CD Recorders - Any suggestions for a quality recorder? (1 Viewer)

[bolorkay]

CD Recorders - Any suggestions for a good dependable unit?

 

[jcroy]

These days it would be pointless for recording purposes, when there are no more reliable blank disc manufacturers.

 

[DaveF]

CD Recorders - Any suggestions for a good dependable unit?

Like, every computer and laptop with a CD-RW or DVD-RW or BD-RW drive sold the the past 15 years?

Unless you've got some retro-niche application, recording audio and burning audio onto a disc is very old hat. Buy a digital recorder. Buy some recordable discs. Use the computer you've surely got to burn stuff to disc. The hardest part might be the authoring software. There used to loads of free and cheap stuff out, but I haven't looked at that for years.

 

[Bryan^H]

See on Amazon

 

[JohnRice]

As has already been mentioned, these days, for most people, a computer based solution makes a lot more sense.

 

[JohnRice]

These days it would be pointless for recording purposes, when there are no more reliable blank disc manufacturers.

I'm not certain what you're referring to. I admit I haven't bought them in probably 15 years, but I see them available from Memorex, Maxell and Verbatim.

 

[jcroy]

I'm not certain what you're referring to. I admit I haven't bought them in probably 15 years, but I see them available from Memorex, Maxell and Verbatim.

The (formerly) best manufacturer of blank cd/dvd discs Taiyo Yuden / JVC, was sold to the worst manufacturer of blank discs back in late 2015.

https://www.cdrinfo.com/d7/content/cmc-magnetics-acquires-optical-disc-assets-taiyo-yuden

The (formerly) middle-of-the-road manufacturer of blank cd/dvd discs Verbatim, was also sold to the worst manufacturer of blank discs back in mid 2019.

Mitsubishi's Verbatim, Known for CD, DVD and BD Optical Media, Sold to CMC

www.anandtech.com

I never trusted anything manufactured by CMC Magnetics.

 

[jcroy]

Nowadays any blank cd/dvd/bluray discs manufactured recently with a "Taiyo Yuden" or "Verbatim" brand name on the front of the packaging, is basically CMC manufactured junk with wildly varying quality control.

CMC Magnetics - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[JohnRice]

The (formerly) best manufacturer of blank cd/dvd discs Taiyo Yuden / JVC, was sold to the worst manufacturer of blank discs back in late 2015.

https://www.cdrinfo.com/d7/content/cmc-magnetics-acquires-optical-disc-assets-taiyo-yuden

The (formerly) middle-of-the-road manufacturer of blank cd/dvd discs Verbatim, was also sold to the worst manufacturer of blank discs back in mid 2019.

Mitsubishi's Verbatim, Known for CD, DVD and BD Optical Media, Sold to CMC

www.anandtech.com

I never trusted anything manufactured by CMC Magnetics.

OK. I do remember CMC being garbage, and Taiyo Yuden being the best. Like I said, I doubt I’ve burned a disc of any type in the last 15 years.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

OK. I do remember CMC being garbage, and Taiyo Yuden being the best. Like I said, I doubt I’ve burned a disc of any type in the last 15 years.

For all of that talk about some brands being good and others being worse than terrible, my collection of burned discs has actually been a lot more stable over twenty years than the pressed discs I’ve bought in that timeframe. If it works the first time you play it after burning it, it’s probably going to outlive you.

 

[Bryan^H]

As has already been mentioned, these days, for most people, a computer based solution makes a lot more sense.

It does. I have no idea what the author of this thread is after. Which is why I suggested the Tascam.

 

[jcroy]

For all of that talk about some brands being good and others being worse than terrible ...

The only ways I've been able to determine how good or awful a particular brand is, was from doing a lot of scanning tests.

Back in the day, I was into the hobby of buying many different blank cd and dvd discs for the sole purpose of doing scanning tests. Basically to see how frequent PI (inner parity) errors and corrections happen on burned dvdr discs, or c1 errors + corrections on burned cdr discs. Old school Plextor drives had a nice suite of tools for doing these testings.

 

[Traveling Matt]

My understanding is

The (formerly) best manufacturer of blank cd/dvd discs Taiyo Yuden / JVC, was sold to the worst manufacturer of blank discs back in late 2015.

https://www.cdrinfo.com/d7/content/cmc-magnetics-acquires-optical-disc-assets-taiyo-yuden

The (formerly) middle-of-the-road manufacturer of blank cd/dvd discs Verbatim, was also sold to the worst manufacturer of blank discs back in mid 2019.

