Sounds of the Kalok Octagon KL-320

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Kalok Octagon KL-320
Country of Origin: USA
Introduced: 1987
Interface: ST-412 (MFM nominal)
Capacity: 20MB
Form: 3.5 HH (1")
CHS: 612 / 4 / 17
LZN: 615
WPC: 65535
Track-track: 11.7ms
Linear access: 31.3ms
Random access: 52.0ms
Rotational: 3600RPM
Media: Ferrous, inline TF heads
Disks: 2
Actuation: Rotary band swingarm stepper
Feedback: None
Lift/Lock/Park: None
Brake: Dynamic
Service life: Unknown
Related models: KL-330 (RLL)
Failures: Media
Settings: aioinc.ddns.net...
My thoughts:
This is one of my favorite drives from one of my favorite manufacturers. This is a fairly midrange drive for it's time, it was affordable and reasonably quick, albeit noisy. They were certainly less than the most reliable drives ever made, but I absolutely adore Kalok for how long they held on to the exact same chassis. From 1987 until their closure in 1994, this exact same chassis was in production as both the Octagon and Octagon II, and pushed the rotary band stepper to it's absolute limits at 120MB. But it all started here: A loose copy of the Kyocera KC-20B with some board-level cost reductions and a faster seek time.

Опубликовано:

6 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 30

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

Tried out a new recording setup for this batch of drives. What do you think? Keep it or change it?

@Kali_Krause 11 месяцев назад

I actually like the new format. And how long have you had the Kalok drive now?

@TheDiskMaster 11 месяцев назад

@@Kali_Krause This one? An awfully long time, maybe 2016 or 2017? And thanks, I'll stick with it for future recording sessions then!

@XL-Tech Год назад

I've always liked the sounds of these Kaloks (when they work). I've only really seen the KL-343 and KL3100 in action though. I like this KL-320 a lot.

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

Me too. Kalok is by far my favorite brand. In later videos I'll be showing off the rest of my complete Kalok collection, though the rest are all IDE. KL-343, KL-3080, KL-3100, KL-3120, P3-250AR, P3-360AR, and the JTS drives that followed.

@XL-Tech Год назад

@@TheDiskMaster I look forward to those. Kalok drives aren't the most common after all. It's nice to have a channel on the platform that showcases drives of this age. Very hard to find anything older than 1990 for a decent price nowadays!

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

@@XL-Tech Indeed. Sadly some drives will never make it on here, I was excited to get my Atasi 3046 today only to find that it won't initialize. What a shame! That's why I tend to stick to the stepper stuff which can be revived.

@Kali_Krause 11 месяцев назад

@@TheDiskMasterAtasi? I never heard of them :)

@TheDiskMaster 11 месяцев назад

@@Kali_Krause They produced high end linear voice coil drives similar to the Seagate ST-4000 series. You can see the guts of one in my discord and one in action on Conners Computer Camp. I think Priam bought them, or maybe the other way around before Tandon got them. WD now owns Tandon so in a way their drives live on.

@MBC9277 Год назад

One of the best sounding MFM drives IMO :)

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

I agree. Kaloks all sound lovely! Some of my personal favorite drives sound-wise are still yet to come, though. Keep your eyes out.

@matthewsvideos8235 4 месяца назад

I have the RLL variant KL-330 on a hard card installed in my XT. Works as good as your drive.

@TheDiskMaster 4 месяца назад

Nice. The KL330 is exactly identical except in the testing stage of production. All KL330s are just nice KL320s.

@McVaio 7 месяцев назад

Oh man... this sounds exactly like my Kalok MFM drive! Brings back memories from 1999 when me and my classmates found the computer that it was in and managed to start it up. An old XT clone. Years later, I took the computer home when it was about to be thrown away. I still have it, including the (still working) Kalok hard drive, with our documents on it from 1999 :)

@TheDiskMaster 7 месяцев назад

Very cool! The KL-320 was Kalok's most popular drive by far, with the IDE KL-343 being a close second. All of the Octagon Is sound exactly like this, though!

@maxtornogood Год назад

I'm used to seeing video clips of Kalok's failing but this one sounds pretty good!

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

This one is in absolutely perfect health with no bad sectors and no locked DOS clusters. I have it's faceplate elsewhere, too, though it's for a 5.25" bracket. When cared for, these drives are better than people might expect. I have a nearly complete Kalok collection which I will be showing off across future videos.

@cdos9186 11 месяцев назад

What a pristine example of one! The design I really like, just the hard and sharp cut corners are probably not so nice if you accidently hit them. Also I see why they named it Octagon, eight sides for the top cover. That certainly is an awesome design and the sound is so distinct on these you know what you are listening to when you hear one in a PC. Glad your examples of Kalok drives appear to be working so well! Nice setup as well.

@TheDiskMaster 11 месяцев назад

Thanks! Kalok really knew how to make a sharp looking drive, and the later ones are even better. The Octagon II with it's glossy black cover and gold label look fantastic. This one is in great shape, like most of my Kalok drives. A lot of the nice sound can be contributed to the seek profile Kalok gave it, which is much better than the Kyocera drives they were attempting to copy.

@Kali_Krause 11 месяцев назад

This little Kalok escaped the dreaded band slippage issue that plagued a lot of them👍🏻

@TheDiskMaster 11 месяцев назад

I own a complete collection of Kalok products and would you know, I've never seen one whose band has slipped.

@easyfleayt Год назад

Is it supposed to sound like it wants to die?

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

Huh? It doesn't sound that way to me at all. This is normal operation for this drive, it's in perfect health.

@Kali_Krause 11 месяцев назад

It sounds like a Kyocera drive. Kyocera used to make MFM drives before changing to printers

@TheDiskMaster 11 месяцев назад

@@Kali_Krause Correct, this is a pretty close copy of a Kyocera KC-20B! However, it has a pretty substantially different seek profile resulting in a different sound and significantly improved performance.

@godfreypoon5148 Год назад

🤮

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

Not sure I understand

@godfreypoon5148 Год назад

@@TheDiskMasterKalok ... not so good

@randomchannel9331 Год назад

@@godfreypoon5148Clearly not considering it's still running in perfect health after all these years

@TheDiskMaster Год назад

@@godfreypoon5148 Considering this drive has no bad sectors and no locked clusters, I'm going to have to disagree. I have a nearly complete Kalok product lineup, which you'll see at a later date.