Component CD burners?

[Chris D]

Well, in what appears to be true to form for Philips component burners, mine has bit the dust. It won't initialize discs anymore.

Any recommendations on more reliable audio component burners? Please don't advise me on computer burners; I want an audio component that's easy for burning LPs to disc.

[Chazro]

Wazzup Chris!

I had a phillips burner also and though it didn't die on me I got tired of it's tendency to freeze up in the middle of a recording, making it neccesary to pitch the old disc and start all over! This would happen 1 out of 6-7 times I used the machine. I still have it if anyone wants to make an offer!!;) I opted for a Pioneer Elite PDR-19, bought it brand new for half the mrsp over at Ebay. I've had it for a few months and it works flawlessly. You can check Ebay and you might also want to check out audioreview.com, it's a good source of info.

[Gary Sisco]

I'm also in the market for a reliable component burner if anyone has suggestions. My Philips is a piece of shit.

[graypencil]

I can recommend:

Marantz Professional series CDR 500 dual deck ..

its not the fastest on the block ( only 2X tops ), but its rugged. I've had it over a year and a half, and it's gotten a lotta use, since I use it constantly to burn demos and such.

you should be able to find one for $400/500

[Tanager]

Lemme ask a question:

For burning analog sources to CD, do you get significantly better sound using a component burner than you would, for instance, feeding the signal to your computer's sound card? I know the ADC/DAC chips on computer sound cards, even good ones, aren't outstanding, but has anyone done side-by-side listening comparisions?

I'm not at all trying to be contentious, I'm asking out of genuine curiosity.

[graypencil]

CDs I've made from old analog cassette sources ( while varying according to the age and condition of the source material ) seem to sound marginally better on the Marantz ..

I've not had experience yet w/ vinyl ..

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Originally posted by Tanager
Lemme ask a question:

For burning analog sources to CD, do you get significantly better sound using a component burner than you would, for instance, feeding the signal to your computer's sound card? I know the ADC/DAC chips on computer sound cards, even good ones, aren't outstanding, but has anyone done side-by-side listening comparisions?

I'm not at all trying to be contentious, I'm asking out of genuine curiosity.

I burned LPs over to CD-R by using both techniques and I couldn't hear a big difference. I remember reading some comments about how the sound card's in PCs have terrible A/D converters so I tried doing an A/B between the two... I couldn't hear any difference. Of course, it may have something to do with the fact that any digitized LP will have more (LP surface) noise than a straight CD so the differences may be getting glazed over. The biggest difference to me is convenience. It's a pain-in-the-ass to lug my PC over to my stereo. Then you have to get the signals matched using the headphone jack (forget line out jacks... they are rarely optimized for your PC soundcard).

As I've mentioned before, I use the best of both worlds. I burn the music to CD-RW on my component burner and then copy them to my hardrive where I de-click/pop the tracks and then burn them to CD-R on my PC.

BTW, with regards to this thread's topic, I've read several times that Tascam is making the best stuff out there when it comes to CD recorders. They are expensive but it may be worth the extra $$ to get it right. I found this place (http://www.zzounds.com/prodsearch?q=tascam+cd) that seems to have pretty good prices with free shipping.

Later,
Kevin

[Chris D]

Wow. That "entry-level" Tascam looks sweet.
Stupid question: The specs say it has "unbalanced" RCA inputs.
What exactly does this mean? Can I use it hooked up to an integrated amp?
And, another stupid question, how does rack-mounted gear lie if you don't have a rack for it?

On the consumer end, the reliability reports on Denon seem good, but the sample is too small for me to trust.

[graypencil]

Chris:

You're making the dire mistake of asking the composer person technical questions ..BUT ..I think "unbalanced" might refer to ussing those big silver multi pin XLR (?) mike jacks as opposed to RCA jacks or Phone plugs.

I have my DAT connected with the former to my CDR 500 ..the cassette deck is plugged into the DAT with phone plugs ..in a chain ..

[birdlives77]

Chris, I have a Denon CDR 1000 that works beautifully. I have it patched in to my pre-amp and I record CD, LPs, Tape, and even record FM on to CD. It's a single drawer unit. I recommend it. I do not have a burner on my computer. I've heard some downloaded music and I think the quality is bad. I still buy my CDs.

[Chris D]

Thanks, and welcome, birdlives! That model is one I'm considering.

Phil, somehow I think these "pro" units ight be incompatible with my setup. I'd love to go that route, as they no doubt are more ruggedly constructed.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Chris, Tascam has a web site with all kinds of useful info. Since you confused the hell out of me with this "unbablanced" stuff, I had to look into it. As far as I can gather, this "feature" means diddly-squat to users like me & you. It's more for the musicians using their burner to record themselves off of mixing boards. I found this quote:

"The "balanced" that i'm referring to pertains to the way the audio connections are wired and to the cabling that's used to connect to them. It doesnt have anything to do with the stereo balance that you might set up from a mixer with variable left and right balance controls.

Balanced connectors have two conductors and a ground instead of just one conductor for the signal. These are used to balance out any electrical noise that the cable might pick up from light dimmers, motors etc. and allow you to use longer cable runs. The most common balanced connectors are the 3-pin XLR outputs on a microphone and the XLR and balanced TRS 1/4" connectors on mixers. It would depend on your mixer's outputs as to whether you would have to have balanced inputs on your recorder. Your mixer probably has some kind of unbalanced outputs on stereo RCA connectors that would match with the connectors on most CD recorders."

Everything seems to point to this being simply a high-end burner, built like a rock, with very good 24 bit A to D converters and a memory buffer... probably the most important aspect of these "pro" Tascams.

BTW, if you spend the extra $$, they seem to have defeatable SCMS which would allow you to use the PC blanks to save a few dollars. Also, if you pick the Tascam CC-222 (cassette/CD-R combo), it has a direct RIAA eq'ed phono input.

Toss a coin: Denon is heads, Tascam is tails :D

Later,
Kevin

[shrugs]

My Phillips is GREAT!!!!
Not a problem. Ever. No coasters made either.

Tascam's can be had for cheap on e-bay.