Component CD Recorders (Not Computer Ones)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by KatCassidy, Jul 1, 2017.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. PhilBiker

    PhilBiker sh.tv member number 666

    Location:
    Northern VA, USA
    For a while Radio Shack sold under the RCA brand - most of the stuff they sold was re-branded Pioneer. That's what this looks like.

    To the OP - Add me to the chorus of people recommending a professional deck. Look for TASCAM, Marantz, HHB, among others. The pro decks use any CD not just Music CDs.

    Also - consider a digital recorder like Arnold recommends. You can connect it to the tape output on your receiver and have nice clean recordings at higher resolution which is good for editing. Nothing wrong with using optical disc though they work great as well.

    I completely sympathize with your difficulties connecting direct to your computer and understand why you'd not want to do that.
     
    McLover likes this.
  2. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    I'll have to read up on this, thanks. Per my prior post I'm happy with the Harmon recorder, but don't know what I'd do when it goes. My rig is 15 feet away from my Mac desktop, so a direct connection simply isn't practical.
     
  3. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    The difference between the Tascam CD-RW900mkII and the one I have (with an "SL" on the end of the model number instead of "mkII") is that mine is probably no longer made as the price is now almost double what the mkII sells for. The main difference I can see is that the newer model looks like it has a slide-out tray for the CD, whereas mine is a slot-loading mechanism. Given the choice, I think I'd prefer the tray, but I'm happy with the one I've got.
     
  4. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    I have had several stand-alone CD recorders since the 1990s. My rundown of my personal experiences, in order owned:
    •Marantz (late '90s; I forget the model) - very finicky; sometimes it "recorded," but then the disc would not finalize and play. I was glad when this one died, frankly.
    •HHB - Worked fine while it worked, but it did not last long. Oddball feature: The disc went on the tray face down.
    •Fostex: Very reliable for many years. Only downside: 4 minutes to finalize a CD. Otherwise, no complaints.
    •Tascam slot-loader: This is the machine that I've had for about 3 or 4 years now, and it works great, even though I think of it as being a "step down" from the others, probably due to the lack of balanced and AES/EBU connections. Sonically and operationally? No complaints.

    Note that all of these use standard CD-R discs, and do not require the harder-to-find CD-R-Music discs, and I do not miss the balanced inputs.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  5. jjh1959

    jjh1959 Senior Member

    Location:
    St. Charles, MO
    You don't know about the trick with that machine?

    Insert a blank music cdr into the tray and let it read it. Then GENTLY pull out the tray and replace the music cdr with a normal blank cdr and GENTLY again push the tray shut. The machine will now record onto the regular cdr normally.
     
    vwestlife and scobb like this.
  6. Deano6

    Deano6 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Plymouth, NC, USA
    Tried it several times years and years ago. No go.
     
  7. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    I have gone through quite a few of these over these years. Been through two Philips, two Sony and one TEAC. Currently on my second TEAC only because it was a financially viable option for something I expect to crap out in a year or two.

    Can't say I found one that was reliable for any extended period so I would avoid an older machine.

    Just my .02
     
  8. ZenArcher

    ZenArcher Senior Member

    Location:
    Durham, NC
    Really! That's what I do. Use a little Zoom H2 recorder to record directly from the output of the phono preamp, even in hi-Rez, then transfer to the Mac for cleanup and track splitting. Using a CD recorder is just about the worst way to do it, IMO.
     
  9. jjh1959

    jjh1959 Senior Member

    Location:
    St. Charles, MO
    Interesting. Every one I've come across does this.
     
  10. Shak Cohen

    Shak Cohen Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    I like having a CD recorder in my hi-fi rig, I record direct to PC using a USB sound card too.
    My Pioneer PDR-509 is still going strong, I get a cake box of Maxell XLII Audio CD-R discs for £5.99.
    Very useful for a CD dub from cassette, DVD, etc. I rip and edit the finalised disc in WavePad.
     
    BGLeduc likes this.
  11. RPM

    RPM Forum Resident

    Location:
    Easter Island
  12. Synthfreek

    Synthfreek I’m a ray of sunshine & bastion of positivity

    I'm curious how the OP was getting music into the computer in the failed experiments. Were you even using an ADC or just using the computers built-in soundcard?
     
  13. RPM

    RPM Forum Resident

    Location:
    Easter Island
    With good adc (sound card) you can turn your pc in good recording deck, but software scares some people away. OP already does cd to pc transfer so I don't see a good reason for using cd or other recorder, unless the pc is slow or something.
     
  14. Don B Mullis

    Don B Mullis New Member

    Location:
    Bartlett tn
    Another vote for my pioneer 509... Works great. My record & cd collection are on compilation music cdr's. To my ears I'm hard pressed to tell the difference between the dub or the original.
     
    BGLeduc likes this.
  15. Chazro

    Chazro Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Palm Bch, Fl.
    Long-time CDR fan! Used to have a Phillips that produced a fair share of 'coasters'! Than had a beauty, a Pioneer Elite that was very dependable and pretty as a picture! When she started skipping I got a Tascam. Thing's a tank!
     
