CD Burners: Which one to buy?

Having owned a Pioineer and liked it, Ibought a "pro" moldel
Tascam CD-RW700 because it offers more freedom -- you're not restricted to "audio" CD-Rs and you can make digital copies to your heart's content. You can find these units in Guitar Centersand similar muisical instrument stores for
around $575. Expensive but worth it. It also has a "direct digital" mode and a timer function.

Remember to buy one that has a digital level control for recording so the songs recorded on your CD-R's will be at the same volume level when played back - most units have them but some particuarly earlier units do not.

Just talked to Stan Warren yesterday about my transport he's working on and during the conversation he mentioned the Pioneer CD recorders were good compared to more expensive ones,so I ordered a Pioneer 839 from Etronics for 297$ shipped,800-323-7669,good luck,Bob

Before you run out and buy a CD-R/RW consider this... If your main goal is to create audio CD's I would buy a dedicated CD-R/RW for your audio equipment rack instead of a CD burner for your computer. It's much more convenient for a number of reasons but here's my main reason.

With my Pioneer Elite PDR-19RW CD recorder connected to my Adcom GCD-700 5-disc changer (via digital interconnect), I can program up to 20-tracks from 5 different CDs, press a couple buttons and walk away while the system automatically records and numbers each track and finalizes the burned CD. This setup offers a lot of flexibility. You can find CD recorders that have a 3-disc changer built in and get similar results. Try that with a computer based CD burner... you can't do it.

In general, I like the Pioneer units. Stay away from Philips. I had one. It broke within two months. Come to think of it, my only other Philips product is also broken. My Philips Pronto remote went belly up recently. I no longer buy anything from Philips.