CD Recorders

[Johnny nocash]

Morning everyone. Im looking for experiences/opinions on dedicated Cd recorders please. I've been currently trying to use my Marantz DR6000 but it's proving temperamental to say the least. It seems by nature that a lot of recorders can be like this. Can anyone recommend a make/model that through experience has been reliable and good of course. I'd be looking at the 2nd hand market:mental:so price range would be up to around the £100 mark. Cheers.

[eisenach]

Morning everyone. Im looking for experiences/opinions on dedicated Cd recorders please. I've been currently trying to use my Marantz DR6000 but it's proving temperamental to say the least. It seems by nature that a lot of recorders can be like this. Can anyone recommend a make/model that through experience has been reliable and good of course. I'd be looking at the 2nd hand market:mental:so price range would be up to around the £100 mark. Cheers.

I use (well, not very much these days) a Tascam CD-RW4U. It's always worked well, will take standard computer blanks, you can switch off the copy flag and also has a useful usb input. Worth looking out for.
http://tascam.com/product/cd-rw4u/images/

[Johnny nocash]

Thanks Eisenach. Looks really interesting. Looks quality and a bonus it's half width so it would fit easier into my existing layout. The only problem is that it doesn't appear to have optical connections which I would like.
I could get a converter but do you know if there is a similar sized Tascam with optical inputs? Cheers

If yours ain't getting much use .............;)

[57charles]

I had a Pioneer recorder which worked well but eventual gave up the ghost. Can't see the point of CD recorders any more - use a computer - and the replay sound quality from the Pioneer was awful being stringent and lightweight. Good riddance, I say.
I wouldn't touch any second hand unit.

[walpurgis]

Can't see the point of CD recorders any more - use a computer.

What if we have members who don't own computers? :scratch: Now there's a paradox. ;)

[Johnny nocash]

I do have a laptop but it keeps 'dropping out' when replaying music via YouTube, JRiver etc. Any advice on that would be welcome.
With regards to the recorder, I've just discovered that my Helios CD player does not recognise copies made on cd-r/rw's:doh:
So my newly aquired Pioneer 609 is surplus to requirements after a whole week!
The good news is that the Helios does recognise some old discs that were ripped on my mates laptop ages ago.

Am I correct in assuming that if recorded on normal discs rather than 'audio only' then a model by Tascam/HHB would rip in the same way? Cheers

[struth]

Might be other things on pc taking occasional priority and the music cuts out. Are you using wasapi? That might help. Switching of as many programs that start and run too. Processor amd memory may be low is another potential pc glitch, especially on larger files like flac etc

[Johnny nocash]

Thanks for the reply Grant.
To be honest I'm a computer Neanderthal (& that's an insult to Neanderthals). The laptop is old Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 so it's a bit behind the times. One day it decided to start messing me about and to be truthful I think the best thing would be to scrub the thing completely & start again, but I don't even know how to do that. There's nothing that important on it apart from maybe a gazillion viruses.
This is why it just seemed easier to get a dedicated recorder. The sound via my Apple TV (optical) is superior to computer (USB) but I appreciate that the laptop is crap.

[struth]

lol. One of best things to do if you dont use it much is to start again and dont really put anything you dont need on it. Ram might just be a bit low or processor might be getting maxed out. you could run task manager(ctrl, alt,del pressed at once and click on task manager. it will show you whats running and how much the processor etc is being run in real time so do it when playing music first. it will show you under startup part what is marked to start with pc. if there is any you dont need you recognise as external programs the disable them with a right click, or is it left... im a southpaw.. anyway the one you dont use much:lol: if processor is maxing out a lot then thats your problem

[eisenach]

Thanks for the reply Grant.
[...] The laptop is old Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 so it's a bit behind the times. One day it decided to start messing me about and to be truthful I think the best thing would be to scrub the thing completely & start again, but I don't even know how to do that. There's nothing that important on it apart from maybe a gazillion viruses.
[...]


I've got an old Dell Inspiron sitting by the hifi, too, for the odd occasion I need it. It is/was good for ripping discs to transfer them to the NAS. This week I decided to update the OS from Vista (no support from Microsoft) to Windows 8Pro. It took ages with all the updates, including updating to 8.1, only for it to "forget" how to do drag and drop within the first hour of use ! The internet has been no help in fixing it. I think I'm going to have to go through the install process again.
My advice ? Persevere with the CD recorder !

[struth]

I've got an old Dell Inspiron sitting by the hifi, too, for the odd occasion I need it. It is/was good for ripping discs to transfer them to the NAS. This week I decided to update the OS from Vista (no support from Microsoft) to Windows 8Pro. It took ages with all the updates, including updating to 8.1, only for it to "forget" how to do drag and drop within the first hour of use ! The internet has been no help in fixing it. I think I'm going to have to go through the install process again.
My advice ? Persevere with the CD recorder !

sounds like a registry error. There was a fix for this i think ..... something like using escape button with the left click

[Arkless Electronics]

I can recommend a Yamaha CDR-HD1500. Mine has proven very good over several years so far (it'll die tomorrow now of course!). It has Analogue to digital converter for recording via the analogue inputs (on phono sockets, useful for recording from the radio, cassettes, vinyl etc), a hard drive, so you can record to that and then burn to disc later... or play back straight from hard drive, and of course a DAC function which works nicely to use it as the DAC for playback from my PC. There's coaxial, optical and analogue inputs in total... can't recall how many are replicated as outputs and it ain't easy to get round the back for a butchers!

[Johnny nocash]

Thanks again Grant. I have disabled a lot of the processors and indeed YouTube replay has improved no dropouts but there are still some funny noises going off. Problem is I've probably disabled the whole bloody laptop!

I agree Martin, and you know how you can help me in the quest;)

[struth]

go to the Sounds and Audio devices in Control Panel and disable or tick none in sounds option(thats the noises the pc makes. playback will still be ok. you can also access it sometimes from double clicking on the speaker icon at bottom right if its showing.
Glad its running smoother.. just ake sure you dont disable any windows processes. 3rd party software is fine to go in general. often security programs can cause trouble , so its finding a happy medium with security and usability.

[Johnny nocash]

I can recommend a Yamaha CDR-HD1500. Mine has proven very good over several years so far (it'll die tomorrow now of course!). It has Analogue to digital converter for recording via the analogue inputs (on phono sockets, useful for recording from the radio, cassettes, vinyl etc), a hard drive, so you can record to that and then burn to disc later... or play back straight from hard drive, and of course a DAC function which works nicely to use it as the DAC for playback from my PC. There's coaxial, optical and analogue inputs in total... can't recall how many are replicated as outputs and it ain't easy to get round the back for a butchers!

Don't worry Arkless, I've had a butchers on line & it looked bang on. Then I read that it only uses 'Audio only' cd's which as I said earlier aren't suitable in my Helios CD player:steam:

[struth]

I had a machine that only used those audio discs, and as you say, all my cd players wouldnt play them :doh: think I gave it away to someone I didnt like much :D

[Johnny nocash]

Thanks for the further help with the laptop Grant, appreciated.

With regards to the recorder, I've come to the conclusion that a HHB cd-r800 is the one for me. Despite being a tad old now, it uses standard discs, has optical in & out, has the stable platter mechanism and had a good rep.

If anyone has one or knows of anyone selling one please get in touch. In the meantime I've got a Pioneer 609 to move on! Cheers everyone.