  16. KatCassidy

    KatCassidy Mixed bag Thread Starter

    What.... The.... Absolute.... ........?
    :bigeek:

    I've actually gotten it working! If I told you what turned out to be wrong with it, you'd all call me an absolute idiot! It was just something that never occurred to me until half an hour ago when I decided to pull it out and try it again! (Actually when I tried it originally, I copied a CD and I couldn't hear it while it copied but it went onto the CD-RW with no problem. I thought that was a fault but I found out today that I had selected the high-speed dubbing option and to actually hear the CD whilst it copied, I needed to select a different "REC TYPE" option)

    OK, I'll tell you what I found out: The the record level meters on the CD recorder went "bump" when I turned on the record player today. Previously it seemed to not get any signal from the analogue input. I knew it was getting something, so I tried turning it up to see if that would make a difference. It turned out that the record level was so far down it took me five turns of the knob to turn it up far enough to hear anything. Originally it had recorded "nothing" and then shut off after 23 seconds but it was shutting off at that time because it is factory set to stop recording after getting nothing from the analogue input for 20 seconds (which I did not know until today) and the volume was so far down, it thought it was getting nothing. The flaps on the CD drawers are stuck, but if I manually pull them down so they are open, the CD trays pop open first go every time.

    It won't "unfinalize" a finalized CD-RW for some reason but every other function works perfectly. So it turns out to have never been broken. As familiar as I am with the (very similar) Philips CDR-560, I didn't know it ever saved the record level setting and when I tried to record last year when I got it, it just never occurred to me to adjust the record level. I was just testing it's capabilities, I was going to start with the record level adjusting when everything was up and running and I was out to do serious recording.

    Yeah, sure, I feel like a bit of an idiot, :whistle: but the timing could not have been better as I have been looking for CD recorders on eBay for the last week or so and was going to buy one this afternoon. Oh, and I must retract the above offer to give it away. I'm going to be keeping this! Also, it's a CDR-778 not CDR-775. And one last thing, I now have no more need for this thread. Thank you for your responses and I'm now off to start recording.

    :wave:

    The moral of the story is, don't just read the bits of the instructions you think you need, read the whole lot because you never know what you don't actually know!​
     
    PhilBiker, scobb and pinktree1 like this.
  17. harby

    harby Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR, USA
    They are specifically labeled "CD-R Music" or "Music CD-R" and cost more.

    One place that still has them in-store is Walgreens. Here's a link to the discs on their web site, and you can do a search to find a local store that has them, like the Walgreens at:
    41 HOLLAND AVE
    ALBANY, NY 12208
     
    fluffskul likes this.
  18. fluffskul

    fluffskul Would rather be at a concert

    Location:
    albany, ny
    Thanks for sharing. Found this same one on on-line. 25 CD-Rs for $7.50 and that's the "more expensive ones," at least something has gotten cheaper!

    This component is a fun thing to have though, I remember when they were the new and flashy technology. Salivating over them on my lunch break at Circuit City, while I was making $5.15 an hour. Hadn't thought about one in 20 years though, until a buddy showed me his in his basement literally never used. Dusted that thing off, and it works like a charm. Unfortunately though I only had a few random CD-Rs that it'll read, the big spindle of Memorex I have it didn't like.
     
    PhilBiker likes this.
  19. fluffskul

    fluffskul Would rather be at a concert

    Location:
    albany, ny
    Anyone who have played with these before have any tricks for not letting it think the disc is done when the LP ends?
     
  20. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I've noticed that CVS also carries "CD-R Music", I have seen them in the stores. Which surprises me. CVS and Walgreens both carry new Maxell UR cassette tapes too.
    https://www.cvs.com/search?searchTerm=cd-r
     
    fluffskul likes this.
  21. Pete Norman

    Pete Norman Forum Resident

    Haha..used to do this as well with a Philips 880, it's ok provided the CD-r has similar reflective properties as the one that was 'verified by the recorder. The Philips Silver Premium 74 min CD-r for x 1 recording was the best I ever heard, Sadly long gone....
     
  22. Not sure I follow, but here is what I do.

    When dubbing from vinyl on my Pio 509, I always pause recording at the end of the side, flip the record, then un-pause to start side 2. I then stop recording completely at the end of side 2. I also use the remote to manually indicate the start of a new track, rather than let the player try to do it.
     
    Aftermath likes this.
  23. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    This Tascam is a good unit, I have been using one, making great needle-drops for five years. Works flawlessly, and you can use regular, plain blank cds.
     
  24. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    This. :righton:
     
  25. Pastafarian

    Pastafarian Forum Resident

    In 2003 I purchased a Pioneer PDR-609, which I used to needledrop my vinyl. I found the following, all brands of CD-RW discs were inferior SQ wise to a Audio CD-Rs, no longer available but the best Audio discs were TDK and these were significantly bettered by TDK Audio Pro Gold discs. I see that a Maxell audio disc now cost 22p which seems pretty cheap to me.

    When recording I would manually mark each track, as relying on auto was unreliable. Now I'd just use a timer to alert me of the end of the side and split the tracks on my computer this is no big deal if you're editing later anyway

    More recently I've copied these Boss discs to my hard drive and done click repair and other editing on my computer.

    In 2003 I had no idea about digital and didn't even have a CDP to me the Pioneer CDR was just a cassette recorder with a disc instead of a tape. It was chosen on the basis of how it measured in a group test, with the best ADC performance and my recording do sound fantastic.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine