reliable one, that was installed on the DTS-6. That's the one that's still quietly running in many places since it's introduction in 1993. It's the Toshiba XM-3401B. A caddy drive, that runs 1-4x max. and is of exclusive high quality. The whole thing is built on a solid metal casting framework. All others have bent sheet metal as their mainframe.... This unit was very slightly altered / improved in some minor details after about 10 months of manufacture at which time it was relabeled as XM-3501B. These came out of the factory in 1994. DTS issued a "Notice to Field Technicians" on June 16, 1995. Herein they they introduce the XM-3501B as the official upgrade (or replacement) of the former 3401 model, and ask the technician's attention for the required ROM-DOS "Rev.C" or higher to be installed. Any of these two, either 3401 or 3501, which are basically the same would be a great replacement for people who have had problems and have sought their refuge in the use of "alternative marriages"! Problem was: You simply can't find these! That is.... up until now! I've been looking for these for years and at this moment they're available in "as new" condition. They are perfect both for the -6 and 6D models and take my word for it, they perform beautifully at a max. of 4x RPM and will do that for a long time. For me it was the find of the year and I raised the flag when I received these thoroughbreds. I got four of these beauties and received them professionally packed and with quarantee. Here's the link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOSHIBA-XM-3501B-4X-50-PIN-SCSI-CD-ROM-DRIVE-WITH-CD-CADDY-WITH-WARRANTY-/141600211757?hash=item20f807c32d:g:znoAAOSw3YNXaZ0C
There's also an added point of interest for those who work with tray-loaders. For me, not the thing to have. A caddy drive for your valued discs is, at least for me, the thing to have! I do hope that all this might be of some value for some of you.