Mitsubishi's Verbatim, Known for CD, DVD and BD Optical Media, Sold to CMC

www.anandtech.com

I never trusted anything manufactured by CMC Magnetics.

My understanding is decent DVD-R is still manufactured under the Verbatim AZO brand using the Mitsubishi manufacturing standards, unless there's been a change or discontinuation. Regardless CD-R doesn't automatically mirror the same reliability standards as DVD-R, though variance by manufacturer probably holds. Not the least of which is due to the differences between the discs. As a lower capacity disc, CD-R has wider gaps between data tracks and is less prone to burn errors as a result. If you can find Verbatim CD-R manufactured in Taiwan, you're probably fine (though I've read country of origin matters less these days for Verbatim CD-R).

 

[jcroy]

My understanding is decent DVD-R is still manufactured under the Verbatim AZO brand using the Mitsubishi manufacturing standards, unless there's been a change or discontinuation.

Mitsubishi has earlier outsourced to CMC since 2010 for the non-azo Verbatim stuff. I encountered this back around 2011-12, and saw it as a warning sign to not buy anything non-azo from Verbatim.

More recently, I'm very reluctant to flush cash down the toilet on CMC/Verbatim spindles for scanning type tests unless I can find it for a really low price.

Back when CMC first gobbled up Taiyo Yuden (TY), I purchased a CMC/TY spindle to do scannings to see how things changed. I was not impressed when I saw that the CMC/TY junk was not much better than equivalent then-recent Verbatim azo stuff circa 2017-18. I was guessing that CMC just bought up TY for the "Taiyo Yuden" brand name, but didn't hire the previous TY quality control engineers to run the factories. (ie. Garbage in, garbage out).

 

[bolorkay]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, (if that's the case, I apologize.). What I'm looking for is a good, CD recording "unit". (someone did mentioned "Tascam"... is that the only one available, these days?)

 

[Bryan^H]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear, (if that's the case, I apologize.). What I'm looking for is a good, CD recording "unit". (someone did mentioned "Tascam"... is that the only one available, these days?)

Yes it is. The Philips CD recorder was great. I used it for years before I no longer needed it.
See on Amazon
But that unit is not worth the aftermarket price. You might want to check E-Bay.

 

[jcroy]

If it works the first time you play it after burning it, it’s probably going to outlive you.

The issue is not even longevity anymore. Nowadays with quality control going down the toilet over the past decade or so, the immediate issue is what the DOA coasters yield is straight out of the spindle.

Back in the day, a failure DOA coaster yield of 5% to 10% was considered acceptable for the Mitsubishi/Verbatim stuff which was NOT manufactured by CMC.

More recently in the CMC spindle with "Taiyo Yuden" branding I purchased several years ago, the DOA coaster rate was already 10%. Such blank DOA failed discs were not recognized on any cd/dvd drives I had without ever burning anything to them, or the burn failed midway and never completed.

(The old Taiyo Yuden under the previous JVC ownership before 2016, was more like a 1% or 2% DOA coaster yield or lower).

 

[jcroy]

... my collection of burned discs has actually been a lot more stable over twenty years than the pressed discs I’ve bought in that timeframe.

In practice, I found that most pressed dvd-video discs are quality wise approximately similar to middle-of-the-road blank dvdr disc quality, in regard to scanning type testing statistics.

I don't think I have ever come across any pressed dvd or cd discs, which resemble old school "Taiyo Yuden" equivalent type quality in terms of scanning statistics.

(Though this is not a good comparison).

 

[bolorkay]

Like, every computer and laptop with a CD-RW or DVD-RW or BD-RW drive sold the the past 15 years?

Unless you've got some retro-niche application, recording audio and burning audio onto a disc is very old hat. Buy a digital recorder. Buy some recordable discs. Use the computer you've surely got to burn stuff to disc. The hardest part might be the authoring software. There used to loads of free and cheap stuff out, but I haven't looked at that for years.

In general, how does a digital recorder work? What is the "principal' behind a recorder such as this? How then is a cd made from a recorder like this? (Please excuse my ignorance in matters such as these.)

Ive seen many many "digital recorders" on the market now-a-days on such places as Amazon. Are any brands recommended ?

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Bolorkay - what is your use case here? Do you want to make CDs of LP's? Copy CDs? Copy other analog or digital sources?