[JMT]

I am looking for a relatively inexpensive CD Recording deck. Something that I can burn some of my originals for the car and for when I travel on business. I am tired of taking my originals on the road with me.

Any suggestions?

 

[HappymaN]

JMT, why don't you just buy a CD-Burner and use your computer to make the copies?

Are you looking to copy CD's only? Because if you are, this is the perfect solution. Using the right software, you can get a "bit for bit" copy.

 

[gloco]

I'm with HappymaN on this one as well. Buy a Plextor burner and download exact audio copy to extract the .cda files to wav's.

 

[planar]

yes, burner is MUCH cheaper.

 

[Fortune]

JMT

Check out the Pioneer Elite PDR-19RW. It's a discontinued deck that retailed for $1200 a couple of years ago. Recording options are basic but it makes excellent copies and has PHENOMINAL playback.

Check out audio-review for some other's opinions. I did quite a bit of research on consumer decks recently and decided on this one.

There is a vendor on e-bay that is selling new left-over units for $220!!!

 

[grinch]

i'd recommend getting a cd-burner for your computer.

use exact audio copy to rip the cd to a wavefile and cuesheet and use eac to burn it too. it's free and the best quality you can get.

 

[NewportGeek]

CD burner all the way. Plextor is the best. Get an Ultraplex 40 CD Rom drive too or you'll end up with alot of errors ifyou try to copy at high speed. SCSI is better, but I think I'm the only person on the planet who still goes SCSI.

Also, the media you use can make a BIG difference in the quality of the cd's you make. Cheaper is NOT better.

happy hunting,

-JT

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally posted by NewportGeek CD burner all the way. Plextor is the best. Get an Ultraplex 40 CD Rom drive too or you'll end up with alot of errors ifyou try to copy at high speed. SCSI is better, but I think I'm the only person on the planet who still goes SCSI. Also, the media you use can make a BIG difference in the quality of the cd's you make. Cheaper is NOT better. happy hunting, -JT

My Plextor cd rom and burner are both scsi

As for media, Fuji and TDK are great.

 

[grinch]

my old plextor 12x is scsi and my brand-new yamaha f1 40x is scsi too. i'm mad at plextor for not making scsi drives anymore. sellouts!

copying on the fly is the worst idea ever, just copy to hard drive then burn.

 

[Ari]

I use SCSI too...

 

[dariusf]

SCSI all the way

It actually doesn't make sense for someone to go in to SCSI just for the CDR. Its way too expensive for the controller cards and huge premiums for the drives. Unless you need top performance, allot of drives or server use. I personally only use IDE for storage for things like video dumps and MP3s and SCSI Ultra160 for OS and Apps.

Plextor and Yamaha are the best drives you can get. I had both (and a few others) in my time and never had any problems. Good media makes sense as well. With the deals now its almost like free. Hack, I remember days when I paid $25 for a single CDR disk and in those ancient days coasters got to be a bit expensive

And yes, it definitely sucks that more and more companies are dumping the SCSI versions. I had to go with IDE for my Plextor DVD-R drive

 

[Hirsch]

I've got an external Plextor USB2 drive that I like a lot. Seems to be less of system drain than the Plextor IDE drive I was using previously.

Also worth noting, if you get a drive for your computer, you can write to any CD-R's. If you get a stand-alone CD recorder, you can only use "music" CD-R's, which tend to be more expensive.

 

[KJ_Palmer]

Well, if a CDR deck is what you're after, the Pioneer PDR-609 is a great recorder, with decent playback too. It can be obtained very cheaply too (in the UK at least), for well under £200.
Audio blanks, under £1 each if you buy in multipacks, or CD-RW for under £2.
Up to you of course...

 

[eric343]

Head over to the local Costco and get yourself a ~$120 TDK burner. Use CloneCD to do a bit-by-bit copy to your hard disk and then burn it to a CDR.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch Also worth noting, if you get a drive for your computer, you can write to any CD-R's. If you get a stand-alone CD recorder, you can only use "music" CD-R's, which tend to be more expensive.

Not all of them. A hard-disk-based standalone CD recorder like the Alesis Masterlink can take regular CD-R's. But this is the exception. Hirsch's generalization is still mostly valid.

I do agree with the recommendation of going with a computer-based system for most applications. If you are burning from vinyl, you'll need an ADC also, blah blah blah.