"Professional" cd recorders?

[Pete B]

My audio burner died and rather than repair it I'm thinking of replacing it. A friend in the audio biz tells me the way to go is a professional recorder rather than a consumer unit for several reasons, primarily their reliability and the ability to use data cdrs. I'm wondering if any of you have any experiences with these. I understand that they have a single well, which isn't a big issue since I can use my dvd player to play cds. I see units from HHB, Marantz, Tascam, and Sony. For the money ($500 or so), does anyone have any recommendations? I see some pretty good prices on the Tascam unit.

Thanks

[Harold_Z]

If you go over to the "CD recorders suggestions" thread in this forum, Lonson reccomends a type of stand alone recorder that burns both data and audio cdrs. He mentions an Alera that he bought and has had a good experience with. I bought a similar product this past Sunday made by Digital Research called "cd duplicator" and carried in Best Buy stores. It was priced at $229.00. Try this link:

http://www.dr-tech.com/products/CDduplicator.asp

It's incredibly easy to operate in the stand alone mode (burns a cdr in under 4 or 5 minutes) and it can also interface with a pc using a usb port and operate as an external burner.

[Pete B]

Harold, I looked at that unit. However, much of my burning involves converting lps and cassettes to digital, and I prefer not to get involved with trying to do it through my computer. That's why I'm inclined to look at one of the "professional" units, as I understand they are of a more robust construction.

[Harold_Z]

I know what you mean Pete. I have a Phillips hooked into my component system for that purpose...but it is FINICKY. Next time around I'm going for something better....more along the lines of what you're talking about for that purpose. Keep us posted on what you get

[Dennis]

Pete,

I have owned the HHB-830 for over a year and it is an outstanding unit. I have copied a huge stack of LPs for use in the car using all different brands of blanks and have never had a problem. It has analog, coaxial and optical inputs, manual and auto tracking among a host of other features and its sound is so sweet I have been using it as my main playback unit as well. I cannot recommend it highly enough especially if you are into burning older LPs. Can be had for around $500 from Cadence/North Country among others.

Good luck!
Dennis

[lowend]

I have a "consumer" unit...Harman/Kardon CDR26, their 3rd generation of dual well unit. I must say that I ABSOLUTELY love it! I use it almost entirely for LP>CD with a little EQ in between. In the past 6-8 mos I have burned well over 150 cds w/no problems. My only beef was that the analog input level knob is too small making it a little harder to tweak. I made a new knob (about 1.3 in. dia) and the thing just WORKS. my $.02

[JPW]

Marantz do a very good "field" recorder, but it is rather expensive.
Tascam's less expensive recorders are probably up to the job and will slip into an existing audio setup very easily.
Tascam budget CD recorder (http://www.tascam.com/product_info.php?pid=311&nav=cd)

[erling]

I bought a Marantz Professional CDR 630 'bout 4-5 years ago. Burns cd's in real time only. Am using it for copying original recordings of old analog cassette tapes and reel to reel. Saving my collection of original recordings - or the most important part, geez, there's a lot - and the sound (to my ears, and I'm very finnicky) say from an original 15" reel to reel tape is 'analogous' to the original sound. I'm sure there's something even better out there these days, but it works wonderfully for me.
erling